McGarity's Minutes - September 15th - University of Georgia Athletics

Fellow Bulldogs:

This afternoon on campus, the UGA Athletic Association's Board of Directors held its Fall meeting.

Among the items on the agenda of today's meeting were presentations by basketball coaches Mark Fox and Joni Taylor. Mark and Joni are remarkable ambassadors for the University, and I know they are anxious to start the 2017-18 season. Not only are they looking forward to leading their teams onto the court, but they're also excited about the impact that the new Stegeman Coliseum will have upon their programs.

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The dramatic improvements to Stegeman during the offseason mark only a small sample of the facility projects that have either just finished or are currently under construction. At the meeting today, Josh Brooks provided us with updates on five projects that have been previously discussed with the Board, two of which have concluded (track and soccer), and three that are now underway (West End Zone at Sanford Stadium, golf and Stegeman Coliseum).

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I also updated the Board on the status of two projects that are in our facility improvement queue:
1) The Equestrian Locker Room Project, located at the Equestrian facility in Bishop. The scope of the project will include full locker room space for student-athletes, coaches' offices, meeting rooms and other team areas. We will present more information to the Board at our next meeting in January 2018.
2) The Indoor Tennis Facility. We have worked with Campus Architects on three potential locations to expand or construct a new facility. Two sites are within the Dan Magill Complex and the other is located at the soccer/softball areas on South Milledge Avenue. Early estimates on this project range from $10 million to $25 million. More information will be brought to the Board at our January 2018 meeting.

In the past seven years, we have experienced significant investments in all of our facilities. During this time we have received approval to invest over $150 million for enhancements to every facility we operate and maintain — while incurring a relatively small amount of debt. Of this $150 million invested, over $110 million can be attributed to improvements directly related to our football program and Sanford Stadium. These projects — many of which go unseen by the public — have been funded by athletic department reserve funds, operating funds and gifts from our donors, a remarkable feat in itself.

At the same time as these facility enhancement efforts have occurred, The Georgia Bulldog Club has experienced significant growth in gifts. Over $275 million has been generated from a combination of ticket priority programs, Magill Society gifts, scholarship and coaching endowments and other gifts to our program during this seven-year span.

The work of our student-athletes away from the competitive arena is always a source of pride, and today at our meeting we sang their praises in many ways. Most prominently, we learned that they compiled an overall Grade Point Average of 3.10 last year, led by the men's Cross Country and women's Equestrian teams. Additionally, I thanked the Student Athlete Advisory Committee and our staff for their efforts in collecting an entire truckload of water, clothing and goods to assist in the relief efforts after Hurricane Harvey.

I would like to close by reflecting one final time on our trip last weekend to Notre Dame. Judging from the feedback that I have received this week — through conversation, letters and emails — the experience for our fans was simply magical. We left South Bend with a renewed sense of excitement for our program and a bevy of ideas for us to consider as we move forward with our program.

At the top of that list is a lesson that can start tomorrow. Let's commit to be more welcoming and respectful to all of our guests at Sanford Stadium for every home game, much like we were received last weekend at Notre Dame.

Tomorrow marks our annual Letterman's Day festivities. During halftime we will pay tribute to one of our greatest lettermen of all time, Charley Trippi. I feel sure that we will all take tremendous pride in seeing Charley – as well as all the other Bulldog lettermen – once again take the field at Sanford Stadium!

Go Dawgs!

University of Georgia Athletics

McGarity's Minutes - September 15th

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