Kirk W....

[Buesch N Chips]

We have a high level of nostalgia that is very beneficial, but is also a double-edged sword with some significant downsides."
[/B][/I]

I assume this refers to the aging fan base.

[Da Coach]

I always liked Kavanaugh but that's not entirely true. He displayed a total lack of class with a below the belt tweet the day that Bradley made a change in administration. That disappointed me. I would have expected better from the man.

I've always said that you'll see the most bitter emotions emerge when someone's livelihood or family is screwed with. From what I know of the situation, I do not blame KK one bit for his acrimony. It was shared by an awful lot of other people that day (1/22/15).

[Chico]

I always liked Kavanaugh but that's not entirely true. He displayed a total lack of class with a below the belt tweet the day that Bradley made a change in administration. That disappointed me. I would have expected better from the man.

In other words, he told it like it was. That's a no no now days.

[Da Coach]

I assume this refers to the aging fan base.

No, not really. As I heard it said by a high ranking administrator, "Bradley fans are too hung up on their past". Cross' comments refer to the Bradley fan base in general being resistant to "change", which he believed was not a good thing. The administration wanted to bury the past.
Yet nearly every change he tried to shove down Bradley fans' throats turned out to be a disaster-
Moving regular season games to Rec-Col
Eliminating the Red-White scimmage
Eliminating the Itoo Hall event
Eliminating the Preseason Banquet
Eliminating the post-season awards banquet
Eliminating many other traditional events, and Braves Club rallies
Eliminating the Braves Club room
Firing Jim Les and hiring Geno Ford
Botching the hiring process and being turned down by numerous candidates
Attempting to change the Braves nickname to Brave, when Bradley had already won that battle with the NCAA. That attempt failed only because a majority of Bradley donors said they would stop their donations!
Changing the logo
Changing the mascot (this one is still up for debate, but it sure generated a lot of negative publicity when it was done)
Unable to negotiate with the Civic Center (Dr. Reynolds proved that it was not nearly as difficult as we were told)
Scheduling lots of cupcake opponents to artificially inflate the win total
Raising ticket prices after the worst seasons in Bradley history
Introducing the Premium Seating section, and ticking off dozens of long-time season ticket holders who formerly sat in those sections. many of them dropped their season tickets, and donations and never returned. Even the people who moved into those sections were not new fans, they were all previous season-ticket fans, and donors.
Unable to get a decent TV deal

[Buesch N Chips]

No, not really. As I heard it said by a high ranking administrator, "Bradley fans are too hung up on their past". Cross' comments refer to the Bradley fan base in general being resistant to "change", which he believed was not a good thing.

Yes. And he may be right. It may not be a good thing. The only way to change people who don't want to be changed is to do it without them knowing. To "slow cook the frog," so to speak. He went the other direction.

[tornado]

... a below the belt tweet the day that Bradley made a change in administration....

don't know - never saw it - can you reference me to it? Are you sure you aren't thinking of something else as that ought to be easy to find and I cannot..
I specifically read each and ever tweet in the period in January, then late May and then in Oct. when Gary Roberts was introduced - so when was it?

I just went back and loaded every tweet he has made in the entire past year - going back to November 2014 - and do not see anything that fits your description as offensive.

https://twitter.com/search?q=%40kaveagle&src=typd

but that administration went way out of their way to try to destroy KK's career and reputation ...
I know the business world is tough but as I said, he never said a word for six years after they torpedoed & fed a few things for Kirk Wessler to use in his hit piece.

[pfcmsh]

Ridiculous Comment

I don't think you'll ever hear much more on the subject, unless someone in our local media wants to actually look into what is a real story. But don't expect that to happen.

Recall that when Michael Cross was interviewed by Dave Reynolds in a 5-page article last March about his failures, instead of explaining why Bradley athletics, and especially the marquee sports of women's and men's basketball, baseball, volleyball and softball were so bad, and why fan support, ticket sales, and donations had fallen to record lows, he refused to accept any of the blame for the failures, said he had "no regrets", and instead blamed the fans for not having "enough patience", and for being too hung up on "nostalgia".
BTW, he was AD at Bradley for 5 years, the worst 5 years in the history of Bradley basketball and arguably in all of Bradley Athletics if measured by losses, wasted spending, and massive drops in attendance, ticket sales, donations, and incoming revenues.

http://www.pjstar.com/article/20150316/SPORTS/150319345

"...I don’t have any regrets. The regrets have to do with how this business works. Ultimately, winning and losing matters to a lot to people. I wasn’t here two weeks in 2010 when I told my wife, ‘No question in my mind, Bradley can be great. But I hope there’s enough patience for that to happen.’ Unfortunately, there isn’t enough patience."
There’s no question in my mind that people in Peoria and at Bradley want progress. Everybody wants progress, but nobody wants change. That’s a very apt description of the general environment. We have a high level of nostalgia that is very beneficial, but is also a double-edged sword with some significant downsides."

,

Comment from above....."Unfortunately, there isn't enough patience."

4 years of patience isnt enough??? Look what Dr Reynolds has done in 8 months. What a ridiculous comment!!!!!!

[lefty]

I'd be interested in hearing from someone on Cross' side, or at least a neutral party, what their approach actually was. Was it just to close the loopholes of access to the program that had been grandfathered in over all these years? And who was affected? What did they hope to gain? Was it an over-correction to something Jim Les had been doing? Who made the decision? Glasser/Cross/Ford?

Now look what you started

[Buesch N Chips]

Now look what you started

I know, I know. Getting everybody all fired up on a Monday morning.

[tornado]

agreed lefty- let's lock this thread on Kirk, there's far more important topics

[Chico]

agreed lefty- let's lock this thread on Kirk, there's far more important topics

Yeah, like 2017 recruits for MVC teams, how ex-Bradley players from years ago are doing for obscure teams overseas, etc.

[tornado]

we're obsessive so we cover it all

but Chico, note the followup thread on Zach, Warren, Will, etc...has nearly 100,000 views and the recruits listing over 30,000 views, many of which are the viewers & fans of the other nine Valley teams cuz we do as good of a job of tracking their recruits as anyone.

but nobody's forced to view

[Chico]

I usually don't.

[tornado]

Kirk kinda tells us that Bradley is a young team and they're not good...
nothing like kickin' 'em while they're down...

http://www.pjstar.com/article/20151125/SPORTS/151129578/12701/SPORTS?rssfeed=true&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter