Michigan Athletics: Bill Martin AD at Michigan

Posted at 6:00am — 5/14/2008

Michigan Athletics: Bill Martin AD at Michigan

Bill Martin has gotten a lot of heat from football alumni and fans the past couple of years concerning the basketball practice facility along with not hiring Les Miles.

We did not understand the direction of the head football coaching job search was handled. Why do you put together a panel of people you trust and then not follow who they decided? That was my only complaint.

That being said nobody should be complaining about how Bill Martin took a crumbling and in debt athletic department over and is making it into a moneymaker and redoing the facilities the right way. Some will say that donors are not happy with Martin and the direction he is taking the Michigan program. From what I am told, most of them like Martin and love his coaches. The real naysayers are some of the football alumni. People like Dufek and other of Bo’s people. If you have not noticed those people have calmed down a bit, but I am sure they will return especially if Coach Rod gets off to a rocky start.

They do not like the fact that Martin was not a Michigan athlete (or even undergrad alum). They do not think he is deferential enough to them, and that he should have just handed Les Miles the job. Bo was a great coach and a great personality, but he was weak as an Athletic Director, which requires very different skills. These anti-Martin football alums are cranky old people who do not want anything to change, ever. They see any change, as an insult to Bo’s legacy and all they can roll out is “you’re not part of our club” (meaning Bo alum). Ninety-five percent of the big donors love Martin like Ross, Junge, and Davidson, Wilpon, Shepherd, and others really like the Martin. Anyone who understands the business of college athletics knows that Martin is a great Athletic Director and probably one of the top five in the country with what he has to deal with such as stingy alumni that have many opinions, but do not like to open up their wallets a lot compared to other colleges.

Just announced yesterday that a new wrestling facility is going to be introduces to the Regents for their approval. They went out and got support from donors and alumni to bring this into reality. They started so well that they decided instead of having to share a building that they would have their own building and not have to wait for funding from the basketball side. They were able to raise 5.5mil and wanted the plan was for 4 million dollar new wrestling project. So that means they can make it a little bigger if needed and also add the “extra” things along with having money for upkeep. It will be around the Tennis center.

Some people think that Bill Martin is holding the basketball program back, but that really is not true. If you want to blame people then you need to blame the people not buying tickets, giving money to the program, getting behind a coach. How Michigan works is they want money in place before they start to build any facilities and as we have seen with the football field house, baseball/softball complex, hockey, women’s gymnastics practice facility and now the wrestlers the athletic department wants money in the bank before building.

We have been told that the money from donors for the football renovations are coming in quite well that they can shift some of the money that was earmarked for the stadium renovations to the basketball practice facility since no big donor has stepped up yet to contribute to the practice arena. Martin is charging ahead full speed on the hoops practice facility. Donations for the stadium are coming in much stronger than anticipated in the project budget, which frees up money for other things. Martin will be funding the practice facility out of Athletic Department cash flow, which is possible because of the stadium.

They are finalizing the design (have not seen it). It should be going to the Regents sometime soon. They would likely break ground after football season, but do not necessarily have to wait that long to get started if the approvals are in place. Would not lose that much parking for the prep work, and they want all the digging done before the ground freezes if things go as planned. The latest would be spring. Things are good down there although a few people who would never admit it.

Whoever takes over for Bill Martin is going to have an easy job just counting the money along with just having to renovate the buildings every so often. The biggest thing whoever the new AD will be after Martin is gone will be to market the Michigan brand along with starting getting Michigan into the mainstream media such as the internet, advertising, getting Michigan “cool” with the younger generations especially recruits who are looking at Michigan.

Martin has taken the crumbling facilities and turned them into great facilities and he is not done yet.

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Written by GBMWolverine Staff

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