We've focused a lot on the special advisory board and we've talked a lot about the Drinkwitz extension. The third point of conflict--and I think the one that hasn't gotten enough attention--is the situation surrounding the facilities plan.
I finally dug up the release from October when Mizzou said this was coming. You can read the whole thing here.
There is nothing accidental about these releases. They're vetted by everyone and every word is intentional. Here are some things from that release:
"a facilities master plan to present to the University of Missouri Board of Curators for its approval to proceed with an unprecedented transformation of the Mizzou Sports Park."
Again, this was not a small deal. This was a plan that was going to revamp absolutely every facility associated with Mizzou athletics over a period of years. And then all that got approved was the North End Zone renovation. At the time, many people were asking "Why would you hype up this huge deal and then come out with just one project and not even have any renderings or details of that one project?" And I don't know the answer at all. But I think that was the real sign that the BOC had lost faith in Desiree Reed-Francois. She developed this entire plan, everyone was seemingly on board with it and then they came out of that meeting saying "Yeah, let's pump the brakes on all this, we don't know if we want to do it."
Here are some quotes from the release:
"As Mizzou Athletics continues to gain momentum under the leadership of Director of Athletics Desireé Reed-Francois and coaches Eli Drinkwitz and Dennis Gates, major investments in University of Missouri Football and Basketball are critical to reaching our goal of winning championships across all sports," UM Curator Jeff Layman said. "We have tremendous alignment between the Board of Curators, the University administration and Mizzou Athletics that will help us achieve this vision."
University of Missouri President Mun Choi said: "With the Board's committed support and Director of Athletics Desireé Reed-Francois's leadership and strategic vision, we will make the investments necessary for Mizzou to become a national leader in intercollegiate sports."
"I want to thank the Board and President Choi for their incredible support and belief in Mizzou Athletics and in our envisioning of a facilities master plan," said Reed-Francois. "As part of our Mizzou Athletics strategic plan that we shared with the Board, we sought a facilities master plan that would transform the Sports Park. We know that many of our athletics programs have facility needs, and through this collaboration and our facility viability assessments, we have developed a thoughtful plan that will benefit our current and future student-athletes. We greatly appreciate our colleagues at Huron for identifying our opportunities and we look forward to continuing our partnership with Populous as we move forward with the next steps pending Board approval."
Almost none of that happened. And nobody knows why. The dispute over a contract extension for Drinkwitz matters, but it's an isolated incident. The advisory committee matters, but I've got to believe if it was an isolated incident it's something that could have been dealt with and overcome. The more I look at it, the more I think the real tipping point was the time between this release in October and the Curators' meeting in November that basically put it all on the shelf.
I finally dug up the release from October when Mizzou said this was coming. You can read the whole thing here.
There is nothing accidental about these releases. They're vetted by everyone and every word is intentional. Here are some things from that release:
"a facilities master plan to present to the University of Missouri Board of Curators for its approval to proceed with an unprecedented transformation of the Mizzou Sports Park."
Again, this was not a small deal. This was a plan that was going to revamp absolutely every facility associated with Mizzou athletics over a period of years. And then all that got approved was the North End Zone renovation. At the time, many people were asking "Why would you hype up this huge deal and then come out with just one project and not even have any renderings or details of that one project?" And I don't know the answer at all. But I think that was the real sign that the BOC had lost faith in Desiree Reed-Francois. She developed this entire plan, everyone was seemingly on board with it and then they came out of that meeting saying "Yeah, let's pump the brakes on all this, we don't know if we want to do it."
Here are some quotes from the release:
"As Mizzou Athletics continues to gain momentum under the leadership of Director of Athletics Desireé Reed-Francois and coaches Eli Drinkwitz and Dennis Gates, major investments in University of Missouri Football and Basketball are critical to reaching our goal of winning championships across all sports," UM Curator Jeff Layman said. "We have tremendous alignment between the Board of Curators, the University administration and Mizzou Athletics that will help us achieve this vision."
University of Missouri President Mun Choi said: "With the Board's committed support and Director of Athletics Desireé Reed-Francois's leadership and strategic vision, we will make the investments necessary for Mizzou to become a national leader in intercollegiate sports."
"I want to thank the Board and President Choi for their incredible support and belief in Mizzou Athletics and in our envisioning of a facilities master plan," said Reed-Francois. "As part of our Mizzou Athletics strategic plan that we shared with the Board, we sought a facilities master plan that would transform the Sports Park. We know that many of our athletics programs have facility needs, and through this collaboration and our facility viability assessments, we have developed a thoughtful plan that will benefit our current and future student-athletes. We greatly appreciate our colleagues at Huron for identifying our opportunities and we look forward to continuing our partnership with Populous as we move forward with the next steps pending Board approval."
Almost none of that happened. And nobody knows why. The dispute over a contract extension for Drinkwitz matters, but it's an isolated incident. The advisory committee matters, but I've got to believe if it was an isolated incident it's something that could have been dealt with and overcome. The more I look at it, the more I think the real tipping point was the time between this release in October and the Curators' meeting in November that basically put it all on the shelf.
