T-P, IMPORTANT

[RWR]

I called the T-P today to complain that Tammy has lost her credibility w/Tulane fans due to her recent reporting. I specifically complained about her saying Tulane was giving a 45% increase to the football budget next year when in fact that 45% was spread over 2007 to 2011. I then complained about her claim in Sunday's article that there is a consensus among Tulane fans for a stadium. I explained that she only quoted one fan who she knew favored it and one bd. member who supported it. I also pointed out that she reads these boards and that anyone who is honest would know there is clearly not a consensus. In fact there is a consensus against a 25,000 seat stadium that would forever brand us smalltime.

The person I spoke to is Doug Tatum. He is the sports editor. The following is not to disparage him in any way. It is to let you know his perception and why he has it. He moved here in 2000. So he only knows the last 10 years of misery and not the 50 before it.He was not aware of the misleading info. SC and RD had given w/regards to the 45%. He was astounded that there are fans against the stadium idea. I mean he had no idea. He has never covered Tulane and just thought the terrible attendance was strictly b/c of the Dome. I explained to him the true substantive problems with the program. The conversation ended w/him asking me to e-mail my contact info. b/c there would be future articles on the stadium issue and he wanted both sides heard. He also asked for me to have others contact him. I implore you to take him up. First I am asking you to do like I did and call him and let him know how you feel about Tammy becoming a parrot for SC and RD and how she has lost credibility w/us. The number is 826-3279. Then e-mail your contact info.to him at [email protected] If you don't want to call then include your feelings n your e-mail along w/your contact info.. We need to open his eyes to the reality of the problems w/Tulane football. This is our chance to be heard. Please take advantage of it. If you have the time to post here you have the time to e-mail him. STAND UP AND BE COUNTED. PLEASE!

[JTLiuzza]

Nicely done, RWR. I've written Mr. Tatum before a few years back and he came off to me as fair and willing to listen. I think I'll put something together to send him asap.

Again, well done.

[JDTulane]

Not to be a dissenter but I like Tammy and I think she is the wrong person to target. She's a beat writer and bound to make mistakes... but I disagree with you on the stadium. I think fan wise, consensus is much more pro OCS than nay. Maybe amongst intelligent fans and people who follow the topic more closely those numbers even out or reverse, but the common fan will always be pro OCS.

Rather then wasting energy attacking a very nice reporter who brings press to Tulane I would stick to targeting problem areas like board members and coaches at Tulane murkying the waters.

[sader24]

The problem is that our beat writer is not well versed in Tulane University Past and Present issues except for what she has been told by the administration. Just guessing here, but it behooves her to toe the company line in order to keep her access flowing. I'm sure she's a nice enough person, but I have yet to see one article from her that delved into the real problems and flaws of our athletic department. At this point she is simply a mouthpiece for Dickson and Cowen. That's fine for LSU, but at this point we need more than that. We need critical and accurate articles on a frequent basis. I find it astounding that the Sports Editor for the Times Picayune has so little real information about this program.

[RWR]

Not to be a dissenter but I like Tammy and I think she is the wrong person to target. She's a beat writer and bound to make mistakes... but I disagree with you on the stadium. I think fan wise, consensus is much more pro OCS than nay. Maybe amongst intelligent fans and people who follow the topic more closely those numbers even out or reverse, but the common fan will always be pro OCS.

Rather then wasting energy attacking a very nice reporter who brings press to Tulane I would stick to targeting problem areas like board members and coaches at Tulane murkying the waters.

JD- I don't know how you can say that after reading these boards. There clearly is no consensus. You are just seeing it the way you want to. As for Tammy there was time I enjoyed her work. However, she clearly was working as an extension of SC and RD on the lie about the 45% increase and refused to back off the lie when it was exposed by the playbook and the school paper. Then she says there's a consensus by quoting 2 people she knew beforehand favored it. What a joke . We won't stand for it. Like Tammy you don't know the history and should be more respectful of those who have suffered thru the last 60 years and who know the real problems. The stadium is not one of them.

[JDTulane]

Just because I'm young does not mean my opinion need be discredited. Telling me to respect your experience is what this board has called a very 'YOGWF thing to say'. And like I said, the average typical fan (not a board surfer) is probably very pro OCS.

[TURVS71]

First of all RWR, I LOVE YOU!!

I would never criticize or slap down your opinion. You are a great Wave Fan and we need you.

That being said, I spoke with Tammy for well over an hour about many different things. Let me assure you that she is not a mouth-piece for the "dynamic duo." I do not want to go into specifics, just try and believe me.

Tulane has problems. I DO NOT LIKE Cowen in any manner, especially his superior attitude. You know that I was not happy at the Wednesday "meeting". I just feel that while there are many, many things that need fixing, that the prospects of a stadium is something that we should really push for and push now. I don't want a 25 K stadium but I sure as hell know that it will NEVER be 45-50K. I am very sure that many want out of the dome. We need something concrete. No pun intended. There have been no physical additions to the football program in years. I don't want a stadium at City Park nor on the fly. I want that recruit to be able to see the campus, see the co-eds as he is walking, look up and see the light poles on the stadium and as he gets closer, finally see a sign that say "WELCOME TO THE HOME OF THE GREEN WAVE".

We at Tulane have an attitude problem. I'm talking administration and fans. I just believe that it is time for us to stand on our own. Attitude is a big part of winning. Let's not do what we did in the 60's. We are now second guessing all of that stuff and I certainly don't want fans 30 years from now, IF we last that long, saying "damn, why didn't we build that stadium when we had the chance."

I want it done right and I think it can be.

Look, I HATE the dome, that's just the way it is. I HATE, the dark, dingy parking garages. I HATE the entire atmosphere. Frankly, I hated it EVEN when we won! To me the dome is DONE as a collegiate atmosphere. Sure it is great for the sugar bowl or the BCS, but I am ready to sit in the heat, cold rain on the CAMPUS OF TULANE UNIVERSITY!!

[golfnut69]

I for one would like an OCS, but at present there are more pressing facilities that need attention..I would love to have a stadium that is a "homefield advantage"..complete with heat, humidity an skeeters !!!..Playing in the dome is very sterile and cave like, that said and or posted I would vote for an Indoor facility first...too bad the intramaural facility was taken down to make way for a few parking spots, install a rug and instant Indoor facility..I made that comment/suggestion to Both Mack and Chuck Gladchuck but the admin wanted it gone

[JTLiuzza]

Not to be a dissenter but I like Tammy and I think she is the wrong person to target.

There's no "targeting" going on here. Her reporting is shoddy and the issues are important and require a more thorough, unbiased approach. Heck even the sports editor is admittedly ignorant of all the issues. And that you "like" her is irrelevant. This is not a Nunez witch hunt. On the contrary, an effort like this presupposes that Nunez and Tatum are responsible and will report objectively and completely if educated with all the facts. They're getting one side from Cowen and the board. We're giving them the other.

I think fan wise, consensus is much more pro OCS than nay.

Really? Based on what? For you to "think" that with no evidence is up to you. For the beat writer to publish it as fact with no evidence is a big problem.

Rather then wasting energy attacking a very nice reporter who brings press to Tulane I would stick to targeting problem areas like board members and coaches at Tulane murkying the waters.

Again, her "niceness" is irrelevant. She has a job to do and isn't doing it properly. Focusing on board members is something that could be done but it seems obvious that the best approach is public debate, not private letters to board members like the quoted Mr. Shultz, who has it wrong and is in Cowen's pocket. As far as the coaches, they're powerless. They're working within the failed system the best they can.

[JTLiuzza]

Telling me to respect your experience is what this board has called a very 'YOGWF thing to say'. And like I said, the average typical fan (not a board surfer) is probably very pro OCS.

Aren't you the one who took someone to task in another thread for bringing up the other board? I agree with you on that but if you're going to take someone to task... be consistent.

Again with your conjecture about the OCS. It's nothing but conjecture. You can guess all you want and it doesn't matter. The press publishing that as fact is the problem. Even if the press were to somehow determine with reasonable certainty that the "average fan" was in favor of such a complete waste of money, it would be nice to see them deal with the issue in a complete, unbiased way that lays out the cons of such an approach as well as the pros.

The stupid stadium red herring is already working. Here we are focused just on what Cowen wants us to focus on, an idiotic stadium that we don't need (and won't get until long after he's gone, if ever). A stadium that will have ZERO impact on winning and ZERO impact on attendance beyond the first season if the quality of the football program doesn't improve. And don't give me the "stadium will allow us to recruit better" canard.

The REAL issues are the impediments to winning and not embarrassing ourselves. Overcoming those can be done immediately without an $80 million investment. That is what needs to be the focus and that is what needs to be communicated.

[gbgreenie]

I strongly disagree we need a oncampus stadium but it needs to hold at least 35,000 and I believe it will. We will never have full student participation without an campus stadium. The students are the heart of a fanbase in College Football. As the Student Population continues to grow this will be a bigger base for a fanbase. Other fans will come back into the fold once we get Sat. nite football on campus including the Neighborhoods around campus. This area also will be a base for new fans. When I park and walk to a baseball game I hear residents asking what time is the game. Because it is walking distance they go to the game. Wake up those against a OCS you are totally wrong.

[RWR]

Turvs- I feel the same about you and your family. Unfortunately out of an hour she only put you in the camp for a stadium. She didn't say you are for it if it is 40,000 seats. She has rightfully lost out trust. The most important thing is that the stadium they would build if given the money is 25,000 seats. I am not the only one that has posted that. So it's not about what's acceptable to different people it's about what they would actually build if given the funds. There are no plans for parking either.

gb-As for student attendance we had an OCS and they didn't come. They don't come to the one's we have now so you can quit trying to peddle that BS.

It's time to fight back and prevent us from making another epic mistake that will brand us small time for all time.

[JTLiuzza]

I strongly disagree we need a oncampus stadium but it needs to hold at least 35,000 and I believe it will. We will never have full student participation without an campus stadium. The students are the heart of a fanbase in College Football. As the Student Population continues to grow this will be a bigger base for a fanbase. Other fans will come back into the fold once we get Sat. nite football on campus including the Neighborhoods around campus. This area also will be a base for new fans. When I park and walk to a baseball game I hear residents asking what time is the game. Because it is walking distance they go to the game. Wake up those against a OCS you are totally wrong.

When the baseball team stinks it up see how many students and neighborhood people show up.

SMU built a beautiful OCS but couldn't draw flies after the novelty wore off. That is a fact.

[sader24]

The student attendance argument is once again false and I can prove it. In Bowden's 2 seasons at Tulane he made a concerted effort to go visit with the students and basically beg them to come out to the games. The result was for those 2 seasons with the exception of Navy and La.Tech since it was Thanksgiving we had in between 3000-5000 students at every game. That whole half of the plaza behind the visiting bench had 4-6 sections filled to the top most of those games. Like I said I would love a 45,000+ person stadium on campus, but I'm not ever going to buy that an on campus stadium with a losing program will draw anyone or that an on campus stadium with a winning team will outdraw the Superdome in the same situation. Look at the Tad Gormley games, for all the hoopla about the tailgating we still drew flies to those games. The end zone was empty every game we played there and Gormley only holds 26K. I'm eager to see how "Tulane fans" react to sitting on benches in the heat or the rain.

[tumbuuh]

First off, this is my first post after I essentially got shouted out of YOGWF a while back, so uhh..hello! I have to disagree...a lot...with your statements though.

To say that "Tammy has lost her credibility with Tulane fans" is just as much an over-generalization as you accuse her of using when she said most fans support an on-campus stadium. She has not lost credibility with Tulane fans, and the average follower (read: the people who don't post avidly on online forums) is probably very content with her, especially when considering Tulane got almost no coverage aside from a few blurbs from the T-P before she came along.

I think you're severely misguided if you think the anti-OCS sentiments on this board reflect most Tulane fans' feelings. Most people I know from when I was at Tulane, including current students, recent and older alumni, and some professors, are ecstatic about the idea that we might get the chance to see football on campus again. And those are the fans we need to court most, not the 100 or so die-hards we have left. They'll go to games no matter what.

Not everything is black and white. There are no issues where Tulane fans completely agree. And going after someone's job for a debatable "offense" is really pretty overboard.

[JTLiuzza]

And going after someone's job for a debatable "offense" is really pretty overboard.

The only thing "overboard" is your hyperbole. Nobody, other than you, said anything about "going after her job."

I'll paste my own comments:

"There's no "targeting" going on here. Her reporting is shoddy and the issues are important and require a more thorough, unbiased approach. Heck even the sports editor is admittedly ignorant of all the issues... This is not a Nunez witch hunt. On the contrary, an effort like this presupposes that Nunez and Tatum are responsible and will report objectively and completely if educated with all the facts. They're getting one side from Cowen and the board. We're giving them the other."

That the "average Joe" likes her is irrelevant. It's blissful ignorance. (Gratuitous deployment of Godwin's Law alert): The average German who didn't know what was really going on thought Hitler was just peachy. (Sorry for that one, guys).

The average fan doesn't know all the issues and maybe doesn't care. But if his only source of info is the Times Picayune, he'll never know. Is there anything wrong with trying to remedy that? Absolutely not.

[tumbuuh]

And going after someone's job for a debatable "offense" is really pretty overboard.

The only thing "overboard" is your hyperbole. Nobody, other than you, said anything about "going after her job."

I'll paste my own comments:

"There's no "targeting" going on here. Her reporting is shoddy and the issues are important and require a more thorough, unbiased approach. Heck even the sports editor is admittedly ignorant of all the issues... This is not a Nunez witch hunt. On the contrary, an effort like this presupposes that Nunez and Tatum are responsible and will report objectively and completely if educated with all the facts. They're getting one side from Cowen and the board. We're giving them the other."

That the "average Joe" likes her is irrelevant. It's blissful ignorance. (Gratuitous deployment of Godwin's Law alert): The average German who didn't know what was really going on thought Hitler was just peachy. (Sorry for that one, guys).

The average fan doesn't know all the issues and maybe doesn't care. But if his only source of info is the Times Picayune, he'll never know. Is there anything wrong with trying to remedy that? Absolutely not.

Well that's a fair enough assessment; I just think it implies her position is worthless from now on because Tulane fans don't believe her. You make a good point though about it being one-sided at times, and she should have looked a little harder at some of those statistics in the Playbook before publishing them. I for one have taken her reporting as simply optimistic, but I know some people would say she's ignoring deficiencies. I do think though that she's reporting the overall feel among fans and that, while there may not be a consensus per se, more Tulane fans - including those who haven't attended a game in a couple of seasons for a number of good reasons - would like to see an on-campus stadium than stay in the Superdome.

[JDTulane]

I agree with nearly everything Tumbuuh posted.

[RWR]

Well your both wrong and the bd. he was banned from which is heavily censored has a number who have pointed out the folly of the stadium issue. Tammy deserves to be called out for reporting false information a key issue and then after it's pointed out elsewhere she tries to claim the playbook was confusing and she still wasn't sure. Well the student reporter at the Hullabaloo got it out of them and reported the lie. Shame on her.

[glennc]

I go all the way back to old tulane stadium and except for the lsu game every other year attendence was not good as far as students go. Maybe tulane never was good at marketing. I don't know. When i was in high school we would catch the city bus to go to Saturday afternoon games and i remember a lot of cub scouts would be there. I know back then Tulane gave tickets to the scout troups. Maybe they shoud try doing that again or something similar because we need to target the kids because the few of us left or not getting any younger. As far as the stadium goes if it is going to hold only 25,000 we might as well stay in the dome. Who the hell are we going to recruit to play in a 25,000 seat stadium that we will struggle to fill.

[sader24]

I've never worried what most people's opinions are. I did not miss a Tulane home game until my 1st year away at college. At this point I know of 2 people in my age group that still go to games. Most of the people that "would like" a stadium will be the first people to not show up to said stadium when we are losing. I'll still be there. If done right I'm all for a stadium, however done right means all the other problems plaguing this program have to be fixed first including the coaching situation. Secondly, anything less than 38K is stupid. Thirdly, it is very suspicious to me that these 2 guys would bring up a stadium with no plans, no site, no money, etc. It seems like they are doing this to simply get people off their backs. Nothing that was said at that meeting makes me think they are seroius about a stadium anytime soon.

[Bigschtick]

I've never worried what most people's opinions are. I did not miss a Tulane home game until my 1st year away at college. At this point I know of 2 people in my age group that still go to games. Most of the people that "would like" a stadium will be the first people to not show up to said stadium when we are losing. I'll still be there. If done right I'm all for a stadium, however done right means all the other problems plaguing this program have to be fixed first including the coaching situation. Secondly, anything less than 38K is stupid. Thirdly, it is very suspicious to me that these 2 guys would bring up a stadium with no plans, no site, no money, etc. It seems like they are doing this to simply get people off their backs. Nothing that was said at that meeting makes me think they are seroius about a stadium anytime soon.

You are correct. Talking stadium just allows these two twins to make it seem like they care when in fact, they remained silent for all these seasons. Talk is cheap. They just think that by talking stadium, the alumni will fall all over themselves to contribute to TAF. They are wrong. I would LOVE to see an on-campus stadium but in reality, we probably need a first class practice facility first. I doubt we will get that. In fact, I think these two are far too incompetent to make any meaningful changes at Tulane for athletics or anything else! Cowen is far too absorbed with himself to help Tulane out of this mess. I really think the twins take us for a bunch of fools and suckers! I think that they might figure out just how fed up we are when they go to count TAF donations and perhaps donations to the General Fund.

[jonathanjoseph]

I've never worried what most people's opinions are. I did not miss a Tulane home game until my 1st year away at college. At this point I know of 2 people in my age group that still go to games. Most of the people that "would like" a stadium will be the first people to not show up to said stadium when we are losing. I'll still be there. If done right I'm all for a stadium, however done right means all the other problems plaguing this program have to be fixed first including the coaching situation. Secondly, anything less than 38K is stupid. Thirdly, it is very suspicious to me that these 2 guys would bring up a stadium with no plans, no site, no money, etc. It seems like they are doing this to simply get people off their backs. Nothing that was said at that meeting makes me think they are seroius about a stadium anytime soon.

Your points are all well taken. There is very little tangible to suggest that they are serious about building a stadium. But Scott Kushner thinks they are trying and there is an awul lot of smoke behind the scenes.

I actually believe they are trying, but are bumbling about because they are that incompetent. I pray they are unsuccessful so we can start calling for their heads more publicly.

[HoustonWave]

The OCS definitely needs to be 40,000+, in order to keep us from being too small time, and to instill the collegiate atmosphere so many of us seek. Many like to point out that we didn't fill old Tulane Stadium, which is true. Many of the same "atmosphere" concerns that we have about the Superdome also existed with Tulane Stadium. Tulane will never have a consistent game day atmosphere if it is playing in a stadium over 70,000. But put us in a 40,000 to 50,000 seat OCS and it will be dynamite. Obviously having a competitive team is a must. But frankly, win or lose, I would far perfer to do it in a 40 to 50,000 seat stadium, rather than a 70,000 seat Superdome, or an 83,000 seat Tulane Stadium.

[NOLABigSteve]

But frankly, win or lose, I would far perfer to do it in a 40 to 50,000 seat stadium, rather than a 70,000 seat Superdome, or an 83,000 seat Tulane Stadium.

+1