College AD last week had the opportunity to have a question and answer session with East Tennessee State University athletic director Dr. Richard Sander. Dr. Sander, prior to being named ETSU’s permanent AD in 2013, spent over 20 years at Virginia Commonwealth as the Rams athletic director. After retiring from VCU, he started his own consulting firm before coming to ETSU on an interim basis. When Dr. Sander arriver in Johnson City, the Buccaneers did not field a football team, but only two weeks after having the interim tag removed, the Student Government Association overwhelmingly voted to bring football back to ETSU. Dr. Sander has been tasked with rebuilding the team and has had to start from scratch. College AD asked Dr. Sander why he did it, how he did it and what it means to have football back.
College AD: Did you have any inklings that the vote to restart football would pass?
Dr. Sander: The president and I had talked to the leadership of the SGA and it was clear to us that they were really supportive. It had gotten to be a really divisive issue at the university, so we felt this could be a way to pull people together. Get everybody headed in the same direction.
CAD: What ultimately led to football being disbanded in 2003? Was it strictly a financial situation?
RS: Yes, it was pretty much financial. One of the things that’s a little bit strange is we’re in East Tennessee, a nice part of the country and they played football in a dome. There was no tailgating from what I was told. It wasn’t a very good college football experience because there was no tailgating, it was inside, and the sight lines were really bad in the facility to watch football. So there were really a lot of reasons it didn’t catch the fancy of the community. Plus financially it was a struggle for them. They weren’t selling a lot of tickets, weren’t getting a lot of gifts, so they just made a decision to drop it.
CAD: So ultimately it was a combination of poor experiences, poor facilities and not a lot of excitement about Buccaneer football?
RS: Yeah, ETSU had some success in football over the years. In 1969, the won the Grantland Rice Bowl then in 1987 they beat NC State. Some quality wins, but it was hard for them to consistently do that for some reason.
CAD: The community of Johnson City seems to be super excited about having football back, judging by the fact that it took 15 minutes to sell out the season opener and homecoming game.
RS: Yes, it has really been interesting to see because some of the naysayers initially were saying we will never be able to support it because that’s what they’ve done in the past. Well, we have basically sold out of all of our season tickets and individual game tickets sold out quickly. We brought in more seats to try and accommodate the demand, those sold out right away, we then brought in more temporary seating and those sold out immediately. We sold out of standing room only in 12 minutes. That’s the kind of excitement that has surfaced here. It’s been rewarding. The other thing that has been very, very, rewarding for us is the excitement of the students. We put 2200 student tickets for sale; they were picked up within three hours. The energy and enthusiasm is significantly different and you can really see it on campus. I think that is one of the things ETSU was missing.
CAD: Now that you’ve built the fan support, how do you prevent shutting down football again? Are there any failsafe’s that you’ve put in place or funding avenues you’ve taken up?
RS: We have a great student activities vice president on campus and they do a lot of great things here. We’ve really worked with the student activities people to really engage the students and connect with them. Our head coach, Carl Torbush, is really great; he goes and has lunch with the students, cooks pancakes for them during exams. He does so many great things to connect with them. So there is really a strong connection with the students. I think that’s one thing that coaches are going to have to do, be out there, be ambassadors for their programs with the students. When I hired Carl, it was really important for us to find someone that could do that.
CAD: Why is Carl Torbush the right guy and what stood out to you when you set out to find someone to literally build a program for the ground up?
RS: Well Carl has experience, long time head coach at North Carolina and Louisiana Tech and an assistant at some really big places. He clearly was the guy who had a lot of experience. Carl is from this area, if you saw Carl’s demeanor and personality, he fits into Northeast Tennessee really, really well. He really connects with the community, plus he loves to just engage people. He’s also a really quality guy who has the right values. Our players are going to do the right thing, he holds them accountable and that’s one of the things I thought was critically important for us to build this program. And finally, he has recruited this area for 35 years. He knows every high school coach from middle to east Tennessee to north Georgia to North Carolina, Florida, Kentucky, and West Virginia. Carl’s great to work with, he’s a team guy. He’s been a perfect fit for us. We knew coming in, it would take someone with patience, someone who could see the big picture and not try to win right away at the long term expense of the program.
CAD: So you’ve got your coach and your program, next task is the stadium. With an opening date goal of 2017, how’s it going?
RS: It’s going well; we’re out there raising money. We have about $20-$22 million raised, we still want to raise $5-$6 million more. We’ve got enough to get the project started; we will break ground in the next month.
CAD: When the stadium does open in 2017, what type of stadium and atmosphere can the players and fans expect?
RS: It’s going to be a great facility; I’m really excited about it. We looked at a lot of different concepts and tried to find one that would fit in northeast Tennessee. We’re kind of in the mountains, so it’s really going to be beautiful. It’s going to sit down, kind of be in a bowl. The stadium will hold somewhere between 10,000-11,000 seats, 12 luxury boxes, and a lounge area for premium seating options. It will be very similar to UNC Charlotte. As you walk in you’ll be at the highest level and walk down to your seat.
CAD: You mentioned that you had $22 million already raised, is the stadium simply going to be funded through private donations? What are the financial plans to get the stadium built?
RS: About $8 million is coming from the students. The Student Government Association, when the passed football, they also passed a $25 per semester fee for the stadium.
CAD: With football back, ETSU was able to rejoin the Southern Conference, can you go into detail how that will help not only football but other sports as well?
RS: It’s the difference between daylight and darkness just because all of the schools are within driving distances. Then there are the rivalries, our fans know them and we will recruit areas we play in. It’s the footprint where we recruit. It’s not only helping us recruit student-athletes but students too. It was a huge, huge, benefit for us to get in the Southern Conference. It’s where we wanted to be.
Feature image via D. Fritz/The Johnson City Press
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