PATH TO PROMINENCE

[PantherU]

Link: New Strategic Plan Unveiled By Milwaukee Athletics

December 02, 2019

MILWAUKEE – Director of Athletics Amanda Braun unveiled today a new Strategic Plan for the Milwaukee Athletic Department.

The unveiling caps a yearlong process of renewing and enhancing the department's "Path to Prominence" Strategic Plan for the years 2019-2024.

"This is an exciting day and something we have been looking forward to," Braun said. "This new plan reaffirms our commitment to our student-athletes and builds off our core values as a department. With this plan in place, the potential of Milwaukee Athletics is limitless as we strive for success and excellence."

The plan has yielded seven strategic goals:

• Provide a holistic student-athlete experience to achieve success in the areas of academic, professional, and personal development.
• Create a positive, diverse and inclusive work environment that has open lines of communication and makes people feel valued throughout their entire tenure.
• Engage the campus and community while establishing University traditions that help foster passion and pride for UWM.
• Enhance the visibility and brand of Milwaukee Panther Athletics and improve the quality of facilities that serve Panther Athletics.
• Maintain a financial model that supports department growth by increasing revenue, stabilizing University support, and strategically managing expenditures.
• Provide teams and department support units with the resources that allow Milwaukee Panther Athletics to compete for championships in our league and to achieve sustained success nationally.
• Support through action the Milwaukee Athletics Diversity and Inclusion Statement.

"The plan allows our department to drive forward in an action-oriented, consistent manner that leads to a high level of excellence," Braun noted.

Goals and strategies were developed by seven workgroups – Student-Athlete Success, Employee Relations, Campus and Community Engagement, Facilities and Branding, Revenue Growth, Department Excellence, Diversity and Inclusion.

"A special thank you goes out to all of our department staff, coaches and members of senior administration for their time and efforts put into this project," Braun said.

The "Path to Prominence" is a comprehensive undertaking that is inclusive, broad-based, fluid, and action-oriented.

All of the involved proceedings were grounded in the continued commitment to the department's core values, mission statement, and vision statement throughout.

Core Values
Education
Excellence
Leadership
Integrity
Pride
Respect

Strategic Plan 2019-24
Student-Athlete Success
Employee Relations
Campus & Community Engagement
Facilities & Branding
Revenue Growth
Department Excellence
Diversity and Inclusion

[Cactus Panther]

• Engage the campus and community while establishing University traditions that help foster passion and pride for UWM.
• Enhance the visibility and brand of Milwaukee Panther Athletics and improve the quality of facilities that serve Panther Athletics.
  
• Maintain a financial model that supports department growth by increasing revenue, stabilizing University support, and strategically managing expenditures.
  

The best way to drive forward the above-referenced strategic goals is to prioritize men's basketball over all other sports. We have discussed this many times on other threads.

However, I am concerned that the following strategic goal conflicts and is considered more important by this bureaucratic, politically motivated and sports-apathetic institution:

• Support through action the Milwaukee Athletics Diversity and Inclusion Statement.

I hope by at least 2024 I can look back and admit my concern was not warranted.

[ghostofdylan]

Dec 3, 2019 18:45:22 GMT -6 PantherU said:

Link: New Strategic Plan Unveiled By Milwaukee Athletics

December 02, 2019

MILWAUKEE – Director of Athletics Amanda Braun unveiled today a new Strategic Plan for the Milwaukee Athletic Department.

The unveiling caps a yearlong process of renewing and enhancing the department's "Path to Prominence" Strategic Plan for the years 2019-2024.

"This is an exciting day and something we have been looking forward to," Braun said. "This new plan reaffirms our commitment to our student-athletes and builds off our core values as a department. With this plan in place, the potential of Milwaukee Athletics is limitless as we strive for success and excellence."

The plan has yielded seven strategic goals:

• Provide a holistic student-athlete experience to achieve success in the areas of academic, professional, and personal development.
• Create a positive, diverse and inclusive work environment that has open lines of communication and makes people feel valued throughout their entire tenure.
• Engage the campus and community while establishing University traditions that help foster passion and pride for UWM.
• Enhance the visibility and brand of Milwaukee Panther Athletics and improve the quality of facilities that serve Panther Athletics.
• Maintain a financial model that supports department growth by increasing revenue, stabilizing University support, and strategically managing expenditures.
• Provide teams and department support units with the resources that allow Milwaukee Panther Athletics to compete for championships in our league and to achieve sustained success nationally.
• Support through action the Milwaukee Athletics Diversity and Inclusion Statement.

"The plan allows our department to drive forward in an action-oriented, consistent manner that leads to a high level of excellence," Braun noted.

Goals and strategies were developed by seven workgroups – Student-Athlete Success, Employee Relations, Campus and Community Engagement, Facilities and Branding, Revenue Growth, Department Excellence, Diversity and Inclusion.

"A special thank you goes out to all of our department staff, coaches and members of senior administration for their time and efforts put into this project," Braun said.

The "Path to Prominence" is a comprehensive undertaking that is inclusive, broad-based, fluid, and action-oriented.

All of the involved proceedings were grounded in the continued commitment to the department's core values, mission statement, and vision statement throughout.

Core Values
Education
Excellence
Leadership
Integrity
Pride
Respect

Strategic Plan 2019-24
Student-Athlete Success
Employee Relations
Campus & Community Engagement
Facilities & Branding
Revenue Growth
Department Excellence
Diversity and Inclusion

These are the contents of the Penske File.

[steveisback]

Fitting that it continues with the predictable and trite alliteration of this peppy, preppy, pretty, perfunctory and predictable Penske Project aka Path to Prominence. Better to plan and look marvelous than to actually be marvelous.

[ghostofdylan]

Many of us here are fond of alliteration. Here's something more fitting: the Highway to Hell!

[steveisback]

Indeed.

[BBFran]

Task enough people to prepare a strategic plan and they will almost always create something as anodyne and predictable as this is. What goal listed here should not have been obvious 5 years ago?

Bluntly it seems like all of these obvious “soft” goals have been arrayed to camouflage the almost ludicrously modest goals for actual athletic success. I suspect Bud Haidet would look at those goals and be damn tempted to point out that under his administration we regularly exceeded them.

And unless I missed it, I saw no specific goals for men’s BB attendance, which is almost certainly the ultimate bell-weather for the sustainability of our entire athletics program. Probably because they know that under the current administration, stating a goal of even 1,000 actual paying fans a game would be an unattainable pipe dream!

To add to the alliterative observations, this is all so much piffle!

[PantherNation]

Dec 4, 2019 15:36:08 GMT -6 BBFran said:

And unless I missed it, I saw no specific goals for men’s BB attendance, which is almost certainly the ultimate bell-weather for the sustainability of our entire athletics program. Probably because they know that under the current administration, stating a goal of even 1,000 actual paying fans a game would be an unattainable pipe dream!

Revenue Growth
Goal: Maintain a financial model that supports department growth by increasing revenue, stabilizing University support, and strategically managing expenditures.
Committee Members: Cathy Rossi (chair), Shea Hansen, Chris Roche, Adam Schemm, Leah Thyne, Julius Martinez, Andy Basler

Metrics for Success:
Increase fundraised dollars and donors.
Increase annual fund restricted giving by 150% over five years
Increase annual fund unrestricted giving by 55% over five years.
Secure 12 new major gifts over five years.
Increase the total number of donors to 1,000 over five years.
Increase corporate sponsorship sales.
Increase cash sponsorship revenue annually.
Increase the number of cash sponsors by 50% over five years.
Increase ticket sales.
Increase men's basketball season ticket members by 95% over five years.
Increase average men's basketball per game group sales by 110% over five years.
Increase men's basketball partial plan sales by 50% over five years.
Increase average student attendance per game at men's basketball by 80% over five years.
Increase women's basketball season ticket members by 20% over five years.
Increase average women's basketball per game group sales by 25% over five years.
Increase women's basketball partial plan sales by 45% over five years.
Increase average student attendance per game at women's basketball by 25% over five years.
Increase Olympic sport total sales revenue by 50% over five years.
Explore and secure multiple new sources of revenue to support the department's operating budget.
Implement at least one new revenue generating initiative per year.
Enhance at least one current revenue stream per year.
Balance the department's budget annually.
Develop a department event plan to maximize revenue opportunities.

[BBFran]

So I was right -- I didn't miss it. Give us a number. 95% increase over current season ticket holders (dump the inane "member" nomenclature, btw) -- over FIVE years? That would take us to what? 500 season tickets? That's probably far too high, but since the CURRENT number of PAID season ticket sales is revealed nowhere, it's an utterly opaque standard. If you can't MEASURE results, goals have no meaning! Same for the other purposefully vague and elastic "percentage" goals for which no baseline is provided. Or are we simply supposed to believe it five years from now when the administration says "Yay, all goals met! Time for a raise!" This is the same administration that regularly (and we can only assume purposefully) hyperinflates the reported attendance at men's games, often by 100% - 300%!

Here's what a clearly stated attendance goal would look like: "Average per game PAID attendance by 2022: 2,500. By 2024: 3,500." You know why it's not stated that way? You bet your ass you do!

And while we're at it, why do you think that the actual athletic success goals don't ramp up to meaningful numbers until 2024? My opinion: because the people who would (at least in some universe or university other than UWM) be held to account for failing to reach those goals will have plenty of time to look for new jobs long before then -- when they realize it ain't happening under their watch.

[panther9193]

Dec 4, 2019 16:15:04 GMT -6 BBFran said:

So I was right -- I didn't miss it. Give us a number. 95% increase over current season ticket holders (dump the inane "member" nomenclature, btw) -- over FIVE years? That would take us to what? 500 season tickets? That's probably far too high, but since the CURRENT number of PAID season ticket sales is revealed nowhere, it's an utterly opaque standard. If you can't MEASURE results, goals have no meaning! Same for the other purposefully vague and elastic "percentage" goals for which no baseline is provided. Or are we simply supposed to believe it five years from now when the administration says "Yay, all goals met! Time for a raise!" This is the same administration that regularly (and we can only assume purposefully) hyperinflates the reported attendance at men's games, often by 100% - 300%!

Here's what a clearly stated attendance goal would look like: "Average per game PAID attendance by 2022: 2,500. By 2024: 3,500." You know why it's not stated that way? You bet your ass you do!

And while we're at it, why do you think that the actual athletic success goals don't ramp up to meaningful numbers until 2024? My opinion: because the people who would (at least in some universe or university other than UWM) be held to account for failing to reach those goals will have plenty of time to look for new jobs long before then -- when they realize it ain't happening under their watch.

It doesn't happen much, but I agree with Fran 100% on this! These goals are wishy-washy BS. Put hard numbers to these goals, not a percentage increase. Also, since Men's Basketball is the only realistic revenue generating sport, it needs to be the athletic department's main focus and needs to be held to a higher standard. Athletic department staff raises and ultimately their continued employment needs to hinge on meeting or exceeding goals with hard targets. This document is just a bunch of feel good crap to make it appear like something is being done.