The University of Mississippi Athletics
STAFF BLOG: White On Support & Growth In Athletics
4/12/2010 | Athletics
OleMissSports.com publishes blogs by the Ole Miss athletics department's senior administrators and key personnel to offer fans added insight into the overall operation of the department. Danny White is in his first year as the Executive Director of the UMAA Foundation.
April 12, 2010
Spring is here and baseball season is well under way. Coach Bianco has our team poised to make another exciting run in the SEC and NCAA hunt. This is also an important season for the UMAA Foundation, because our largest priority seating drive -- football -- concludes with the April 30th deadline. Coming off our first ever season ticket sellout of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, we are determined and confident that the stadium will be sold out again in 2010.
The time is now for Ole Miss Athletics to capitalize on all the excitement provided by our outstanding coaches and student-athletes, as we continue to ascend to the upper echelon of the SEC. Intercollegiate Athletics has become extremely competitive in recent years, as it relates to increased revenues leading to larger budgets for many institutions in our conference. For us to position our coaches and student-athletes on an equal playing field with the rest of the conference, we must step forward at times like this right now. We absolutely need to sellout the 2010 season in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Two years in a row would be the start of a beautiful trend! Currently, we are accepting deposits for a waiting list for 2010 in the event that some tickets are not renewed.
Annual revenues are critical to the success of an athletics department, and our sport programs have put us in exciting new territory. However, we also need to remain competitive with regards to our facilities. There is nothing more important for recruiting and player development than having top notch facilities on par with the rest of the SEC and country. In the past 15 years, we have built over $125 million worth of facilities and, as a result, have some of the premier game and practice venues in the country. We all recognize that intercollegiate athletics is a competitive environment, and if our department isn't always striving to get better, then it's getting worse. This is why we launched a new major gift program by revamping the Vaught Society in an effort to attract more people to join the excitement and invest in Ole Miss Athletics. Donations generated through the Vaught Society are targeted toward facility improvements, and we are thrilled to announce that since its launch at the Cotton Bowl, the Vaught Society is very closely approaching the $5 million mark in new gift commitments. This tremendous accomplishment is a testament to the strong alumni and fan base that Ole Miss enjoys. Thank you to all of our Vaught Society members who have so generously stepped up at this critical time.
We have recently completed a major staff transition and moved to the former men's and women's basketball offices on the south side of Tad Smith Coliseum. Please stop by to meet some of the new faces. I am very excited about the staff we have been fortunate enough to assemble, and I think that their hard work will result in enhanced customer service as we constantly strive to make it as convenient as possible to support Ole Miss Athletics. Talented people as well as better technology will help us in that regard. We are currently working on upgrading our phone system as well as revamping online giving to make it more user friendly. I hope that these improvements make things easier for our donors to continue their generous support.
In the end, I cannot imagine a better time to be in Oxford. Please be confident that the UMAA Foundation staff will be diligently working to create new sources of revenue as well as enhancing existing ones. We are excited about the future, as it will take the support of the masses to continue our aggressive growth path.