Charlotte 49ers alumni await a new athletics director

CHARLOTTE ATHLETICS

Charlotte alumni are awaiting the arrival of a new athletics director who will be tasked with fundraising in the corporate community, alumni and supporters.

The Charlotte 49ers can’t afford to miss on their next athletic director.

After the dismissal of Mike Hill in October, the fan base has been left in limbo with little transparency as to when his successor would be hired. For a school in the middle of ACC country, Charlotte can’t afford to wait too long or run the risk of falling further behind the curve in fundraising. 

Chancellor Sharon Gaber said there was no timetable set when Hill was fired as to when the next AD would be hired. Fast forward four months and fans and supporters are still in the dark as to when the hire will be made.

Jimmy Touchstone, an alumnus and donor, said he is more patient, but knows the department needs to get the hire right. 

“I think everybody feels like we got to get this hire right,” Touchstone said. “That might also be on [Gaber’s] mind. Let’s not move fast. Let’s move right. And, quite candidly, I think those are the things that we have control over. …Charlotte has a lot of opportunity and a lot of potential. They’ve done a lot with limited resources. But, at the end of the day, I feel like Sharon has shown she is a great chancellor in many regards. So, I put faith in her with this AD search.”

Touchstone hopes the next AD will be in touch with the modern college sports landscape. One that understands name, image and likeness fundraising techniques that have been proven to work. 

“I don’t really have an exact ideal candidate in mind, but what I do know is that it needs to be someone that understands the NIL landscape,” he said. “They have to either have fundraising in their blood or they know how to put people in place who have fundraising in their blood. What I don’t know is if a person like that can make inroads in the Charlotte community without having had connections here before. So, I don’t know how to gauge someone with previous relationships in the area, or someone new to come in and have fresh ideas and ways to engage the community.”

Rodney Graves, a 1997 graduate, wants the administration to ultimately get this hire right, first and foremost, but would have liked to get a few more updates along the way.

“Would I, along with my fellow members of Niner Nation have liked a bit more transparency regarding the overall search process regarding a time frame, characteristics of what they are looking for an AD, and periodic updates? Of course,” he said. “But at the end of the day, getting the hire correct is the only thing that ultimately matters to me.”

Graves said that his ideal candidate must know that the current college athletics landscape doesn’t need an AD with a mindset of 20, 15 or even 10 years ago. The candidate needs to have a firm grasp of the modern landscape and engage the community around them.

“The next AD needs to be able to not only connect, engage, and tap into the resources of the current and future alumni base,” he said. “They need to be able to do the same with the Charlotte community as a whole. Tap into the movers and shakers of Charlotte, the financial institutions in Uptown, the CEOs of Charlotte’s Fortune 500 companies, local, state, and national politicians. Connect, engage, and energize local residents, high school students, marching bands, athletes, youth, etc.”

Touchstone, a 1993 graduate, has seen the college athletics landscape change since then as well as the narrative of enrolling at UNC Charlotte as the last resort to becoming the top choice for some students. He believes there are alumni to make significant strides in raising money for NIL — the school needs an AD that understands this.

“For someone who graduated in 1993, it wasn’t cool back then to be a Niner,” Touchstone said. “Sorry, but that’s the truth. …People didn’t buy the gear; they didn’t stick around after they graduated. We did. My friends and I tried to institute change. But it used to be called the suitcase school or whatever. It’s where you’d go to get your education and leave and go back home.”

Touchstone hopes alumni don’t get too discouraged. He understands the reality that it is hard to donate when you aren’t seeing success. But, with the right person connecting with the corporation community, the future has a chance to be bright. 

“The new AD is going to have to have a full understanding of where we are right now [financially],” he said. “The second thing is that they absolutely must tap into those people that do know Charlotte and the people that have connections. The new AD, he or she needs to leverage the resources we do currently have to strengthen the relationships we have with the current donors, whether they give $49 a year or $49,000 a year. And I think third, they need to have a strong conviction as to what their plan is to leverage the city.” 

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