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We Will Know A Lot More About BC Athletics on March 2nd

Eagle78

All State
Jul 29, 2001
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Almost 60 years ago, on December 15, 1956, then-BC President Fr. Maxwell stunned the Boston sports community by announcing an aggressive plan to build a new football stadium (in its present location) and have it ready for the upcoming season. This decision went against the popular wisdom at the time that BC would drop football in the wake of losing access to Fenway Park for games. This one decision changed the arch of BC, in a very positive way, for the many decades to come.

Now, on March 2nd, at the annual BC football gathering, it presents the logical and optimum time to announce a new commitment to BC FB, as demonstrated by the announcement of a new IPF. It provides an opportunity to excite a dispirited core of BC FB's most ardent supporters and serve as a springboard for a broader communication campaign following the meeting. While this is certainly not on a par with the 1956 announcement, it nevertheless comes at a key inflection point for BC athletics, IMO.

While I would think it very unlikely that Bard Bates doesn't attend this meeting, lets talk about what I think are the three possible scenarios:

SCENARIO 1: BB attends the meeting and presents the new facilities / IPF plans.
Obviously, a lot will depend on exactly WHAT is being presented but, assuming they are competitive facilities, this will go a long way to alleviating some of our concerns about the "BC commitment" issue.

SCENARIO 2: BB attends and deflects questions about facilities and the IPF.
If this occurs, those attending need to "hold his feet to the fire". What did he mean when he said in his December 2015 email that BC would "shortly" be announcing "enhancements to facilities"? Given that this question has been deflected for years now, WHEN will we be hearing any news, and, if he cannot say, then why the hell did he publicly state that an announcement would be made "shortly"? We should be respectful, but also very direct in our questions.

SCENARION 3: BB does not show.
IMO, this would be the worst scenario as it would be pretty clear, IMO, that he is ducking the issue and just doesn't want to face the questions. While I think this scenario is very unlikely, IF it happens, it will tell us a lot about their credibility, IMO.

Following the meeting, if SCENARIO 2 OR 3 comes to pass, then I think we as a community need to respond. We start be sending emails to the BOT members and Fr. Leahy and respectfully outline our concerns and frustrations about promises not kept, lack of follow-up, and the general state of BC athletics.

As someone who has worked with CEO's for a good chunk of my career, you would be amazed at how many emails directed to them actually get read. Quite often, a CEO will flip the email to a lieutenant and ask for him/her to look into things and report back. Trust me, dozens of emails to BOT members will at least trigger inquiries by some members, which hopefully, will serve as an impetus to get the AD to at least communicate with us. Of course, this effort can be supplemented by a supporting article or two in The Heights (Sully?)

My broader point here is that WE can force this issue to be discussed. BB's December 2015 email gives us the perfect opportunity as the longer the cone of silence exists, the more legitimate, IMO, the questions of his being disingenuous become. THAT'S the issue to raise to the BOT, I think.

Given that this is arguably BC's lowest point in athletics in, well, ever? People will listen to us. In another thread, BC Mike2 was asked about what is happening at BC by his CEO. Down here in MD, I have had similar perplexed questions. I gotta think that the connected folks on the BOT are getting similar inquiries. Now, this probably isn't all on BB, but he is the one running BC Athletics. He is the one making the email commitments to "shortly" announce "facilities enhancements", so we start with him and see where rabbit hole leads us.

What say all of you?
 
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