UNC Football Catch-all | Bill Belichick Era underway

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CFordUNC said:
Precious little do I know about how fundraising works, but just spitballing here, perhaps we should consider going after our own UNC alum billionaires (one of whom, believe it or not, is one of the most famous sports figures in the history of the planet!) instead of begging for money from people who sponsor terrorist attacks on American soil, the dismemberment of American citizens by bonesaw, things of that general nature.

Look, I want UNC Football to win, but not that badly, and not badly enough for the continued ridicule and humiliation that the current leadership of the program is bringing upon us on a daily basis. Hopefully we get a win tonight to calm the storm, however temporarily.
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I'm sure they have gone to MJ before, and probably went to MJ in order to secure funding for/after the BB football hire. You can only go to the same people a certain number of times, though. "It will be different this time, I swear, please just gives us money" doesn't work after the second or third time.

I have no problem with us getting money from a Saudi investor. Those people have billions to throw around. A few million to invest in an American football team is a rounding error to most of them. I guarantee that we are not the only ones doing this. Yes, Saudi Arabia is corrupt and is known for human rights violations. So is the United States at this point. Would you turn down money from Taylor Swift, for example, because you dislike what Trump is doing?
 
Can someone explain what teams would use private funding for and how those investments will generate revenue to allow paying back of the funding over time? Getting private equity to finance the building of a new basketball arena makes sense - using it to make player payroll makes no sense at all to me.

B1G has an offer on the table to give up 10% of future media rights in order to get private money now. Michigan and USC are against but most schools want the deal....
www.espn.com

No vote on Big Ten capital deal; some urge caution

A decision on the Big Ten's proposed private capital deal does not appear imminent in the wake of a Thursday meeting of the league's presidents and chancellors. Some critics of the proposal labeled it as "reckless" and urged caution before proceeding.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
Earlier Thursday, University of Michigan regents criticized the proposed deal, illustrating how tenuous completing it will be. Regent Mark Bernstein dubbed the deal "a payday loan." Another regent, Jordan Acker, compared it to opening a new credit card to pay off debt.
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ZZLPHeels said:
I'm sure they have gone to MJ before, and probably went to MJ in order to secure funding for/after the BB football hire. You can only go to the same people a certain number of times, though. "It will be different this time, I swear, please just gives us money" doesn't work after the second or third time.

I have no problem with us getting money from a Saudi investor. Those people have billions to throw around. A few million to invest in an American football team is a rounding error to most of them. I guarantee that we are not the only ones doing this. Yes, Saudi Arabia is corrupt and is known for human rights violations. So is the United States at this point. Would you turn down money from Taylor Swift, for example, because you dislike what Trump is doing?
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I hear ya and appreciate the perspective. I think the difference is, though, that the probability of this mystery Saudi investor being someone who is not a member of the Saudi royal family is incredibly low. Given much of what we know about the KSA, it seems extraordinarily unlikely to me that some ultra wealthy would-be benefactor over there would either not have a connection to the royal family or would not have their blessing for investment in an American entity. I think very little goes on over there without the explicit consent or desire of the crown prince.
 
ZZLPHeels said:
I'm sure they have gone to MJ before, and probably went to MJ in order to secure funding for/after the BB football hire. You can only go to the same people a certain number of times, though. "It will be different this time, I swear, please just gives us money" doesn't work after the second or third time.

I have no problem with us getting money from a Saudi investor. Those people have billions to throw around. A few million to invest in an American football team is a rounding error to most of them. I guarantee that we are not the only ones doing this. Yes, Saudi Arabia is corrupt and is known for human rights violations. So is the United States at this point. Would you turn down money from Taylor Swift, for example, because you dislike what Trump is doing?
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gregh1 said:
There are some equally awful americans in the world that college sports teams would gladly accept money from. It sucks.
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we have to be able to draw a difference between participation in the evils of unfettered late-stage capitalism and the myriad human rights abuses, not to mention sponsorship of global terrorism, in which the Saudi monarchy engages.

and that's the other thing - there simply cannot be an assumption of how Americans would understand a "private citizen" in a monarchy as rigid as the Saudi one. they're different worlds and comparing the relationship between Taylor and Trump (and Taylor, for whom I have no great love, is by far the most benign example you could have pulled - more apt would probably be an Ellison or Bezos or Musk) to what they'd be working with over there is really small-minded.

we simply don't have to greenwash legitimate blood money.
 
CFordUNC said:
I hear ya and appreciate the perspective. I think the difference is, though, that the probability of this mystery Saudi investor being someone who is not a member of the Saudi royal family is incredibly low. Given much of what we know about the KSA, it seems extraordinarily unlikely to me that some ultra wealthy would-be benefactor over there would either not have a connection to the royal family or would not have their blessing for investment in an American entity. I think very little goes on over there without the explicit consent or desire of the crown prince.
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FWIW Ben has said pretty clearly on IC that this is not a potential "investor" but a potential "donor." Which I didn't think was at all clear before.
 
akillesheel said:
we have to be able to draw a difference between participation in the evils of unfettered late-stage capitalism and the myriad human rights abuses, not to mention sponsorship of global terrorism, in which the Saudi monarchy engages.

and that's the other thing - there simply cannot be an assumption of how Americans would understand a "private citizen" in a monarchy as rigid as the Saudi one. they're different worlds and comparing the relationship between Taylor and Trump (and Taylor, for whom I have no great love, is by far the most benign example you could have pulled - more apt would probably be an Ellison or Bezos or Musk) to what they'd be working with over there is really small-minded.

we simply don't have to greenwash legitimate blood money.
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What do you know about Saudi Arabia? I'm guessing not too much. Saudi Arabia is not the rigid monarchy you imagine. In fact, there's considerable decentralization of finances.
 
CFordUNC said:
I hope like hell he’s not. If we- and by we, I mean college sports collectively, not just UNC- are in such desperate need of cash that we’re willing to whore out for blood money from people who sponsor terrorism, assassinations, and human rights violations, we have completely lost the plot and I want absolutely, positively nothing to do with it any longer. I may be in a minority among broader college sports fans with that opinion but I’m fine with that – clearly I do not want to win nearly badly enough.
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I think you should learn a lot more about Saudi Arabia before you keep spouting off. You're obviously quite upset with the football program in general and are thus subconsciously looking to be outraged, but you are way off the mark here. At least based on what we know.
 
CFordUNC said:
Precious little do I know about how fundraising works, but just spitballing here, perhaps we should consider going after our own UNC alum billionaires (one of whom, believe it or not, is one of the most famous sports figures in the history of the planet!) instead of begging for money from people who sponsor terrorist attacks on American soil, the dismemberment of American citizens by bonesaw, things of that general nature.

Look, I want UNC Football to win, but not that badly, and not badly enough for the continued ridicule and humiliation that the current leadership of the program is bringing upon us on a daily basis. Hopefully we get a win tonight to calm the storm, however temporarily.
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How do you know this is not an alum, or family of an alum? Lots of Saudis have graduated from UNC, and many are currently students there.
 
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NCK9 said:
Big difference between a loan and a donation.
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But that's not what I mean.

1. The PIF is a complex financial arrangement. It is not just a big pile of centralized money. In some ways, it's like a cash management system for Saudi nobility, sort of like how big American companies centralize cash management of their various subsidiaries. That's not all it is, but it's not just some big pot of royal money.

2. And to this point, consider the finances of the Saudi soccer league. Ronaldo is making, what, $50M a year to play soccer there? I think they offered Vini Jr. up to $500M. That money is coming out of the PIF, because the PIF is paying for the league; but the players are being given the money, no strings attached. We would be more like Ronaldo, I would think. The soccer/golf greenwashing thing is also a big centralized endeavor with specific backing from the royals. Any money raised by UNC would be unlikely to be like that.
 
Pursuing a financial donation in Saudi Arabia is obviously going to raise a lot of eye brows. If it's something as simple as as a UNC alum living there, that could easily be conveyed to the media and this wouldn't be a story. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how this unfolds.
 
superrific said:
What do you know about Saudi Arabia? I'm guessing not too much. Saudi Arabia is not the rigid monarchy you imagine. In fact, there's considerable decentralization of finances.
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i mean, i know enough. i know it's not the black hole of evil that the US government likes to pretend because it helps with their Islamophobia elsewhere, but that doesn't make it benign or even just another country or even just another Middle Eastern country. they cyclically tout reforms that make them look less totalitarian and then an independent journalist goes in a few years later and finds out that very little to nothing has actually changed.

that there is nuance to a situation does not mean the obvious conclusion is wrong.
 
stankeylegjones said:
How do you know this is not an alum, or family of an alum? Lot's of Saudis have graduated from UNC, and many are currently students there.
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Precisely. I taught at least 10 Saudi students. One of them became a big deal in the Saudi legal community, directly as a result of some conversations I had with him. He was looking for a dissertation topic, and I suggested to him to look at preferred stock. Because Saudi Arabia didn't have preferred stock. In related news, it had little venture capital, as venture capital investing requires preferred stock or something with similar functionality.

This student sent back to me a wonderful and thoughtful gift with a friend of his who came over to study the year after. If he became a really big deal, maybe he'd be interested in sponsoring athletics at the university.
 
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