Aug. 10, 2006

• Archive of past Q&A's
  
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Baylor Family,

The beginning of pre-season camps is an exciting time year as we welcome a host of new student-athletes to Baylor, and welcome back our returning student-athletes. In my three years at Baylor, there has never been as much excitement and anticipation about the prospects of an upcoming year as we are now experiencing. I know that you join me in wishing all of our student-athletes and teams great success!

I am taking the opportunity to meet with each team prior to the start of classes to express my appreciation to all of our student-athletes for the exceptional manner in which they represent Baylor University. We are blessed to have student-athletes who are excelling competitively, academically and serve as positive role models and contributors on campus and in the community. At the same time, during these meetings we emphasize the importance of compliance with NCAA rules and the high standards that we have at Baylor.

I have been frequently asked about the progress of various capital projects, so here is an update. The Lt. Jack Whetsel, Jr. Basketball Practice Facility is substantially complete and will be turned over to the athletics department on August 21. This facility has turned out even more spectacular than we had hoped. It will truly be a magnificent asset to our basketball programs and department. A dedication event that will be open to the public will be held on Friday, September 8 beginning at 2:00 p.m.

The Willis Family Equestrian Center project is progressing well and will be complete later in August. We look forward to completing two remaining phases of this project next spring and summer making this the nation's finest collegiate equestrian facility. There will be a dedication for this facility on Friday, October 20 at 2:00 p.m. which is open to the public.

All of the Floyd Casey Stadium improvements are progressing very well. The Gale and Connie Galloway Suite renovation is near completion; the Bear Club seating project is complete and turned out extremely well; the football heritage project celebrating the tradition of Baylor football is underway with selected Baylor players and coaches being honored by having a banner displayed around the exterior of the stadium; a new football marquee has been installed at the Valley Mills entrance to the stadium; the new football recruiting center located at the Northwest corner of the stadium is nearly complete; and, a spacious tailgate area on the west side of the stadium has been developed for fans to enjoy.

I hope that you have already purchased your football season tickets, because they are going fast! The combination of last year's success, the widely acclaimed "Call of the Wild" marketing campaign and anticipation about this year's team will lead us to record season ticket sales in 2006. Premium season tickets in Bear Heights, Bear Place and Bear Club are sold out with the exception of a few single seats. There are still some excellent seats available in the VIP section in the Galloway Suite. Reserved season tickets and individual game tickets are still available by calling 710-1000.

I want to commend our marketing staff on a great job in conjunction with The Richards Group on the football marketing campaign, "Call of the Wild." The multi-media campaign featured three television spots (fishing, hikers and campsite), three radio commercials, three interstate billboards and 11 local billboards. All three TV and radio spots can be viewed or heard on BaylorBears.com. The response in terms of season and individuals ticket sales has been exceptional.

We are expecting a huge crowd for the TCU game including a large contingent coming from Fort Worth and wearing purple. We need every Baylor Bear in the stands cheering on the home team in this critical opening game!

We are very pleased to announce Baylor Athletics' new satellite radio relationship with Sirius. While complete details are still being finalized, this agreement will allow fans to follow Baylor football and men's basketball world-wide throughout the year. Baylor will be on the Family Net Station, beginning with our football game against TCU on September 3. This is the culmination of a great deal of work over the past couple of years with special appreciation due our partners at ISP Sports.

The following are the most recent round of Ask Ian questions.

Ian;

My question is about schedules: when will this year's basketball schedule be released, and when will the open games on the football schedules be filled so that we can anticipate our future.You are doing a great job. Keep up the outstanding work; we are blessed to have you leading us to the promised land.

Michael A. Grady
Midwest City, Okla.

Michael,

Thank you for the questions and positive comments.

The men's basketball schedule is complete, however, we are waiting to finalize a couple of contracts and a couple of issues related to television. You can expect a schedule to be released later in August. The women's schedule is also close to completion, and I expect that to be released before the end of the month as well.

We are in the process of finalizing Big 12 conference football schedules from 2008 through 2015. Once those schedules are formally approved by the Conference's Board of Director's, we will release that information. We continue to work on future non-conference games and should have a couple of announcements this fall.

Ian

Where will the band sit starting in the 2007 basketball season? Also, beside the preseason NIT when will the rest of the basketball schedule be finalized for the men and women?

John Ferrell
Bedford, Texas

John,

Thank you for the e-mail.

The band location will remain behind the basket opposite the visiting team bench. This location is mandated per Big 12 game management policies.

As mentioned above, you can expect basketball schedules to be released later in August.

Ian

Thank you!

Rick, Smith
Waco, Texas

Rick,

Thank you for the questions. Regrettably, I cannot comment on signees who do not enroll in classes due to NCAA rules. When signees do not enroll in the fall, they become recruitable prospective student-athletes and therefore coaches and administrators are prohibited from making public comments about these individuals.

Ian

My question is simple and though I think I know the answer but I want to make sure.

Now I know full well what it would take and that we certainly aren't there yet. But if it got to the point where attendance and potential attendance warrented would at the very least Floyd Casey Stadium be expanded to include more seating with constructs such as an upper deck on the side opposite the press box and decks on either side of the press box? Or dare I say would a new stadium be built somewhere closer or connecting to campus? And trust me I understand that it would take at least a few years of attendance levels at that height to even be considered

Thank you for your time.

Thomas Patrick Bailey
Katy, Texas

Thomas,

Thank you for the question and comments.

We have the ability to increase capacity in Floyd Casey Stadium in several ways. First, we could open the South End Zone. We are also considering opportunities to increase premium seating since that is where the greatest demand exists among our fans.

Beyond that, there is potential to add suites on the East Side of the Stadium should demand warrant it.

We have not engaged in a serious discussion about an on-campus football stadium at this point. Quite frankly, we are focused on completing the existing projects in the Victory With Integrity Campaign, including the Baylor Athletics Center which will house the football practice facility.

Ian

Thanks for your leadership and direction at Baylor. I love the direction the program is going.

Are there any plans creating a podcast of games.

Mark Bergstrom
Carrollton, Texas

Mark;

Thanks for your great question.

We are in the process of working with our campus IT staff, BaylorVision, IBS and our web site provider, CSTV, to create podcasts of our events as we recognize there is a demand for this material.

We anticipate having further information available sometime this fall.