BGSU Athletics Strategic Plan/Open Letter

[bgsufn]

Open Letter from the AD: BGSU Athletics Strategic Plan Ready to Take Flight
Dear Fellow Falcons,

Strategic thinking and strategic planning are at the core of my role as your Director of Athletics. As we work to Honor the Past and Create the Future for Bowling Green State University Athletics, we are continuously working to lay the most stable, sustainable, and strategic foundation possible for our student-athletes, coaches, and staff. Having a roadmap for the future allows us to focus on the continuous improvement of our organization, and work with goals in mind that are not only realistic and challenging, but also measurable and attainable.

The enclosed Falcon Athletics Strategic Plan provides structure and guidance for the way ahead. Intended to be a working document that may be revised and updated in real time, this document helps establish the culture for who we strive to be and how we may get there. These goals and strategies reinforce that culture as we work to provide the very best collegiate athletics experience possible for our student-athletes, student body, alumni and fans. Based on our primary objective areas related to Facilities, Academics, Leadership, Championship Culture, Outreach & Inclusion, National Visibility, and Stewardship (F.A.L.C.O.N.S.), this guide allows our various stakeholders to assist in our mission to cultivate champions in academics, sports, and life, and pursue excellence in all that we do.

Nested in the University's Goals, and with careful consideration for both the Vision and Mission Statements of BGSU, the Falcon Athletics Strategic Plan will serve as a valuable and purposeful resource for the Falcon athletics community. I am excited to share our vision for BG Athletics with our campus and external communities, and sincerely hope that you will take every opportunity to work with us in order to achieve lasting success for our great institution.

Honor the Past.
Create the Future.
MAKE HISTORY NOW!

Sincerely,

D. Christopher Kingston

Thoughts?

[MacGuy]

Was mainly looking for info about Doyt Perry stadium renovations. "Complete stadium renovation plan"" didn't do it for me.

[Flipper]

I think if you expecting details in what is obviously meant to be a broad strokes mission statement, you were setting yourself up for disappointment.

[BGSU33]

Was mainly looking for info about Doyt Perry stadium renovations. "Complete stadium renovation plan"" didn't do it for me.

I was looking for the same thing. I got excited when I saw that posted on the website this morning and hurried to click on the link to learn about our Strategic Plan....and then I sat there like a deer in headlights when I actually read it. WTH was that? Isn't one of the main points of producing a Strategic Plan to discuss the actual strategies you plan to implement to reach your goal? That told us next to nothing about anything that we already didn't know.

[footballguy51]

Was mainly looking for info about Doyt Perry stadium renovations. "Complete stadium renovation plan"" didn't do it for me.

I was looking for the same thing. I got excited when I saw that posted on the website this morning and hurried to click on the link to learn about our Strategic Plan....and then I sat there like a deer in headlights when I actually read it. WTH was that? Isn't one of the main points of producing a Strategic Plan to discuss the actual strategies you plan to implement to reach your goal? That told us next to nothing about anything that we already didn't know.

The Strategic Plan is exactly what it should be. It's a statement of goals and an action plan to achieve those goals. Moreover, it relates the Division's goals to the goals of the University. If you notice, specifics are not mentioned anywhere because specifics should never be included in a public document. The specifics are an internal document, and with Higher Ed, is mostly a fluid document.

[BillyLP]

Was mainly looking for info about Doyt Perry stadium renovations. "Complete stadium renovation plan"" didn't do it for me.

I was looking for the same thing. I got excited when I saw that posted on the website this morning and hurried to click on the link to learn about our Strategic Plan....and then I sat there like a deer in headlights when I actually read it. WTH was that? Isn't one of the main points of producing a Strategic Plan to discuss the actual strategies you plan to implement to reach your goal? That told us next to nothing about anything that we already didn't know.

The Strategic Plan is exactly what it should be. It's a statement of goals and an action plan to achieve those goals. Moreover, it relates the Division's goals to the goals of the University. If you notice, specifics are not mentioned anywhere because specifics should never be included in a public document. The specifics are an internal document, and with Higher Ed, is mostly a fluid document.

Exactly. I thought it was a great release. I really hope Kingston is here for the long haul. He's a gem of an AD.

[BGSU33]

Was mainly looking for info about Doyt Perry stadium renovations. "Complete stadium renovation plan"" didn't do it for me.

I was looking for the same thing. I got excited when I saw that posted on the website this morning and hurried to click on the link to learn about our Strategic Plan....and then I sat there like a deer in headlights when I actually read it. WTH was that? Isn't one of the main points of producing a Strategic Plan to discuss the actual strategies you plan to implement to reach your goal? That told us next to nothing about anything that we already didn't know.

The Strategic Plan is exactly what it should be. It's a statement of goals and an action plan to achieve those goals. Moreover, it relates the Division's goals to the goals of the University. If you notice, specifics are not mentioned anywhere because specifics should never be included in a public document. The specifics are an internal document, and with Higher Ed, is mostly a fluid document.

Let me rephrase part of what I took away from it. Per the facilities part, which I think a lot of us want to know about (particularly the football stadium), it seemed extremely general and uninformative. It did go on to mention the turf situation, however, I found that somewhat amusing because any Ordinary Joe who walks on our turf can tell it needs replace now, and the lifespan of a turf surface is 8-10 years, which we have surpassed. So to me, saying we need to replace our turf is like a farmer saying his dried-up crops need rain. We can see that and know that ourselves. I personally was hoping to see BG release something like what NIU did when they announced their plan that mapped out exactly what they want to do with projects such as Husky Stadium and its expansion (NIU mapped out its X, Y and Z's) over what BG said, which was really not saying anything at all but renovations. Okay.....but what renovations? Are we talking restrooms, grand stands, or what??? A good Strategic Plan details the goals and processes of strategy to achieve them. To me it failed to do much along those lines at all. After having read that plan, I'm really not much more informed over what I already knew or assumed prior to reading it. That's just MHO.

[Flipper]

They clearly are not at a point where they can discuss specifics on that project.... to ask them to in spite of that is odd.

[apollo]

This all just lip service...waste of time. If Kingston leaves next year, the new AD will throw this in the trash and make his own strategic plan. Ever since Krebs left all we've gotten is talk....Krebs landed the major gifts for both Sebo and Stroh and stuff actually got done. Christopher got the credit, but Krebs did the heavy lifting.
Kingston is certainly better than Christopher, but I've been really disappointed with the lack of movement on the baseball facility and obviously Perry Stadium.
Bottom line...if BGSU is serious about sports, they have to:

1. Get the sports back to being fully funded, particularly baseball
2. The University needs to commit more money to Athletics...money is tight, but BG gets close to the least amount from fees as anyone in the MAC. Plus we have hockey which puts us at a disadvantage...."bring back the glory" was a huge disappointment in terms of raising money.
3. The university needs to do a huge capital campaign combining both Academic and Athletic facilities. Try to raise as much as possible and get a lot of stuff done at once. Ball State just finished theirs and many of their Athletic facilities were renovated.

[jpfalcon09]

This all just lip service...waste of time. If Kingston leaves next year, the new AD will throw this in the trash and make his own strategic plan. Ever since Krebs left all we've gotten is talk....Krebs landed the major gifts for both Sebo and Stroh and stuff actually got done. Christopher got the credit, but Krebs did the heavy lifting.
Kingston is certainly better than Christopher, but I've been really disappointed with the lack of movement on the baseball facility and obviously Perry Stadium.
Bottom line...if BGSU is serious about sports, they have to:

1. Get the sports back to being fully funded, particularly baseball
2. The University needs to commit more money to Athletics...money is tight, but BG gets close to the least amount from fees as anyone in the MAC. Plus we have hockey which puts us at a disadvantage...."bring back the glory" was a huge disappointment in terms of raising money.
3. The university needs to do a huge capital campaign combining both Academic and Athletic facilities. Try to raise as much as possible and get a lot of stuff done at once. Ball State just finished theirs and many of their Athletic facilities were renovated.

Having talked to CK numerous times I can assure you that he's not offering lip service here. He's very passionate about BGSU and doing the best he can to improve athletics given the budget constraints. The fact is that the dam is going to burst on a lot of schools who are participating in the rat race of trying to upgrade facilities and spending money they simply don't have. Thus, I believe many of these projects are ultimately going to be delayed or extended in their time frame to accommodate said issues. Keep in mind too that the university has committed a lot of time and effort to capital improvement projects on campus, with the building of new residence halls, dining facilities and fraternity/sorority houses. I get called every week from a BG student asking me to donate money because the university needs to recoup their losses.

[Flipper]

Exactly... you do not want to be Akron. Their previous administration went on a completely ridiculous building spree. Current President is now stuck with a mountain of debt and few options to deal with it.

[BGSU33]

Exactly... you do not want to be Akron. Their previous administration went on a completely ridiculous building spree. Current President is now stuck with a mountain of debt and few options to deal with it.

But they sure do have a damn nice football stadium!

[BGSU33]

I'll tell you something I miss a lot that we did with Greg Christopher, and that was the Ask The AD segment. I enjoyed it a lot. It gave us all a chance to ask questions and get answers to a lot of the things we had questions about. I submitted several questions that were asked and answered myself, so it's not like your questions simply disappeared and were never asked. I also liked that Christopher didn't just dance around questions he couldn't 100% answer. Obviously there were certain things he couldn't come right out and say, but he did answer in a way that gave you so info what you were asking without simply blowing it off. I felt it was also a good way for fans to also stay connected. I really wish we'd bring that back and do it with Chris Kingston.

[Falcon Fanatic]

I'll tell you something I miss a lot that we did with Greg Christopher, and that was the Ask The AD segment. I enjoyed it a lot. It gave us all a chance to ask questions and get answers to a lot of the things we had questions about. I submitted several questions that were asked and answered myself, so it's not like your questions simply disappeared and were never asked. I also liked that Christopher didn't just dance around questions he couldn't 100% answer. Obviously there were certain things he couldn't come right out and say, but he did answer in a way that gave you so info what you were asking without simply blowing it off. I felt it was also a good way for fans to also stay connected. I really wish we'd bring that back and do it with Chris Kingston.

Maybe you should suggest this to Kingston. He seems like a guy who would be open to considering this. He is a very approachable guy.

Regarding GC....no comment.

[Flipper]

Ask the AD with Greg Christopher

"Greg...hockey is a weird sport that no one...outside of a few Canadians... cares about, right?"

"Yes...yes it is"