Rutgers Finances: Where are we getting the millions?

It was half time of the spring game. Chris Carlin, the "Voice of Rutgers Football", was interviewing AD Pat Hobbs.  And in that interview (at about the 3:45 mark), Hobbs says that in "about two weeks" they'll be ready to make a preliminary announcement about the status of the R B1G Build campaign.

Rutgers Athletic Director Patrick Hobbs catches up with BTN during halftime of the .@RFootball Spring Game. https://t.co/NrEI0kFucl

— Rutgers Athletics (@RUAthletics) April 24, 2016

For the record, two weeks was yesterday.  Aaron posted on that point, and he included a tweet where it was hinted that there could be a groundbreaking this summer.

And there were a few people who wondered what that meant.

Can't wait

To hear how it's going. I know a professional fundraiser who says you usually don't go public with a figure until you're at least 20% towards the goal, otherwise people get discouraged. Fingers crossed!

by RealMenDon'tTroll on Apr 24, 2016

I'll take a guess

Including the $25m tax credit, I'll guess we are $50m -€” $60m.

I'll also guess that corporate donors will make up a good chunk of that.

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by RU Serious on Apr 24, 2016

Guessing he's waiting for us to hit $25 million

To match the $25 million from the tax break.

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by jay.poole on Apr 25, 2016

I had a very reliable source who told me that Jay's guesstimate could be very much on the money.

And when you factor in that Hobbs said, "I think people are going to be very surprised", this could be very interesting.

Be still my beating heart!

So, where did Pat Hobbs find $25 million?  As a former boss of mine would say, you don't just open a drawer of your desk and reach in for it. No, I'm pretty sure he and the staff were working the phones very hard over the last few months.  And personally, with no corroboration or inside info, I think - as did Ed above -  there are a few corporate donors involved already.

But naming opportunities are always big in big time athletics.  And that's something that Rutgers has never really taken advantage of previously.  But Hobbs knows you need to look under every rock and you've also got to tell people this is what we need and this is what it will cost.

Go to the R B1G Build site and you can find out what it will cost you to have your name on....well, just about everything and anything in the new construction.  And what it tells you right now is that just from naming opportunities, Rutgers has, either in hand or in pledges, at least $4.1 million and perhaps as much as $6.6 million.  And that's aside from any other donations that were raised.  That's a pretty good start.

From the chart above - and it's straight from the website - you can see that Pikiell's office is funded.  And since it must be the same figure as C. Viv's, that's a half mil. I put the basketball locker rooms at $500,000 but they could easily be a million.

I put the Administrative Suite at a conservative $1 million but why not double that?  The summary of what is "funded" or "tentative" looks like this:

It's about time that we got something for putting a person's name on a building....or a room, or a water fountain, or a closet.  There was a story out of Monmouth University a number of years ago that the student center was being named for a former university president.  And she was very upset about it, because she felt they could have gotten money for the naming rights.  Smart woman.

So, with over $4 million guaranteed on naming rights right now, plus the $25 million in tax credits, Pat Hobbs is off to a nice start in generating the $100 million needed. And who knows what's been committed that hasn't been posted?

I don't know about you, but I can't wait for that announcement.