Well, Greg McGarity’s future employment plans may be temporarily on hold due to the coronavirus, but rest assured, as Mike Griffith relays in his latest tongue bath, Georgia’s reserve fund is rarin’ to go.
“We see it as our rainy day fund,” McGarity told DawgNation. “It’s there to meet certain expectations and obligations that we have.”
The fund is made up of money accrued from donations, unused revenue from previous years and investment income.
Per the winter UGA board meeting, Georgia has a projected $17,879,325 remaining from the (fiscal year) 2020 reserves, along with $48,561,020 from long-term investments of reserves — a total of $66,440,345.
UGA deputy athletic director of finance Stephanie Ransom — a former Bulldogs’ All-American soccer player and marketing major — said there’s an additional $36,500,000 in general endowment money. That makes the total money available in reserve fund $102,940,345.
A hundred million, ready to be deployed at a moment’s notice… man, if that doesn’t give you comfort that the athletic department has things covered, nothing does.
Except, when you drill down to it, McGarity isn’t actually planning to tap into the reserve fund: “We’re cautiously optimistic that we won’t have to utilize reserve funds or go down that path without football in the fall.”
Why not? You get one guess.
Georgia has roughly 16,000 donors in the Hartman Fund, which requires a minimum donation for the right to buy tickets. Of that number, about 1,200 are members of the Magill Society, a club which requires a minimum donation of $5,000 a year over a three-year period for inclusion.
McGarity said those numbers continue to rise.
“We are still receiving gifts during these difficult times,” he said. “It’s very encouraging.”
And that, friends, wraps up another edition of The Georgia Way.
Get The Picture 
Hey, Joe Tereshinski IX and assorted Meshad relatives of Vince Dooley have got to maintain their sinecures, don’t they?
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If you look up nepotism in the dictionary, it says “see the Butts-Mehre Country Club.”
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NO family has been more loyal to UGA than the Tereshinskis. For over 78 years and counting I might add.
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Sure, 78 years of volunteering. Impressive.
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Has any family landed more cush jobs at the BMCC? Other than the Meshad/Dooley clan of course.
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Whats your point on this today ?
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Sarcasm or reading comprehension issues?
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Since those are my only two options I guess I’m just a dumbass today. Maybe everyday.
I don’t know if we should be outraged that donations are coming in at a cautiously optimistic rate, and that it looks like the reserve fund will skate by again …
Or are we dismayed that McGarity is even thinking about his precious revenue during these trying times ?
Or is it simply that of all the days we like to needle our highly esteemed AD , today is just one of them?
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I wasn’t seeking outrage. It’s just that the virtue of pretending the reserve fund is something other than dead money when there’s more than enough money rolling in to pay the bills is so, so UGA.
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This is a simple reconcile – with the donations still coming in , it’s not quite a rainy day.
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It’s not the reconcile I take issue with. It’s pretending that the reserve fund is something more than it is.
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Correct. It is nothing, because we have to have other teams to play against. If every other Athletic Department in the country goes bust if there is no CFB in 2020, our 2021 banner will look great when we were the only team that played!
Just like your stash of gold coins – they are really valuable if there are people left around to sell you food, but if you’re the only one left standing, they are just lumps of metal…
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I agree with yall in theory on dead money. I do happen to think the reality is that if we don’t have a football season, everyone in the SEC will ultimately make it through but that we very well could see an advantage accrue to UGA by virtue of the Reserve Fund if other programs’ budgets, particularly recruiting budgets, have to make long term cuts to get their fiscal house in order to repair whatever financial bridge got them through the storm.
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So while we may not “spend” from the reserve fund, or spend much, we’re among the least likely to have banks make adverse changes and/or clamp down on our operating lines of credit because of our reserve fund. It means that we might be able to do things other can’t or have to jump through 20 more hoops to get done.
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They did send me a deck of playing cards a few days ago. Not sure if these numbers have been adjusted to account for that colossal expense.
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Rest assured, single game tickets are going on sale soon. We are all aware that social distancing requirements put upward pressure on points cutoffs for our patrons.
Fortunately. for a limited time we are providing you the opportunity to increase your #COMMITMENTTOTHEG. Trust us, you do not want to be on the outside looking in.
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I expect all the old Georgia football games on Youtube will start disappearing. Shortly after that, we will soon be offered the opportunity to subscribe to “Georgia Classic Football”. It will be a monthly subscription fee.
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Rest assured, Russ, we are proud to call you a loyal bulldog.
Stay tuned for another exciting announcement.
#COMMITTOTHEG
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I thought they already had a “vault” of old highlights, films, etc., but I assume those are films the Athletic Association produced internally/had created as a “work for hire.” Feel like I’ve seen some tweets about it/heard Kevin and Jeff pump it on the post-game show?
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Where’s the snark coming from here? I get that you’ve been annoyed that the people who are giving mega bucks to the athletic department are getting more access, perks, and priority than other donors and fans. I get that you’re annoyed that so much energy is being focused on recruiting and not average fan experience. But I really don’t get being snarky about the fact UGA athletics is in an apparently good financial position in this crisis and even still bringing in money so that they might not need to dive deep into their emergency funds? We spend a lot of time here making fun of badly run athletic departments that get rammed aground by poor financial choices. I’ve been as annoyed as anyone else by some of Georgia’s spendthrift ways in the face of the college football arms race but… it’s paid off! I’m pretty happy to see it. We may not have a huge slide players can go down at the athletic building, but it looks like we’re going to be able to pay the cafeteria staff throughout the public health crisis. I’ll take it.
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I’m happy you’re happy.
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I remember in 2008 “ to big to fail” how will that work out if there is no football and all students take classes on line. The House of cards may not be that stable. It was similar in 29’ till your $1,000,000,000 was not anymore.
R.I.P. John Prine postal worker in Chicago when he would make up songs while doing deliveries. Sam Sloan……. there’s a hole in daddy’s arm where the money goes.
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Unbelievable. I guess $100 million in reserves is for a full apocalyptic scenario like the Bubonic plague and not for a semi-apocalyptic scenario like this.
Meanwhile, as Aladawg stated yesterday, they won’t give people refunds (or even 2021 credit) for baseball PSL fees (aka “donations”).
The Georgia Way.
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Incredibly poor form not to at least issue partial credits – I assume they have refunded/credited actual ticket fees for cancelled games?
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Rest assured if you are have questions on the policy, our student volunteers are standing by to explain it to you.
#WEAREALLINTHISTOGETHER #COMMITTOTHEG
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What is the definition of “The Georgia Way”? If it’s in your lexicon, I haven’t seen it. It seems its been referenced on this blog as either 1) the UGA administration being spendthrift while sitting on a war chest or 2) Valuing moral sanctimony versus SEC peers over doing what it takes to win championships (Todd Gurley jersey; Auburn scheduling, marijuana policy).
What’s your definition?
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To maintain social distancing requirements, discussions are underway for making Bulldog Seatbacks a required purchase for all non-club-level ticket holders in 2020.
Rest assured, we have your safety in mind. Stay tuned.
#BULLDOGSEATBACKS #COMMITTOTHEG
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The seatbacks suck, regardless of the price!
(And yes, I am blowing up this post at lunch….)
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We were 2nd to last in conference to get an IPF. OM had a nice IPF well before us. OM.
Baseball went in the tank. At one point the indoor batting cages and such were flooding.
Stegman overall happened about 5 years too late.
Tennis facility overall was about a decade or more late, and that used to be a powerhouse.
There was no vision on Sanford upgrades until kirby stood on his desk. Bathrooms and concessions took a second seat to beer for 200 people.
The band tower was built with fundraisers. At some point about 8 years ago mcgarity said they would do some facility upgrades (not sure which oned from memory, I think it was connected to stegman)when they got matching donations 1st, doing bake sales and selling cookies.
It’s been a joke
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Reply fail
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Overall comment spot on though!
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^^^^ This, this, and this.
They still haven’t improved the indoor tennis courts, have they? Last I heard they were still the same awful ones we had in the 90s…and they were bad back then. I remember reading in the last few years that the lack of a decent indoor option was a factor in us not getting the national championships much anymore and that it wasn’t just the out-of-date outdoor facilities (that they’ve since finally updated).
And don’t get me started on baseball facilities, Stegeman, and Sanford bathrooms/concessions…
But there’s an opportunity cost to hoarding money, so you can’t have everything. All hail the reserve fund.
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