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Texas AD Chris Del Conte

Machinator

By Machinator
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Mittens
Mittens

No CR:  

Penche Gringo
Penche Gringo

Here you go

JFKFC
JFKFC

Fortunate?!? There are 2 sports that matter: Football & Men's basketball. CDC's hires for both have been absolute abortions. 

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NeverMarryAStripper

NeverMarryAStripper 22,277

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47 minutes ago, Steamboat1874 said:

I went to games for over 50 years and never had a need for a "container" or fucking backpack.

Jesus people why in the fuck do you need any of that shit to go to a game?

Absurd. 

Besides a flask, the only thing I've ever brought is a blanket to one of the Thanksgiving night games because it was colder than shit and my daughter was still pretty little. 

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BurdineBandit

BurdineBandit 846

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It's a damn shame how many people tweet at CDC like he's the manager at a fucking department store. I want to make a joke about it being the white woman asking for a manager syndrome, but that dude bitching about the fighting frat boys is just as bad. Not every inconvenience has to be "horrible" "terrible" "unacceptable" "embarrassing" etc etc. Some of it is just shit that happens and you fucking deal with it and maybe let him know if you're a pussy about it, but they act like making it the most dramatic thing possible will get them store credit or a BOGO offer or some shit.

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Burt Macklin

Burt Macklin 19,230

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On 9/3/2019 at 7:40 PM, Pancho said:

 

 

On 9/4/2019 at 10:44 AM, Machinator said:

 

Paul and Larry are absolute bitches. There’s no shortage of student seating. Current UT students get to go to school at a time while the program is top 10 and very well may win a title before they graduate.  If they’re too fucking entitled to show up more than 5 minutes before kickoff, then they don’t deserve to be at the game anyways. Replace their candy-asses with people who will actually be loud and stay the whole game, students or not.

11 hours ago, Dewey said:

I dare any of these privileged honkies to tweet her backf4eecea076b310fabbb6eeda0b71faa8.jpg

Mutha Hustla is a treasure. I hope her son becomes a star for us.

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Eggo

Eggo 4,026

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5 hours ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:

Besides a flask, the only thing I've ever brought is a blanket to one of the Thanksgiving night games because it was colder than shit and my daughter was still pretty little. 

How old is your daughter now? 

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landman

landman 564

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3 hours ago, Burt Macklin said:

 

Paul and Larry are absolute bitches. There’s no shortage of student seating. Current UT students get to go to school at a time while the program is top 10 and very well may win a title before they graduate.  If they’re too fucking entitled to show up more than 5 minutes before kickoff, then they don’t deserve to be at the game anyways. Replace their candy-asses with people who will actually be loud and stay the whole game, students or not.

 

My son was one of several hundred that were turned away 30 minutes before kickoff last Saturday.  The student section was full well before kickoff.

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RollLeft

RollLeft 5,090

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1 minute ago, landman said:

My son was one of several hundred that were turned away 30 minutes before kickoff last Saturday.  The student section was full well before kickoff.

CDC hears you but then again there were the sons and daughters of thousands of others who got there earlier and got the better seats.    

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utee94

utee94 16,079

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12 hours ago, mdleast said:

Sounds like it was not communicated (to even the people working the game) that there was that other student section. Betting that won’t be an issue this game.

Yeah, from piecing together CDC's responses, apparently there was a whole "temporary student section" as a result of the SEZ construction, that many of the gate folks didn't know about.  That shouldn't be an issue tomorrow.

 

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Pato del Muerto

Pato del Muerto 53,453

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On 9/5/2019 at 2:15 PM, landman said:

My son was one of several hundred that were turned away 30 minutes before kickoff last Saturday.  The student section was full well before kickoff.

Do you think they should rope off half the stadium for student seating since there’s 50k students?

also, I saw photos. The first, preferred student section was full but the other one was empty before the game. 

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Chopper

Chopper 17,430

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In the middle of a surprisingly excellent article about McConaughey in The Atheletic there's  an enjoyable story about CDC.

Spoiler

Chris Del Conte grabs the two spiral-bound books of plans and plops them on the desk. The Longhorns athletic director came to town from TCU in December 2017, after predecessor Steve Patterson had left scorched earth everywhere. Patterson so ostracized himself from fans and alums he got himself canned in 22 months, and although interim AD Mike Perrin did an admirable job, Texas isn’t a place that gets by on admirable. The university, much like the state, prides itself on being the best. “You know Texas has its own independence, right?” Del Conte says with a grin. “The United States is just lucky to have us.’’ Del Conte, a career athletics administrator who still pairs the cowboy boots born of his New Mexico youth with the crisp khakis of his current station, inherited a department wounded by Patterson, a football team that had failed to reach its usual high bar of success and a floundering basketball team. 

He answered the call by fundraising endlessly and pouring money back into the department. He has already constructed a $17 million Hall of Fame, initiated a $175 million renovation of the south end zone in the football stadium and started the wheels turning on a $338 million basketball arena.

It is in the last endeavor that Del Conte first met McConaughey. The university was fielding bids for the construction of the new arena when McConaughey walked in as part of a pitch headed by the Oak View Group, in conjunction with Live Nation and C3 Presents. McConaughey was there because he wanted to be there. He knew the folks at Live Nation, cares about Texas and wanted to be part of the discussion. Del Conte, whose knowledge of McConaughey began and ended with “Dazed and Confused,” listened to the group’s idea — a unique partnership that would allow UT to own the land but not use university or public money to build the arena. At the end of their presentation, Del Conte looked at McConaughey and asked, “What exactly are you doing here?” 

With this recollection, Del Conte busts out laughing. “He says, ‘I’m the Minister of Culture.’ And then he goes, ‘baby.’ I said, ‘OK, check. Y’all got the bid.’” Del Conte figured that would be the end of McConaughey’s involvement, that he was merely the eye candy for the presentation. Instead, as the planning stages began, there sat McConaughey, a scratchpad full of ideas at his fingertips, interjecting his thoughts during meetings that sometimes lasted upwards of eight hours. Del Conte realized this was no ordinary famous fan, the AD’s phone pinged with voicemails or texts when McConaughey has another epiphany he is eager to share. From behind his desk, Del Conte grabs his phone and plays one such message. “Hey CDC,” McConaughey says in his famed, lazy Texas drawl, “it’s the M.O.C., baby. I got an update on the 40. Holler.’’ Asked to translate the message, Del Conte giggles, “I have no idea. It’s the M.O.C., baby.’’

One night, Del Conte clicked on Jimmy Kimmel to hear McConaughey talk not just about his role as the M.O.C. but also about the new arena, describing it as “the last place a visiting team wants to play and the first place a world-class band wants to play.”

“There are two types of animals involved in breakfast — the chicken and the pig,’’ Del Conte says. “The chicken is involved. The pig is committed. My man, he’s the pig. He’s committed.’’

Del Conte starts flipping through the pages of arena plans. He stops when he gets to the suite drawings. There are several traditional-looking spaces, the walled-off enclaves for the high rollers who like to enjoy a game with a cocktail and without the riff-raff. But there are a collection of suites with no walls — “kind of like cabanas,’’ Del Conte says — and in front of each, written in the perfect print of an architect is the word PORCH. This, Del Conte says, is all McConaughey’s idea. Determined to keep the unique vibe and communal feeling that Austin is noted for, he wanted suites that were more happy hour than stuffy cocktail bar. It’s a space where people can roam freely and talk, where the bar is at the front and near the action, instead of tucked in the rear for privacy, and where a person can sit in seats that overhang the arena, giving spectators a feeling that they are on the front porch with a basketball game unfolding out front.

“Austin is a city of lakes, so a porch or a deck, it makes sense,’’ McConaughey says. “I want it to be, you’re looking up at the guy in the row above you. ‘Hey, what’s up?’ Not like you’re in some place by yourself.’’

The Porch, however, is merely one piece of McConaughey’s vision. Pressed to explain in more detail, he goes off in 20 directions in rapid succession. He discusses the pitch of the place, how important it is to make the arena feel intimate and without a bad seat. He talks admirably about AT&T Stadium, the Dallas Cowboys’ palace, not so much about its grandiosity but its messaging. “You’re a mile from the stadium, and it’s already clear,’’ he says. “The information coming at you, you know where you’re going and what’s important here. What does it say? We’re going to be world champions.’’ That’s what he wants for the Longhorns. He wants to cut down on the relentless neon advertising and branding that make kaleidoscopic visual assaults, so that on game days just two primary colors dominate this house — burnt orange and white. He wants an in-house DJ to work in conjunction with the pep band, so the sounds co-mingle in an inherently Texas way. He wants a rowdy student section. Call it, he says, The Corral, and surround it with gates meant to replicate those that contain a real-life Longhorn. No seats, he insists. Make it standing room only. “That,’’ he says, his eyes bulging and his voice deepening, “should be a dangerous area.’’

 

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