https://floridastate.forums.rivals.com/threads/so-how-much-of-this-downfall-do-we-place-on-andy-miller.263817/page-2#post-4552124
Just want to let you know I just posted a new Podcast about College Town on the Seminole Boosters new website http://unconqueredmagazine.com/ today.
It answers many of your questions about the project, its profitablility, and how it was funded that are being debated in this thread.
The most relevant listen is that CollegeTown is an investment of the endowed scholarship fund and can't be spent for anything other than scholarships.
Much of the land on which CollegeTown is built was donated by DeVoe and Shirley Moore to the scholarship endowment. Rather than sell what was blighted land for a few sheckles, Seminole Boosters built CollegeTown which has appreciated greatly (maybe by more than $50 million). So, if the decision is ever made to sell CT, the proceeds of the sale would have to go into the scholarship endowment fund as those proceeds would be earnings on the endowment funds invested. They could not be used to build a facility.
Jimbo was told this a number of times but I don't think he ever really heard it or believed it.
The investment committee who manages the scholarship endowment fund would not choose to invest in a building like the IPF or the FOF as those facilities do not generate earnings. If they earned 5 percent or more, the investment managers would consider them. There are people on this thread who say Jimbo wanted us to invest in those facilities, which would help football generate more money, and they are correct. That was how he viewed it. But that's not how it works from a bonding standpoint. Those facilities earn zero dollars, have interest payments of millions of dollars a year, and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to maintain once built.
When I was an employee of Seminole Boosters, the Boosters and I told this story over and over, including on Warchant podcast, but its hard to reach all 350,000 alumni at any one time so its not hard to understand why not everyone hears this message.
When people donate money to the scholarship fund, now over $60 million, that money is invested in stocks, bonds, real estate by the scholarship investment committee (professional fund managers) and only the interest on that endowment can be spent and only to pay for scholarships (which the donor restricts when funding). We look to earn about 5 percent on the endowment, which funds $3 million of the annual cost of scholarships (about $10 million annually).
The investment committee reviews a lot of different real estate investments and chose CollegeTown because it pays the endowment a guraranteed rate of I think 7 percent.
There's a lot of information on the podcast... but the one thing you cannot quantify about this project is what it has done to the value of the land in that part of town, which Seminole Boosters also owns and uses as as donor parking lots, for athletic housing etc ... Since those assets have appreciated significantly in value and are not investments of the endowment, they are now serving as a backstop or a "reserve fund" and could be liquidated when there is a shortfall in the athletics budget.
The new Seminole Boosters website is FREE for anyone to enjoy and a means by which Seminole Boosters can provide information like this about themselves and their projects on a more regular basis. My company, The Osceola, produces the content for www.UnconqueredMagazine.com as well as www.theosceola.com
While you are there, you can check out the first podcast we produced about the FSU Athletic Association with David Coburn and previous Seminole Booster Chairman Doug Russell which also answers questions about who the Boosters are, what its structure is, and what their role has been in raising money and now will be moving forward.
As so many of you have said, Seminole Boosters raise money but during Andy Miller's career has no control of how the athletic director chooses to distribute it. But that's changing under the new structure. The Booster President (Andy) will now have a seat at the athletic director's senior staff table, where ideas originate. The Seminole Booster Chairman (Doug last year and Bob Davis this year) will have a seat on the five man voting committee of the FSU Athletic Association. The AD who has always served on Booster executive committes, where Booster project and funding ideas originate, are now required to attend those meetings.
Each month we'll do another podcast on topics we think are relevant to our donors and need extra explanation beyond the interest or frequency of traditional media in an effort to connect with fans in a fragmented communications world.
Hope this helps.
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