“Blue Zone” donors considering legal action!

General UNC Scandal31

In what might be the funniest development yet in this glorious slow-motion train wreck, it looks like a group of pro-Butch “Blue Zone” donors are suing!   Free details are scarce at this time, but scandal maven/raconteur Bob Lee summarizes this development in his new Rimshots feature:

 If you haven’t heard yet, you soon will. A cabal of angry Charlotte-area blue zone “investors” are coming after Holden with blood in their eyes and free lawyers in their pockets. Totally predictable. Anyone who would invest $50,000 for end zone seats with cup holders (!) is capable of other irrational acts too. Huffin’ & Puffin’ & Rompin’ & Stompin’ …. all this circus lacks is a midget on a unicycle.

 Here is the full WRAL story on the topic.

The group donated to the university’s Blue Zone premium seating project at the stadium, which is nearing completion, but many of them say they committed to the project with the assurance that Butch Davis would remain head football coach.

 Here is an N & O piece.

Brown and the other four lawyers are all UNC graduates and have taken on the case pro bono, Brown said. The group they represent wants to remain anonymous at this point, he said, but includes donors of differing financial contributions.

Brown stressed that a lawsuit hasn’t been filed, and he doesn’t know what a cause of action or damages might be: “At this point, we are seeking information … The law we are stressing now is the North Carolina Public records law,’’ he said. “I can’t speculate further than that … what the law might be [in the case of donations] depends on the facts of what facts we find.”

General UNC Scandal

31 Responses to “Blue Zone” donors considering legal action!

  1. ppack3 08/07/2011 at 9:25 PM #

    Where to start? I’ve been saying, since the NCAA investigation started, that the expansion was a driving force in the admin’s support of Butch. I heard that donations/pledges were due two (or so) days before Thorpe fired Butch. I’d sue too.

  2. coach13 08/07/2011 at 9:26 PM #

    With fans like this, who needs enemies! 🙂

  3. Wolfy__79 08/07/2011 at 9:56 PM #

    wow… i can’t wait to see if the main stream local media gives this much coverage..

  4. old13 08/07/2011 at 10:00 PM #

    Well, maybe this will expose 216, BOTBob, and all the TarHole good-ol’-boys! Now if some “interested third party” taxpayers would join the suit, it certainly would make for some very interesting depositions!

  5. GAWolf 08/07/2011 at 10:08 PM #

    This is what will truly wreck them… fighting amongst themselves.

  6. BureauOfMines 08/07/2011 at 10:08 PM #

    There’s nothing like a lawsuit to air the dirty laundry.

  7. OldWuf 08/07/2011 at 10:25 PM #

    Leave it to the Hole fans to do the opposite of what they need to do to bring back the integrity of the university and strengthen the football program. It is always about them; either collectively or as in this case, individually. With all the infighting it may be 20 years before they recover:)

  8. lonepacker 08/07/2011 at 11:20 PM #

    glad State does not train law students!

  9. dindc 08/08/2011 at 12:10 AM #

    Here’s a link to the legal document. It’s on IC, and, of course, they’re whooping it up over there.

    http://vmedia.rivals.com/uploads/941/1118449.pdf

  10. GoldenChain 08/08/2011 at 6:00 AM #

    Listening to sports talk last week the comment I heard over and over was “well BD led us to 3 x 8-win seasons, Thorp shouldn’t have fired him!”
    Two problems:
    1) As I’ve said all along, it wasn’t Thorp, it was the EggHead crowd via the BOT who forced Thorp to do it. Thorp would heva been glad to keep Butch.
    2) HE WON 8 GAMES BY CHEATING!!!!!!!!! Think Bonds HR record with an (*), from now on I’m referring to unx’s record as 8*-4. In fact it begs the question as to why he didn’t do better given the level of cheating!

  11. packplantpath 08/08/2011 at 6:53 AM #

    GC, I think you have Thorp pegged wrong. He wanted to fire him a year ago and the BOT members at the time prevented it. Once he had the support of the new BOT, he acted.

    Does he really strike you as somebody who cares about athletics?

  12. Pack78 08/08/2011 at 7:07 AM #

    Yes, he cares about athletics (witness the video of him on the keyboard at the BB game, and wasn’t he also backslapping w/ BD and DB after the ‘big’ Duke FB win last year?), but only to the point that it enhances the unx brand, to paraphrase Randy Woodson. At heart, Thorp is an academic and has gotten a rude awakening to the ‘way’ things really work over there; this power struggle ain’t over by a long shot…

  13. GAWolf 08/08/2011 at 7:20 AM #

    I’ve never seen every paragraph numbered 1. This document also wasn’t proofread it appears. Odd.

  14. Rochester 08/08/2011 at 7:35 AM #

    They refer to themselves as a “group of investors.” When I send my WPC money in every year am I “investing”? (It’s been a pretty poor return on investment lately, but no worse in many ways than the stock market, I guess.)

    This lawsuit seems ridiculous, but it should have some hilarious side consequences, so bring it on. Let’s get ready to watch them rumble.

  15. packplantpath 08/08/2011 at 7:41 AM #

    These Butch investors must feel like the poor fools who bought Lehman Brothers “the day before”. I know a few of those guys too.

  16. Tau837 08/08/2011 at 8:05 AM #

    So UNC has now been sued by player, media, and boosters (investors)… I am guessing this is unprecedented.

    The only groups left to sue are the (non-booster) fans and the coaches. Can they make it a clean sweep?

  17. tjfoose1 08/08/2011 at 8:17 AM #

    … and tax payers.

    You’d think they would’ve learned their lesson about shedding the sunshine of a lawsuit (McAdoo, or I guess its McAdidn’t) on their program.

    But, I guess it’s as referenced above – they don’t care. It’s all about ‘them’.

  18. Rochester 08/08/2011 at 8:22 AM #

    East Carolina is now suing the Heels over infringement of their trademark on “EZU.”

  19. AirWolf 08/08/2011 at 8:37 AM #

    All of this for a guy that is barely .500 overall, middle of the pack in his division, and 0-fer against his “not our rival”. Q: Why in the world would the Flagship sell its soul so cheap? A: because the soul was never all that it pretended to be. “To seem, rather than to be.” SMUNC……………

  20. Gowolves 08/08/2011 at 8:46 AM #

    Why do they care about BMFD son’s conversations? Is it to discredit Thorp about when he knew he was offered a scholarship?

  21. ppack3 08/08/2011 at 9:06 AM #

    http://www.wralsportsfan.com/unc/story/9964939/

    “Attorneys for the investors are citing possible fraud, alleging that Thorp waited to terminate Davis until after the donations were secured.”

    Funny, I felt that this is why they were waiting, for the past nine months!

    “In a public records request filed this week, they asked the university to turn over all correspondence between Thorp and other university officials.”

    The more legal action is taken, in any form, the more dirt is sifted out of this regime. Who knows what correspondence will turn up between Thorpe and every other University Official!

    I just want to make a distinction, here. The Red Zone was a ten year pledge, just like all of the other LTR’s. I DO NOT know how they were working the seats, luxury boxes, etc. for the Blue Zone. Red Zone pledges can be discontinued at any point. Though, if it was all paid up front, I doubt you could get it back. So, I think this suit hinges on what these ‘investors’ (er, fans) were required to do in order to secure their seats and boxes.

    Either way, these are the people that they were able to talk into (ie. lie into) paying for (end zone?) premium seating for a wretched product. Who’s going to contribute the money to pay for 50% of the project that is almost fished? Answer: Nobody! The Athletic department is going to be mired in the red because of Butch’s buyout, and the Rams Club is going to be in debt because of the under-funded expansion combined with an indifferent fan base and low ticket sales. Hell, there may be a certain faction of fans that actually boycott football games!

    With sanctions coming and a rift growing larger between the jocks and the nerds, there isn’t a respectable coach that would touch the job in Chapel Hill with a ten foot pole. To add, they won’t be able to pay much for a new chief, anyway.

    On the bright side, they will have their “Center for Academic Excellence!”

    The House that Butch Built!

  22. HPWolf 08/08/2011 at 9:57 AM #

    This is almost unbelievable. I was looking for gas to throw on the bonfire that is Carolina Football but there is no need to because the carolina faithful beat me to it. How dumb can these poor bastards be? One would think they would have handled this in house. How can any recruit in his right mind choose that self destructive program. I had thought that we may be in the final stages of this train wreck but this is far from over and my favorite comedy is back on. The cheating Aholes deserve every bit of this bad Karma. Burn the whole damn thing down and pass the popcorn.

  23. IamGumbyDammit 08/08/2011 at 10:55 AM #

    BLUE ZONE AND THE TAXPAYER DOLLAR SHELL GAME
    I have put a lot of thought (and I apologize not as much research) into the whole Carolina Blue Zone deal, particularly the statements made that the Blue Zone is not paid for by taxpayer dollars. I have to date been completely able to nail down certain facts, but from what I have found, it sure seems to me that the statement “not paid for by taxpayer dollars” is only true if you buy into the shell game being played, and here’s why…

    First, at NC State, two points I want to emphasize. (1) When you pay for a season ticket, ALL of that money goes to the NC State athletic department as revenue. To the extent that the Athletic Department brings in revenues in excess of what it spends, that’s just hunky-dory. In theory, althletic revenue surpluses could be used to offset general university costs elsewhere, but I don’t know the general practice (it may be held in reserve restricted to athletics use only). If it doesn’t, then the extra expenses must be covered throught the University’s general budget, which is funded in no small part by taxpayer’s dollars.

    (2) The improvements to Carter-Finley have to date been financed directly by the Wolfpack Club and gifted to the University upon completion. Wolfpack Club paid for these additions through other fundraising means, such as LTRs, etc.

    Now, let’s take a look at UNX. (1) I will assume that football ticket sales go to the UNX athletic department, same as at NCSU, with one notable exception. This exception (which has been publicly stated and thus not my assumption) is that ticket sales for Blue Zone club and box seats are diverted to finance the Blue Zone addition. So these dollars that should otherwise be going to the athletic department budget are NOT going in that direction. Just like a tax cut has the same effect as a rise in spending the government’s budget, the UNX athletic department is foregoing ticket sales revenues for it’s athletic department, and again, any departmental excess of expense over revenues is covered by the UNX general budget, and again, taxpayer dollars are involved.

    (2) I have not to date found definitive information on the Blue Zone financing, but I did find in the May 27, 2010 UNX Board of Trustees minutes where the UNX BoT “approved the financing” for the Kenan additions, and this indicates to me that the University, NOT the Ram’s Club, is on the hook for the debt to finance the Blue Zone. Potentially, the Ram’s Club may have financed it through the university. This is supposed to be paid through the diverted ticket sales and private donations throught he Ram’s Club. Now, if either of these fail to deliver and if UNX did in fact finace the deal, guess who has to cover the shortfall? Yes, it will have to come from the UNX general budget – and who funds a big chunk of that? Why, the taxpayers of the State of North Carolina.

    So herein lies the shell game. At best, the taxpayers may not be paying for any of the Blue Zone directly, but are paying more elsewhere in the UNX budget as a result – hence the shell game. At worst, we the taxpayers may very well end up paying for a good chunk of this boondoggle if the financing sources fail to deliver…

  24. mafpack 08/08/2011 at 1:56 PM #

    So now Thorpe has to decide if he covers his own ass and provides details that legitimize the firing of Butch Davis (216, recruiting practices, etc) and thereby condemns UNC in the eyes of the NCAA, or if he hides those details in an attempt to save UNC but thereby condemns himself to any and all legal repercussions both civil and criminal.

    Hah, I couldn’t have written the ‘Oh man, you are so screwed’ script any better than that… thanks UNC alum, you guys are awesome!

  25. Virginia Wolf 08/08/2011 at 2:27 PM #

    So, “Iamgrumpy,” in the end the N.C. tax payers are screwed again, which is a “shell game.” But, I love the infighting! We couldn’t have written a better script. Keep the law suits coming! This should drag out for years and the holes won’t recover for 10 years at least. They’ll win 7 or 8 games again this year but after this year, it looks bleak. What recruit in his right mind would want to be a part of this rotten affair?

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