I just want to see IU land a great portal class so there is something to look forward to. There needs to be some positive momentum soon.
@whatthefrik Man, that's one way to look at it, I guess. But I think its pretty... wrong... and at best is way too simplistic a view. The "return" doesn't have to be monetary. Access to the program, whatever emotions are gained from the team being better, a connection to a program that has meant a lot to them... all of these things are forms of returns. On the Investment side, you might be a little closer on this one. Charity is also applicable. But its pretty common for folks who give money to charitable causes, especially ones involving kids, to view that as "investing in their futures".
To think that people like Cuban, and the Kochs, and the Simons, etc... just blindly give money to the school and athletic department, just because they spent a few years there a long time ago, and they need a tax break charity... and have zero thoughts or expectations on how that money is used... Well... I doubt it.
The return should be measurable, and in the same unit as the investment. Otherwise, there is no purpose in the metric.
Conflating investors with donors is stupid. Investors are reasonable to expect a positive return. Donors have no return to measure, much less expect.
But when you act like they do, you concede that a donor, or a fan, is entitled to something in return for their money or attention. That's how you get people who think 20 games is enough to decide whether we are firing a coach. Entitlement. They think the program owes them something.
It's dumb. You shouldn't encourage it.
The return should be measurable, and in the same unit as the investment. Otherwise, there is no purpose in the metric.
Conflating investors with donors is stupid. Investors are reasonable to expect a positive return. Donors have no return to measure, much less expect.
Donors expect a return. Not sure how you think they don't. Donors have their own subjective measurement systems. The return may not be monetary, but they expect a return. The return can be emotional satisfaction, sense of pride, access, inside information, feelings of belonging/importance, bragging rights, etc... Whatever return they expect, if they don't feel they're getting it, they'll find another place to put the money.
That's been talked about at least since Adam Smith in the 1700s, and behavioral economics is its own field of study. It's all about how individuals and institutions make decisions influenced by their own psychological factors.
Thinking donors expect a return is not stupid at all. It's actually how the world works.
Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for. - Seamus Heaney, Irish poet and likely Hoosier basketball fan.
POTFB