As others have stated, it was verbally solicited from the HC employees. It was a bait and switch.

Give us 50k or 100k over 5 years, put it in an endowment that pays out on the interest every year for the life of the endowment and for me, please continue giving us $500 a year as a maintenance fee because they knew previously no additional money was not helping. They didn't go back to the original people who gave the $50k and ask them to start contributing $500 yearly.

If you look at the fund performance for a 50k endowment, it pays at least over 2.2k a year in interest. Realize the HC is still getting money every year from our gifts but they do not honor any portion of the gift they are getting every year now.

How it was explained to me, they know they will always receive the interest payment every year even if you decide not to be a Hokie Club member or you pass away. They were really selling this to the folks who were at platinum level saying, you can double up for 5 years and be a platinum or better level for life. It made perfect sense from an investment side if you were going to do Hokie Sports for more than 10 years or longer. If they want to refund my investment, I will be more than glad to drop to an annual level giver. At this point and I believe with a lot of others, we're done. Prior to the announcement in May, I had really considered probably over the next 10-15 years to contribute another $40k but now, don't think they will see another dime.

My opinion, this should upset every Hokie as the Hokie Club is not operating with integrity of honoring their original commitment to some of the most loyal fans.