"Barta has been good for Iowa athletics" Article in Gazette

Bump Elliott said it best when he hired Hayden Fry: "My first two football hires didn't work out (FXL and Commings) so I think this hire (Hayden) will be my last hire of a football coach at Iowa". What he was saying, obviously, is that if Hayden didn't work out, Bump would be fired. To me, the verdict is still out on Barta. Remember, he INHERITED Ferentz. If Ferentz has a poor year this year, Barta will face a big decision....keep Kirk? Fire Kirk? Buy Kirk out? This season is the most important one in Barta's career, as well as Kirk's career, IMHO
 
What a freaking embarrassment! He pisses a good portion of the fan base off with his sky rocketing ticket prices, ridiculous 10 year contract, booze for the big$ boosters in Kinnick, while simultaneously ruining the tailgating outside of Kinnick.......under the argument that people can't handle what? Their booze!
He's the worst AD in the conference and it's not even remotely close. Now he wants everyone to forget what he's done to an outstanding, money making tradition?
PACK YOUR CRAP AND GTFO OF IOWA!!!!!

Well, to be fair you could get booze in all of the luxury boxes since they were built. (I have heard.... I have a friend who's been to one regularly)

Also, it wasn't Barta who shut down tailgating. It was Sally Mason. Barta had to enforce it but it wasn't his policy.
 
What I struggle most with re: Iowa football is that the gap has widened between us and several schools ... Imagine what MSU and Ohio State would do to us? Imagine what Michigan will do to us. We are fortunate to be in the West division. We "should" get 8 wins with this schedule ... Losing to a horrible ISU team and getting blown out by Minnesota 52-14 should have every fan concerned.
 
Bump Elliott said it best when he hired Hayden Fry: "My first two football hires didn't work out (FXL and Commings) so I think this hire (Hayden) will be my last hire of a football coach at Iowa". What he was saying, obviously, is that if Hayden didn't work out, Bump would be fired. To me, the verdict is still out on Barta. Remember, he INHERITED Ferentz. If Ferentz has a poor year this year, Barta will face a big decision....keep Kirk? Fire Kirk? Buy Kirk out? This season is the most important one in Barta's career, as well as Kirk's career, IMHO

what's your take on the highlighted phrase CC? I don't follow.

Do you mean he gets no credit since he didn't hire KFz? or that he shouldn't take the blame now....as he didn't hire KFz. Both of those would be fair.

BUT...he did put together the ridiculously one-sided contract that has us in our current predicament. (KFz has all the leverage)

Knight78 wrote"- Also, it wasn't Barta who shut down tailgating. It was Sally Mason. Barta had to enforce it but it wasn't his policy."

Not sure how you know that. I'll point the first finger at Mason, but any AD with ballz would stand up and say "this will hurt game days, we'll lose revenue and alienate fans. I think we're going too far."

He was certainly in the room when the policies were being discussed. It's entirely possible he did speak up and was overruled. Maybe he even went back and said "I told you so" this Spring and got things loosened up again. But in light of his other decisions...that's tough to imagine.
 
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Couple of things on this:

1. Anyone who listens to the "On Iowa" podcasts from Dochterman and Moorehouse know that Dochterman is anything but a KF/Barta apologist.
2. While the title may suck (which I don't think the writer actually comes up with), I thought it was pretty fair. Fundraising in a recession and then on top of the floods in eastern Iowa was no easy task. Getting the facilities built that Bowlsbey seriously neglected was good as well. The 10 year contract sucked, though. The crackdown on the tailgaiting was BS. And the marketing blunders (of which I hold Klatt more responsible than Barta, but he does report to Barta nonetheless) have been hideous.
 
Couple of things on this:

1. Anyone who listens to the "On Iowa" podcasts from Dochterman and Moorehouse know that Dochterman is anything but a KF/Barta apologist.
2. While the title may suck (which I don't think the writer actually comes up with), I thought it was pretty fair. Fundraising in a recession and then on top of the floods in eastern Iowa was no easy task. Getting the facilities built that Bowlsbey seriously neglected was good as well. The 10 year contract sucked, though. The crackdown on the tailgaiting was BS. And the marketing blunders (of which I hold Klatt more responsible than Barta, but he does report to Barta nonetheless) have been hideous.



That's fair, Spider. But again...everything else in the post is trumped by the last couple of sentences.
 
Overall, Barta really hasn't been too bad as an AD. He has done a lot of good things, but they are totally overshadowed by the KF contract and, in my opinion, the recent ****** football schedules (although I'm sure that is more of a KF thing).

I can even understand not firing KF yet due to the money involved in the new football complex, etc. We'll see what happens this year.
 
I'm going to give warning...please ban me because in about ten minutes I'm going to post my thoughts on barta and his public relations group in another post...and there will be profanity...lots of it. It is the Only way to accurately say it. So ban me because you have been warned hawkeyenation.com...
 
Ok...here goes..I guess nobody took the warning seriously or saw it.

Gary Barta is a fu cking dip sh it. He might be great for fundraising but he and his fuc king stupid as s morons that run the public relations dept need to get the fu ck out.
-These are the same fuc king co cksuckers that have rolled out the reseating at the worst fuc king god d amn time.
-That fuc king dic khead offered me a $70 food voucher to renew this season. That would buy me 14 of his god da mn fuc king overpriced mother fuc king ice cream sandwiches in the sh itty kids area outside of kinnick. That’s right. If I renew my season tickets I could get 1!!!! Fuc king box of fu cking ice cream sandwiches. Thanks fu cker! I feel valued!
-This stupid a s s had to sign off on some other morons idea to put fuc king red pom poms out when we were playing FU CKING WISCONSIN!!!!!!
-This Shi thead watered down the gameday environment.
-This stupid worthless piece of gad da mn monkey fuc king sh it had to be walking into fu cking Carver Hawkeye arena every fuc king game looking at the faded fuc king big screens and either didn’t give a sh it that it looked like that or was too fu cking stupid to realize that a division one AD with a fu cking squirrel brain would fix it to make it look like a division one facility
-This is also the individual who had to sign off on the ridiculously stupid and insanely fu cking laugable “Let’s Get Mad Again†slogan which even schools with the S Hitiest PR departments are still laughing at.
-This is also the monkey fuc ker that was too much of a shi thead to do anything other than throw together the Roy Marble halftime thing which looked like a bunch of 1st grade students high on acid put it together in 10 minutes.
-And finally this is the stupid fuc ker that had to have signed off on the stupid survey questions which are ridiculous as well as the “Ticket Lottery†which was not checked on ahead of time.

So in conclusion…he might have done some good for the university but this fuc ker and his pr department cant stay the F uck out of their own god d amn way. Get the Fu Ck out of our fu cking state!!!!!! The title of this article should read “Moron Barta Fu cks up Iowa athletic department!â€
Go ahead and ban me!
 
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what's your take on the highlighted phrase CC? I don't follow.

Do you mean he gets no credit since he didn't hire KFz? or that he shouldn't take the blame now....as he didn't hire KFz. Both of those would be fair.

BUT...he did put together the ridiculously one-sided contract that has us in our current predicament. (KFz has all the leverage)

Knight78 wrote"- Also, it wasn't Barta who shut down tailgating. It was Sally Mason. Barta had to enforce it but it wasn't his policy."

Not sure how you know that. I'll point the first finger at Mason, but any AD with ballz would stand up and say "this will hurt game days, we'll lose revenue and alienate fans. I think we're going too far."

He was certainly in the room when the policies were being discussed. It's entirely possible he did speak up and was overruled. Maybe he even went back and said "I told you so" this Spring and got things loosened up again. But in light of his other decisions...that's tough to imagine.

My point is (and it is hard for Iowa fans to remember) that Ferentz had a fabulous season in 2009 (Orange Bowl) and a very good season in 2013 (ending in the Outback Bowl against LSU). 2014 was an incredibly disappointing year, but certainly the first year in the Ferentz era that an AD would start to question whether Ferentz should stay (and frankly it was the first season where it showed up in season ticket renewals the following spring). I'm not going to worry about the Ferentz contract - there is so much money going to Iowa right now from the Big Ten Network that nobody at the U of I is going to care about the buyout amount if it comes to that. I'm convinced that Barta MUST ACT after this season if Ferentz goes 7-5 or worse. 8-4 and a good bowl game will save his job. 8-4 at Iowa is good enough for any coach, and anyone who disagrees with that on this board is living in a fantasy world.
 
Ok...here goes..I guess nobody took the warning seriously or saw it.

Gary Barta is a fu cking dip sh it. He might be great for fundraising but he and his fuc king stupid as s morons that run the public relations dept need to get the fu ck out.
-These are the same fuc king co cksuckers that have rolled out the reseating at the worst fuc king god d amn time.
-That fuc king dic khead offered me a $70 food voucher to renew this season. That would buy me 14 of his god da mn fuc king overpriced mother fuc king ice cream sandwiches in the sh itty kids area outside of kinnick. That’s right. If I renew my season tickets I could get 1!!!! Fuc king box of fu cking ice cream sandwiches. Thanks fu cker! I feel valued!
-This stupid a s s had to sign off on some other morons idea to put fuc king red pom poms out when we were playing FU CKING WISCONSIN!!!!!!
-This Shi thead watered down the gameday environment.
-This stupid worthless piece of gad da mn monkey fuc king sh it had to be walking into fu cking Carver Hawkeye arena every fuc king game looking at the faded fuc king big screens and either didn’t give a sh it that it looked like that or was too fu cking stupid to realize that a division one AD with a fu cking squirrel brain would fix it to make it look like a division one facility
-This is also the individual who had to sign off on the ridiculously stupid and insanely fu cking laugable “Let’s Get Mad Again†slogan which even schools with the S Hitiest PR departments are still laughing at.
-This is also the monkey fuc ker that was too much of a shi thead to do anything other than throw together the Roy Marble halftime thing which looked like a bunch of 1st grade students high on acid put it together in 10 minutes.
-And finally this is the stupid fuc ker that had to have signed off on the stupid survey questions which are ridicuOk...here goes..I guess nobody took the warning seriously or saw it.

Gary Barta is a fu cking dip sh it. He might be great for fundraising but he and his fuc king stupid as s morons that run the public relations dept need to get the fu ck out.
-These are the same fuc king co cksuckers that have rolled out the reseating at the worst fuc king god d amn time.
-That fuc king dic khead offered me a $70 food voucher to renew this season. That would buy me 14 of his god da mn fuc king overpriced mother fuc king ice cream sandwiches in the sh itty kids area outside of kinnick. That’s right. If I renew my season tickets I could get 1!!!! Fuc king box of fu cking ice cream sandwiches. Thanks fu cker! I feel valued!
-This stupid a s s had to sign off on some other morons idea to put fuc king red pom poms out when we were playing FU CKING WISCONSIN!!!!!!
-This Shi thead watered down the gameday environment.
-This stupid worthless piece of gad da mn monkey fuc king sh it had to be walking into fu cking Carver Hawkeye arena every fuc king game looking at the faded fuc king big screens and either didn’t give a sh it that it looked like that or was too fu cking stupid to realize that a division one AD with a fu cking squirrel brain would fix it to make it look like a division one facility
-This is also the individual who had to sign off on the ridiculously stupid and insanely fu cking laugable “Let’s Get Mad Again†slogan which even schools with the S Hitiest PR departments are still laughing at.
-This is also the monkey fuc ker that was too much of a shi thead to do anything other than throw together the Roy Marble halftime thing which looked like a bunch of 1st grade students high on acid put it together in 10 minutes.
-And finally this is the stupid fuc ker that had to have signed off on the stupid survey questions which are ridiculous as well as the “Ticket Lottery†which was not checked on ahead of time.

So in conclusion…he might have done some good for the university but thislous as well as the “Ticket Lottery†which was not checked on ahead of time.

So in conclusion…he might have done some good for the university but this fuc ker and his pr department cant stay the F uck out of their own god d amn way. Get the Fu Ck out of our fu cking state!!!!!! The title of this article should read “Moron Barta Fu cks up Iowa athletic department!â€
Go ahead and ban me!
This would be a fun letter to the editor.
 
what's your take on the highlighted phrase CC? I don't follow.

Do you mean he gets no credit since he didn't hire KFz? or that he shouldn't take the blame now....as he didn't hire KFz. Both of those would be fair.

BUT...he did put together the ridiculously one-sided contract that has us in our current predicament. (KFz has all the leverage)

Knight78 wrote"- Also, it wasn't Barta who shut down tailgating. It was Sally Mason. Barta had to enforce it but it wasn't his policy."

Not sure how you know that. I'll point the first finger at Mason, but any AD with ballz would stand up and say "this will hurt game days, we'll lose revenue and alienate fans. I think we're going too far."

He was certainly in the room when the policies were being discussed. It's entirely possible he did speak up and was overruled. Maybe he even went back and said "I told you so" this Spring and got things loosened up again. But in light of his other decisions...that's tough to imagine.

One more point: I do understand the frustration over the long-term Ferentz contract, but I really believe that anyone questioning it is guilty of a little "Monday Morning Quarterbacking". Remember, at the time, Iowa was coming off of one of their best seasons in school history, a season in which they won a major BCS bowl game (the Orange Bowl), won 9 straight games for the first time in school history and were actually in the national championship conversation. Ferentz had all the leverage; Barta did not. If Barta had not signed Ferentz on to an extension, it might have had very negative consequences for Barta at the time. Would Barta be criticized now if Ferentz had continued to win 8 or 9 games each season? I don't think so. Hindsight is 20/20. I think many reasonable ADs would have offered Ferentz the long term deal after the Orange Bowl win. I can't indict Barta for that one.
 
One more point: I do understand the frustration over the long-term Ferentz contract, but I really believe that anyone questioning it is guilty of a little "Monday Morning Quarterbacking". Remember, at the time, Iowa was coming off of one of their best seasons in school history, a season in which they won a major BCS bowl game (the Orange Bowl), won 9 straight games for the first time in school history and were actually in the national championship conversation. Ferentz had all the leverage; Barta did not. If Barta had not signed Ferentz on to an extension, it might have had very negative consequences for Barta at the time. Would Barta be criticized now if Ferentz had continued to win 8 or 9 games each season? I don't think so. Hindsight is 20/20. I think many reasonable ADs would have offered Ferentz the long term deal after the Orange Bowl win. I can't indict Barta for that one.

ehhhhhh....... With that type of buyout clause? I dunno about that, man. I would think a reasonable AD would put in buyout langauge to protect himself and university from the very thing that is happening now.
 
One more point: I do understand the frustration over the long-term Ferentz contract, but I really believe that anyone questioning it is guilty of a little "Monday Morning Quarterbacking". Remember, at the time, Iowa was coming off of one of their best seasons in school history, a season in which they won a major BCS bowl game (the Orange Bowl), won 9 straight games for the first time in school history and were actually in the national championship conversation. Ferentz had all the leverage; Barta did not. If Barta had not signed Ferentz on to an extension, it might have had very negative consequences for Barta at the time. Would Barta be criticized now if Ferentz had continued to win 8 or 9 games each season? I don't think so. Hindsight is 20/20. I think many reasonable ADs would have offered Ferentz the long term deal after the Orange Bowl win. I can't indict Barta for that one.

The contract extension is fine and probably deserved. That much money is suspect but it is what it is. The main issue is there is no clause that protects the university from Capt Kirk sinking the ship in the meantime! He can do what he pleases when he pleases and nobody is going to say a damn thing about it. That contract is ludacrious from that perspective.
 
rick - Very creative slight of hand with the letter spacing....I was smiling during the whole read in anticipation of the next bullet point. Well done young man.
 
Wrong CC. Almost nobody would disagree with a contract extension at the time for Kfz. It made sense.

But anybody who is even marginally savvy in business or poker or lemonade stand sales knows you don't do a ONE SIDED CONTRACT. A BCS level athletic director should sure as hell know it...otherwise he's an idiot. . Nothing short of burning Kinnick down (literally burning it down, he's already on the way to doing in metaphorically) would be cause for dismissal in KFz's contract.

What you've been watching for the last 5 years is exactly why you build a BUY OUT CLAUSE into a guy's contract. Otherwise he has you by the short hairs, and you have no choice but to take it.

Thank you Gary Barta.
 
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I did not like the way Bob Bowlsby handled the Tom Davis affair, but he was a D1 AD for sure, as evidenced by his career following Iowa.

I have met both men, and Gary Barta is definitely a couple steps down from Bowslby. Very nice guy, but when it comes to representing Iowa in contracts and at the B1G, he asks for little and gets table scraps. He is on the same ground as KF when it comes to 'we are just little old Iowa'.

Many of his coaching hires have been...well, you know. I suspect his hiring and firing practices are about the same when it comes to his whole staff.
 
Well, to be fair you could get booze in all of the luxury boxes since they were built. (I have heard.... I have a friend who's been to one regularly)

Also, it wasn't Barta who shut down tailgating. It was Sally Mason. Barta had to enforce it but it wasn't his policy.

I've often heard that rumored but I have never seen it in print media or a link that lays the blame at Sally Mason's feet. I'm not doubting you but do you have a link or a source? I'd like to see it myself.
P.S. It still doesn't save Barta, in my eyes. He flat out lied to me in an email after the 2010 season opener. Unless Sally Mason was answering Barta's emails, it bothers me.
 

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