31 January 2012

The UC Brumbies

| johnboy
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brumbies new jersey

The Canberra Times brings word that the University of Canberra will be the front of jersey sponsor for the Brumbies this year.

Both sides are talking some serious hogwash. This from Vice-Chancellor Parker:

Professor Parker said while the sponsorship would boost the university’s profile as a ”sporting university”, the partnership could lead to the two groups sharing a home.

”We see ourselves as a major Canberra institution, so are the Brumbies, and this kind of alliance is good for the city,” Professor Parker said.

”Longer term, I’m attracted by the North American model, where the university and the sports team are close together, where students are fans wanting to got to the games and graduates want to be closer to the team.

Only the college teams are not the top tier of competition and they compete against other colleges.

There are hints from the Brumbies that there’s not a lot of cash on the barrelhead:

”This will be more than just a traditional sponsorship.

”It enables us to partner with a prominent and respected Canberra institution, to proudly promote the city of Canberra on the front of the jersey and to engage directly with tens of thousands of students, staff and alumni, who we hope will be a feature at Brumbies matches.”

We find that in business when people talk about “partnerships” they mean “we don’t intend to pay you very much”. Having said that the article speculates there’s $1 milllion involved. Although how much of that is real money and how much is in kind we’ll have to wait for UC’s annual report to see.

[Photo Courtesy of the UC Twitter feed]

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When I heard about this deal on the news, I assumed the Brumbies were giving money to UC and not v.v. – what a topsy turvy world we live in.

Is it approprate for a largely government-funded university to be sponsoring a rugby team? I think not. They were given the money to provide education, not to… Well, what IS it intended to do? If it’s advertising/promotion, then this needs to be made much much clearer, and maybe, just maybe, is acceptable use of university funds if it can be shown that there will be a positve return on the investment.

What next, the CIT Raiders? The Narrabundah College Capitals? The Curtin Pre-school Canberra City FC?

IP

pink little birdie said :

I-filed said :

UC Brumbies? Weird and ill-thought-out sponsorship. Absolutely agree with the posters saying that the name will give people the impression that they’re a team of uni jocks. Absolutely agree that UC is the opposite of a sporting uni. They are the absolute opposite of the homes of rugby – regional unis and sandstone unis. Note: rugby thrives at UNIs. Not jumped-up colleges of advanced education. The culture at UC is mostly overseas students who are either having to work long hours in restaurants to pay for their tuition, or are spoilt offspring of wealthy SE Asian families. And there’s very little cross-cultural engagement. There is simply no sporting culture at UC – or at least, not enough to pretend with a branding exercise that UC has anything like a United States college sport culture. UC’s branding history has always been disjointed an usually plain bad. All in all an absolute shocker of a decision.

What UC has a number of sports related degrees – pe teaching, coaching science, sports science, physiotherapy to name a few. And like most unis no their sporting teams don’t play in the top grades as their teams are usually made up of students from that uni who also nominally play for social reasons, However UC does have teams in the Top grade comps of the hockey, netball and basketball at least.. Usually if you’re good enough for a top grade in the AFL, Rugby Union or Rugby League you play for one of the local clubs that pays their senior players and have a club before even coming to Canberra.
My sports degree at UC had a Raider and a Matilda in my class and I’m sure the others had a few other elite sports people in their degrees.

Its just Uni snobbery. There are plenty of people who feel the ANU is the only uni in town and anything that used to be a CAE/TAFE can never ever teach to university standard.

The fact I did my engineering degree there and the fact Engineers Australia certified the degree as worthy of being an engineering degree would be irrelevant in some peoples eyes. Fortunately its a minority of people. I could have gone to the ANU, but their degree wasn’t exactly what i wanted to do.

pink little birdie12:30 am 01 Feb 12

I-filed said :

UC Brumbies? Weird and ill-thought-out sponsorship. Absolutely agree with the posters saying that the name will give people the impression that they’re a team of uni jocks. Absolutely agree that UC is the opposite of a sporting uni. They are the absolute opposite of the homes of rugby – regional unis and sandstone unis. Note: rugby thrives at UNIs. Not jumped-up colleges of advanced education. The culture at UC is mostly overseas students who are either having to work long hours in restaurants to pay for their tuition, or are spoilt offspring of wealthy SE Asian families. And there’s very little cross-cultural engagement. There is simply no sporting culture at UC – or at least, not enough to pretend with a branding exercise that UC has anything like a United States college sport culture. UC’s branding history has always been disjointed an usually plain bad. All in all an absolute shocker of a decision.

What UC has a number of sports related degrees – pe teaching, coaching science, sports science, physiotherapy to name a few. And like most unis no their sporting teams don’t play in the top grades as their teams are usually made up of students from that uni who also nominally play for social reasons, However UC does have teams in the Top grade comps of the hockey, netball and basketball at least.. Usually if you’re good enough for a top grade in the AFL, Rugby Union or Rugby League you play for one of the local clubs that pays their senior players and have a club before even coming to Canberra.
My sports degree at UC had a Raider and a Matilda in my class and I’m sure the others had a few other elite sports people in their degrees.

While UC is sponsoring the Brumbies, it is trying to close the Japanese Language Program at the end of this year. Stephen Parker should be using their money elsewhere! Like to keep amazing programs going and lecturers’ jobs! I’ve noticed that UC is so obsessed with their image. Why? I understand a couple of refurbs here and there, but I don’t think a massive overhaul is that necessary. It’s not going to change the quality of the units and courses. Most of the units are pretty crap, anyways. So why try and throw out one of the best things about the uni?

Mwa ha ha and the University of Canberra logo looks like a soccer ball! : 0

UC Brumbies? Weird and ill-thought-out sponsorship. Absolutely agree with the posters saying that the name will give people the impression that they’re a team of uni jocks. Absolutely agree that UC is the opposite of a sporting uni. They are the absolute opposite of the homes of rugby – regional unis and sandstone unis. Note: rugby thrives at UNIs. Not jumped-up colleges of advanced education. The culture at UC is mostly overseas students who are either having to work long hours in restaurants to pay for their tuition, or are spoilt offspring of wealthy SE Asian families. And there’s very little cross-cultural engagement. There is simply no sporting culture at UC – or at least, not enough to pretend with a branding exercise that UC has anything like a United States college sport culture. UC’s branding history has always been disjointed an usually plain bad. All in all an absolute shocker of a decision.

VYBerlinaV8_is_back5:09 pm 31 Jan 12

(And yes, pedants, the spelling was deliberate)

VYBerlinaV8_is_back5:08 pm 31 Jan 12

Let’s just call them ‘The Bumbies’.

Maybe Fagan is hoping for an honorary doctorate in how to bone coaches!

djk said :

How about they say “University of Canberra Canberra Brumbies” then??

Shouldn’t it be “The University of Canberra ACT and Southern NSW Brumbies”?

I don’t think they’ve ever been the Canberra Brumbies. They were the ACT Brumbies.

djk said :

How about they say “University of Canberra Canberra Brumbies” then??

How about just “Brumbies”?

I disliked the “CA Brumbies” too. This one just irks me a little more.

Most people seemed to be complaining on radio about use of University funding more so than the name.
But in reality Unis are run like a business to some degree and need to attract students. UC does have several sports related degrees so to have a professional sporting team associated with the university I’m sure has many mutual benefits.

I think the idea of the US model has some merit in the fact young footballers could get an education and play football until their early 20’s before playing professionally., but really it won’t happen like that. But linking the sponsorship of a professional club to the model US college system uses seems a bit far stretched and yes the UC guy was the one ewho raised it on the radio this morning!

I wonder what the Canberra University Netball TeamS think of this?

…and they clearly had that printed on the front of their shirts Uni Games mid 90s

Eppo said :

Keijidosha said :

Rollersk8r said :

Eppo said :

I really hope they’re not announced as ‘The University of Canberra Brumbies’. Would make it sound like the team represents the uni, not the ACT.

My first thought too. I can hear the ground announcer “Ladies and Gentlemen, your Uni of Canberra BRUMBIES…. no, not uni students, not picked from the uni, just the normal Brumbies, sponsored by the Uni this year, ok!?”

Oddly enough there wasn’t any confusion about the Canberra Milk Raiders back in the day – well at least I don’t recall anyone fearing for the safety of their dairy products.

Difference being dairy companies very rarely field rugby teams, but universities do it fairly often… (eg. University of Sydney in the Sydney 1st grade comp)

How about they say “University of Canberra Canberra Brumbies” then??

Keijidosha said :

Rollersk8r said :

Eppo said :

I really hope they’re not announced as ‘The University of Canberra Brumbies’. Would make it sound like the team represents the uni, not the ACT.

My first thought too. I can hear the ground announcer “Ladies and Gentlemen, your Uni of Canberra BRUMBIES…. no, not uni students, not picked from the uni, just the normal Brumbies, sponsored by the Uni this year, ok!?”

Oddly enough there wasn’t any confusion about the Canberra Milk Raiders back in the day – well at least I don’t recall anyone fearing for the safety of their dairy products.

Difference being dairy companies very rarely field rugby teams, but universities do it fairly often… (eg. University of Sydney in the Sydney 1st grade comp)

Rollersk8r said :

Eppo said :

I really hope they’re not announced as ‘The University of Canberra Brumbies’. Would make it sound like the team represents the uni, not the ACT.

My first thought too. I can hear the ground announcer “Ladies and Gentlemen, your Uni of Canberra BRUMBIES…. no, not uni students, not picked from the uni, just the normal Brumbies, sponsored by the Uni this year, ok!?”

Oddly enough there wasn’t any confusion about the Canberra Milk Raiders back in the day – well at least I don’t recall anyone fearing for the safety of their dairy products.

This deal could have been predicted! The Brumbies can now move out of their HQ and let it become an eyesore so that people will want it demolished. Those Griffith NIMBY objectors have wrought havoc on the cash flow.
It would not have been a good look for the Brumbies requesting a new concessional lease after making around $4.1 million on the Griffith site. The UC facilities could be used this year until the new ACT Govt grants them a new concessional lease in 2013. Brumby star players will promote the UC to international students in the rugby world.
Jake will keep the players focused on their performance on the field and not be distracted by organisational business.

diced_mango said :

Johnboy, US College football teams may not be the “top tier” but they still manage to attract an enviable crowd. The University of Michigan’s Wolverines attract a home crowd in excess of 110,000 week in, week out.

It’s also made up of University of Michigan students. The level of interest in college football in the US is truly phenomenal, but I don’t think that slapping a uni’s name on a professional team’s jumper is likely to have the same result.

UC would be better of trying the emulate the academic achievements of some of the US colleges than their sporting ones.

Eppo said :

I really hope they’re not announced as ‘The University of Canberra Brumbies’. Would make it sound like the team represents the uni, not the ACT.

Second to that, you won’t catch me paying for a jersey with ‘UC’ on the front! 🙂

My first thought too. I can hear the ground announcer “Ladies and Gentlemen, your Uni of Canberra BRUMBIES…. no, not uni students, not picked from the uni, just the normal Brumbies, sponsored by the Uni this year, ok!?”

VYBerlinaV8_is_back11:32 am 31 Jan 12

Eppo said :

VYBerlinaV8_is_back said :

ex-ANU, I’m guessing…

Not even the correct state/territory…

But it’s good to see the large chips on people’s shoulders. A tongue in cheek remark getting so many bites!

I think many of us are just tired of ex and current ANUS’ getting on their hobby horse…

This looks very suspicious. I am sure I heard someone from the Brumbies saying a short time ago that their training facilities at Griffith were state of the art. Now the story is they are sub-standard. It is all pointing to a deal between ACT Government, UC (wher Professor Stanhope now lectures) and the Brumbies which will fast track the despised unit development at Griffith. The funding for the new facility at UC will probably be from the ACT Government, at least as a bridging loan. The suggestion that the partnership will promote Canberra inertnationally is nonsense – no one looks at the names of sponsors on football jerseys but the heavies as UC will be guaranteed of a corporate box and other goodies at the Brumbies home games. It is a bit “off” that a university which is largely funded by taxpayers is sponsoring a professional sporting organisation. I hope this doesn’t start a trend or we may see the ANU Raiders next.

Mister Evil Breakfast11:20 am 31 Jan 12

Waiting For Godot said :

The Uni of Canberra a sports uni? Not when I was there in the mid 1980s when it was still the CCAE. They didn’t even have a gym. Most students tried to get concessional entry to the ANU gym, while I signed up at the (now sadly departed) Steel City gym across the way in Josephson St, Belco.

It’s funny how some things change over a 30-year span, isn’t it?

Terry Pratchett wrote a Discworld novel called Unseen Academicals with a football theme. Maybe the Brumbies should rename themselves the UC Academicals.

VYBerlinaV8_is_back said :

ex-ANU, I’m guessing…

Not even the correct state/territory…

But it’s good to see the large chips on people’s shoulders. A tongue in cheek remark getting so many bites!

VYBerlinaV8_is_back10:37 am 31 Jan 12

Eppo said :

I really hope they’re not announced as ‘The University of Canberra Brumbies’. Would make it sound like the team represents the uni, not the ACT.

Second to that, you won’t catch me paying for a jersey with ‘UC’ on the front! 🙂

ex-ANU, I’m guessing…

Eppo said :

Second to that, you won’t catch me paying for a jersey with ‘UC’ on the front! 🙂

If it had ‘CCAE’ on it, I would buy my sister one. Given that I went to a proper uni and she did a ‘degree’ in tourism one year after the name change.

UC doesnt even compete in most Canberra sporting competitions, and even where it does field teams they are rarely in the top grade of competition (in fact, what sports does it compete in the top grade? Hockey, I think.) I dont really see the link.

Johnboy, US College football teams may not be the “top tier” but they still manage to attract an enviable crowd. The University of Michigan’s Wolverines attract a home crowd in excess of 110,000 week in, week out.

Anyway, this deal is one of those things that I hope works really well, in that there are mutual benefits. After all, Huawei couldn’t have offered any facilities in Canberra, or leveraged the Brumbies to assist its sports science and physio programs!

Eppo, perhaps if we wear ANU hats while wearing the jersey, it won’t cause so much angst. Or you could scribble out the logo with a marker.

Waiting For Godot10:25 am 31 Jan 12

The Uni of Canberra a sports uni? Not when I was there in the mid 1980s when it was still the CCAE. They didn’t even have a gym. Most students tried to get concessional entry to the ANU gym, while I signed up at the (now sadly departed) Steel City gym across the way in Josephson St, Belco.

I really hope they’re not announced as ‘The University of Canberra Brumbies’. Would make it sound like the team represents the uni, not the ACT.

Second to that, you won’t catch me paying for a jersey with ‘UC’ on the front! 🙂

As usual in Canberra, people’s first thought is that the glass is half empty (that’s an attempt at a nicer version of “Canberra people are a bunch of perpetual complainers”). IMO, it sounds good! And certainly better than no sponsor, which is what they were looking at before this?
At worst if it doesn’t work out, they can cancel it after a year, according to 666 this AM….
Give it a go! 🙂

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