fundraising efforts for the new Convo Center. It appears that the Duke Club is making great strides in its fundraising efforts. However, JMU may not be able to meet the June 30 deadline to start the next phase. It may have less to do with the effort and more to do with setting realistic goals.

FWIW I found a Daily Press news article from November 18, 2015 that talked about Arthur Moats (with the Steelers at the time) and his wife donating $300,000 to the New Convo Center Project. It is kinda remarkable that a former football player would donate to the project when football players may not get as much use out of the new facility as the other athletes.

http://www.dailypress.com/sports/dp-spt-multi-20151118-story.html

I found this WHSV TV3 article that supports the June 30 deadline from The Breeze article (link) is self-imposed.

http://www.whsv.com/news/headlines/JMU-Reveals-Plans-for-New-Convocation-Center-301465541.html

I found other articles that state Jeff Bourne believes when JMU hires the new men's bball HC, then it will breathe new life into the fundraising efforts. So JMU may or may not be as far off from its $12 million dollar goal as you think.

FWIW Matt Brady went 138-125 (20-9 this past season) during his 8 seasons at JMU. It appears that the drop in attendance and not his overall record was the primary motivation for his termination. I don't think living in Crozet (other side of the mountain towards C-ville) helped Brady's cause either. Given the Duke Club's ability to raise money even though attendance for men's basketball has been slowly declining the past couple season, I can see why Bourne isn't too worried about achieving its $12 million dollar goal.

[Post edited by VTHokie2000 at 03/24/2016 01:48AM]