A master plan at Georgia, Greg McGarity? Hells yeah, he’s got one. Really.
Step one is recognizing, at least in the abstract, there are shortcomings.
Georgia already is conducting feasibility studies to exploring the prospect of erecting a new, football-only operations facility on campus. The project is not on the current agenda for discussion at Friday’s fall semester meeting of the UGA Athletic Association Board of Directors. But Athletic Director Greg McGarity confirmed the Bulldogs already are looking into “something like that.”
“We are working on a number of ideas on how to address space deficiencies we have in our football program,” McGarity said in an interview with DawgNation on Wednesday. “So, depending where those (ideas) land we hope to have a discussion with our board, perhaps in February, of where we are progressing toward taking care of those deficiencies.”
Check.
Next is waiting for Kirby to complain.
“From the time of the (last football building expansion) the whole dynamic of the football staff has changed,” McGarity said. “We’ve added a full-time assistant, you have quality control coaches, you have all the necessary ingredients to support a football program and a lot of that is driven by the desire of the head coach. … Our job is to facilitate those.”
Check.
Then comes dragging out the process until Butts-Mehre can talk donors into opening their wallets.
Thanks to last year’s SEC championship and 13-2 run to the national finals, Smart is pretty much getting whatever he wants right now. And while competitive and financial times are going well, Georgia is doing its best to give it to him. Through their Magill Society initiative, the Bulldogs have secured pledges and donations to cover $83 million of the $93 million in costs for the last two football projects.
As for this latest one, McGarity won’t discuss possible costs…
“I wouldn’t talk about anything like that until I had something to present Board,” McGarity said of where such a building might go or how much it would cost. “I won’t even discuss it, because there’s nothing to bring forward right now.”
Check and check.
Sprinkle in a little exploitation during the good times…
“Georgia fans have always been tremendous in answering the bell,” McGarity said.” Kirby deserves a lot of credit, because the whole way people feel about Georgia is different right now. Season tickets, donations, all that’s been remarkable. It always has, but sort of at a different level now. And that’s because people feel so good about the job that Kirby’s done and they feel so good about Georgia football. I think it bleeds over into other sports.”
… marinade and voilà! There’s ‘yer master plan, bitchez.
The challenge, it seems, for us great unwashed is figuring out how to convince Kirby that improving the fan experience makes his mission easier. Good luck with that, fellow wallets.
Get The Picture 
Not to mention a massive TV contract…
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The article highlights why GM needs to be removed as AD. UGA is playing catch up under his managing style instead of being a visionary leader. He looks for reasons that the football operation can’t be expanded instead of a way to make it happen. Kirby is the only reason anything in the BM building has changed, other than Pruitt’s indoor shaming facility.
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GM is giving Kirby what he asks for. Would you rather have an AD that says no?
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He even basically takes responsibility for a change the NCAA made!
“WE” Greg, really. Try, “EVERYONE!”
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Well, to be fair to Greg, it wasn’t mandatory. 😉
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Could you imagine if he had told Kirby to maybe take a pass on the extra assistant?
“Do you really need to spend that money, Kirby? Think about the reserve fund, Coach.”
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Agree. Any A.D. worth having would have a fairly long do list or wish list ready so he/she could strike while the iron is hot (i.e., like when support is at its maximum for a program that reaches the national championship game). Greg Mediocrity has no plan, no PR skills, no attention to detail, etc., etc. Brother Bluto was far to kind to BM in his interview the other day.
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you obviously haven’t been solicited for the weight room expansion yet.
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That’s all Kirby.
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It sounds like McGarity quakes in his boots at the thought of asking the Regents for more space on campus at the expense of old buildings. A skyscraper on the B-M footprint maybe?
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try the small kickers field b/w IAF and the track.
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I think after indoor women’s and outdoor men’s NCAA ‘ships, the track teams should get a new facility out by softball and the intramural fields… <wink, wink>
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that’s actually a good point, if we would add a real grandstand around a new track we could start hosting big outdoor events.
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Post Game Traffic Pattern somewhere on that list?
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Don’t worry. Athen’s finest will be there to redirect all eastbound traffic to the west, and all westbound traffic to the east. It makes perfect sense to someone.
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Just push ’em to the loop. Let the orange barrels sort ’em out.
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No kidding, why they allow traffic to move east-west downtown across Broad Street after games, instead of making people on the east side go east and people on the west side go west, is beyond me… All that does is keep traffic from going north to (also) get to the loop….
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Can someone please explain why the damn track is off limits ? I remember all the token reasons why back in the can’t / won’t days when the IPF location arguments were in the news. Yes, I ran on the track as a student too………But good god, we’ve done 100mil + in football renovations in only the last 2 years, increased the budget, increased ticket prices and we’re going back to the well of big donor for MORE with no end in sight ? I’d like to know why some of these big donors don’t tell Greg to tell the track coach to go pound sand. Seriously, his world would NOT exist if not for these big football donors. Nobody gives a shit if track and field wins national championships or where their freaking facility is located. We can give them the best facility in the world on south milledge.
I guess my thinking is that under any master plan, this issue of the track and the damn Hoke Smith annex are not going to go away.
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Where to start? First, the part about the track being “off limits” is ridiculous. This, and the insistence that the tennis facility stays on the same footprint goes way back with the old guard in Athens and at BM. It’s crazy how in this day and age a few faculty and boosters using the track for walking puts a halt to moving it. In regards to the tennis facility, it comes down to a long held view by some that the current location adds charm and ambience to matches, especially during the NCAA tournament. Money spent here will be the definition of putting lipstick on a pig, and there’s no guarantee it will bring the NCAA’s back. UGA isn’t entitled to it, no matter what some of the old guard ( McGarity included) thinks.
A real long term plan for athletic facilities should include new track and tennis complexes off South Milledge, freeing up those spaces on campus. Since that’s not going to happen, the next best option is to build a new baseball stadium, ideally somewhere downtown, or at the intramural fields. This leaves the footprint where Foley currently stands for a football facility. And since we know that’s not going to happen, it looks like the Hoke Smith Annex is about to be the center of a heated public battle between athletic interests and people, including legislators, loyal to the Ag school and Extension Service.
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Politically, it would be cheaper and more straightforward to use eminent domain to buy out enough housing across from Foley Field on Pinecrest.
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