The Aggies have turned to their fans for snacks and someone asked for my take. Frankly, I know this post will cause a lot of chatter.
I think the perception is worse than the reality on this one. The Aggies aren't doing well financially and need to think outside the box and be resourceful. It's simple.
From the outside looking in, is this a great story? No. And I don't believe NMSU wanted it out in the national spotlight. That's just my feeling, but someone was celebrating on the blog that this story made the frontpage of ESPN. If it was a story about the Aggies turning around their football fortunes, I could understand, but this particular story isn't exactly something to throw a parade over. People need to get their priorities straight.
My take is that it looks bad, but a bigger deal will be made of it than what needs to be. Yeah, NMSU isn't doing great in the wallet. I think most people knew that. In turn, they need to do things to counterbalance the problem. This is one way to do it.
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5 comments:
Honestly, if you can look at it in a different way, it helps involve the community with Aggie Football, and familiarize them with the team. I don't think its a bad idea. I'm sure Cafe Corbet (pronounced in my best French accent) could donate snacks if they wanted to.
This is the first time I've heard about this and I wish NMSU would have been more public on a local level. I think more people want to help the team succeed.
Is this bad? ABSOLUTELY NOT!!
Look at Florida International. They eliminated the band and cheerleaders. The cheerleaders saved the program by doing car washes.
Now that's bad.
Can you imagine going to the games and not watching the "Pride," cheerleaders or the Sun Dancers?! College Football w/o the Pride and our Cheering squads is not football!
Times are certinly tough for most everyone in the country and tough measures need to be taken to survive.
However, NMSU Athletics is still growing.
Womens soccer is in it's infancy, we've built them a practice field, coaches offices are under construction, and a new soccer stadium will be built early the new year.
All of this costs money.
So before you criticize the Athletic Dept for asking snacks, look around the campus and look how are facilities have improved over the past few years.
Go Aggies!
Vic
Did they try to get donors? I.E. Frito Lay or any other company? Seems to me you ask them for snacks in exchange for some ad space at the stadium or programs.
Take it from an Aggie alum who is a faculty member at at Div II school. With today's economy, at most universities EVERYONE is being asked to cut back expenses. That is academics, athletics, student services, you name it. A smart administrator asks several questions about each expense, among them:
Is it core to our mission? or Will it make a difference in our final performance?
Is it something that we might be able to accomplish another way?
The decision to ask fans to donate snacks was a great decision.
Snacks are not a core function of playing football, rather a welcome supplement.
It is unlikely that the snacks will lead to any more wins.
People will be willing to step up and provide snacks.
People realize times are hard, and if they can, they are moved to give in ways tat are visible. Some of those individuals may never have donated to athletics in the past. Once they have donated, they are more likely to donate again.
What is the old saying "it takes a Village" more people in Las Cruces need to take ownership of "our team" we have no other major sports team in the City we should all try and do are part to raise the NMSU and Las Cruces banner higher. After all the team and university are all part of Las Cruces.
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