Are we paying for FAMU's band to come?

[bluehaze]

Band, football topics at QB Club's lunch with Mangum

By St. Clair Murraine
Democrat staff writer@boxinfbuff on Twitter 10:43 p.m. EDT August 25, 2014


The first appearance that FAMU's Marching 100 will make this season is already costing the school's athletic department and it won't participate at Tennessee State's homecoming unless the band's trip is paid in part by TSU.

FAMU president Elmira Mangum vehemently told the 220 Quarterback Club, a FAMU support organization, on Monday that she wants a share of the revenues from the TSU game for the band to show up. Mangum spoke to the club at the University Club House on FAMU's campus.

She said she's unsuccessfully tried for about three weeks to negotiate her demand, estimating that TSU will make about $80,000 from the game.

"I need a whole lot of things before I let the band go to Tennessee State," Mangum said. "So, that's my position on it."

The band will perform in South Florida when FAMU plays the University of Miami on Sept. 6. That comes with a cost of about $13,000 for the seats that band members will occupy at Sun Life Stadium, said athletics director Kellen Winslow, who was not too pleased with the way the contract was negotiated to include the band.

Winslow didn't negotiate that contract. FAMU will make just over $700,000 for playing the Hurricanes, Winslow said.

In addition to Miami, the band will travel to North Carolina to face A&T on Oct. 25 and Bethune-Cookman on Nov. 22 in the Florida Classic in Orlando. It wasn't immediately known if A&T will pay for the band, but the Classic is jointly promoted by FAMU and B-CU.

www.tallahassee.com/story/sports/college/famu/2014/08/25/band-football-topics-qb-clubs-lunch-mangum/14586507/

[bluehaze]

Let those bamas stay in Tallahassee. We sellout with VUL as the opponenet. This just means more time for the Marching Machine.

[captaggie]

I hope not.

[Aggie One]

On an academics-related matter, Mangum was asked if she considered former president Frederick Humphries' willingness to help with recruiting at FAMU. She said she's given it some thought, but had reservations.

"I thought about it, then I went back to my same answer; these are new students," she said. "This is their type of world; we need high-impact recruiting. I'm not sure Dr. Humphries is able to do that kind of high-impact recruiting that you do when you're talking to students who get their information off Twitter, YouTube and the Internet."

Well that pretty much says to me that the days of "we are used to doing it this way" are officially over in Florida. I can hear the first shots of a major civil war being fired in Tallahassee as we speak.

[bluehaze]

When I read that, I thought the same thing. I don't think she's in a position to turn down a helping hand. Dr. Humphries inital offer was to help with fundraising and I don't see why there would be an issue with that, other than people's egos...

[oleschoolaggie]

heck no we shouldn't pay a dime for famu's band to come to ghoe! why should we? famu's 100 isn't even in the same class as the former 100 that the hbcu world knew before their suspension. and even if they were still as good as the former 100, i still wouldn't wanna pay one single nickel to bring them to greensboro.

if the bgmm is anything remotely close to what they were last year, the bgmm would blow famu's 100 off the field. i don't even think famu's 100 has built up to the same numbers that they used to have before the suspension. not to mention they'd be taking up a lot of seats that we could sell...

[Aggie One]

I know for a fact that our AD nor our administration have not, does not, and will not pay for visiting bands to come to Greensboro. That is a big negatory!

[marchingband1969]

As one of the official Blue and Gold Marching Machine "band heads" let me say that I want to know if we pay anybody (except Beyonce and Jay Z) to show up and perform at any A&T games. We need every penny we can find for A&T band scholarships, travel expenses, instrument repairs and uniforms. So we don't have any excess money to pay somebody else band to come play at Aggie Stadium. In fact, this is a slap in every A&T band members face...FAMU doesn't pay us to come to their stadium so why should we pay for them?

If the FAMU football team wants to pay for their band to attend the A&T game then let them but not one A&T dime!

[ohsixrain]

And if we are even entertaining this discussion is problematic for me...this ain't the first time Famu made statements like this. But, at the end of the day, if they cannot fund their own trip to their own game then...to hell with them.