Lol, considering his impulse twitter purchase and silly attitude, i shot my shot. Mostly humor with that one. Don't know if you don't try

I love it! And hell of a first post.

Keep kicking butt in Seattle!!!

Sign me up for whatever Carson is selling!!! I have been an Aggie Tennis fan since I was in school in the mid 90s' where they used to play outside of the huge white satellites ( I think for KAMU). It is crazy of how big this school is and how supposedly rich we are and can't even put up tennis facilities before not 1 indoor track facility but 2!

Good luck Carson! I'll be in Orlando for the NCAA's.

I have a new favorite Aggie athlete now #badassCarson!

Go Carson! For anyone to not support you on this is beyond me. This person must have a grudge against you or the women's tennis team.

No team on campus does more with less. We need to get them what they deserve otherwise these glory days that we all are living in right now will soon be gone if we don't keep up with the Jones's.

bigtimeag1977 said:

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No team on campus does more with less. We need to get them what they deserve otherwise these glory days that we all are living in right now will soon be gone if we don't keep up with the Jones's.

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Gonna play devil's advocate because I always enjoy the weekly indoor conversation on this thread.

Did we not reach these "glory days" with the worst tennis facilities in the SEC? Did Carson not choose to come to a school with no indoor facility and old locker rooms? Mary? Mia? Etc. I'd imagine they all took visits here and saw what they were walking into compared to other places. The lack of indoor courts and a 25+ year old facility clearly hasn't dampened our recruiting or our teams' performance over the last few years. This is what the administration sees. An absolutely phenomenal return on investment (or lack there of). Why do they need to dish out money when the program is already seeing so much success? Obviously the answer isn't to just start tanking seasons to get the AD's attention, I just think it's an interesting situation our teams are in and I don't know what the solution is. Also, does our administration really care that the ITA (not even the NCAA) embarrassed us by forcing us to go Waco to finish out the regionals? How many headlines did that make besides on this board? We were all in an uproar, but the sad truth is that nobody outside the tennis community batted an eye.

I'm all for rewarding success, but the fact that we don't is proof that the administration doesn't care about tennis. I don't mind the argument that we should reward our athletes and coaches, but I do question the notion that we are going to start falling behind other programs if we don't keep up, because we've clearly gone the other direction in both recruiting class ranks and end of season team rankings, credit to our coaches and athletes.

The other sports have revenue, big money donors who care, and sponsorships (track & Nike). Tennis has none of these. I can't fault the AD's for struggling to pool together money from people who could care less about our tennis programs. If we were having success in the big name sports, maybe you see donors and the administration beginning to become satisfied with their work and shifting their attention to more dire needs in smaller sports. But right now, and for the foreseeable future, the focus is sadly on building up football, basketball, and baseball.

Picture it like this: We watch all the other sports get new things while our lockers are falling apart, and we practice on concrete hard courts in 30 degree weather, which is risking injuries, and oftentimes cancelled practices. Yes, we've always been a good team- now we are an incredible team. I'm speaking out because I see how hard it is on us, and know the most successful people on this planet keep fighting until they get to where they need to be. That's what I intend to do. I like difficult tasks. I know there's a way that this could be done. I'm not sure how exactly yet, but i've accepted that mission.

Even when it's not cold, obviously you can't play tennis in rain. All the other sports can. All the teams we compete with can. High five to us 12 tough chicks! I can guarantee if we didn't have nets on the courts we'd find a way to get better. That's how our coaches recruit, they look for passionate, motivated players like myself. I'd say that aligns quite well with Aggie spirt- I can give examples and talk about this all day. Coach Szabo reminds us all the time, no matter what, we will find a way to get better. That sticks well with me. We have elite culture and regardless of the issues i've addressed, the team is still incredibly grateful for what we have now.

Like I said, we're asking for a necessity. I've heard about this ongoing conflict far before I came here, as i've had many friends play tennis under Coach Weaver & Denton. It's part of the game. A locker room with a useable shower, a place we can feel comfortable to study / get treatment / hang as a team, and just like everyone else, have the resources to continue winning championships for years to come. Gig Em baby.

Any idea as to the amount that needs to be raised?

I can't believe this is even a debate. We need new facilities. Why are we all not unanimously supporting her efforts?!

The outdoor tennis facility was financed by George Mitchell when he developed the Astro Space Physics school from the ground up including 4th floor outdoor garden . George Mitchell 's love of his life was Cynthia Woods Mitchell, and he found a way to honor her in all of his projects. And he honored her during her final days of life, despite ravages of dementia . George and Cynthia had 12 children and none of them attend a Texas A&M . They all attended tu. With George's death, there has been no interest by his progeny to fund projects at Texas A&M.

George Mitchell reportedly went to play tennis every day at 3 PM as a student and was proficient in the sport. The outdoor tennis courts that we currently enjoy are a passion product of George's the result was done nearly whimsically while Astro Space Physics building was built. Whether his children will embrace the indoor tennis facility is not certain . To my knowledge they have not donated to their fathers and uncles' university since his death . Each of the children is worth billions and would be a relatively inconsequential donation for any one of the children to finance in their fathers name.

George developed Galveston into the tourist location it is now . The Woodlands north of Houston has become a spectacular housing development with two high schools , sophisticated housing and refined living . Oh by the way, George Mitchell developed fracking in oil recovery. Don't be shy .

Carson I believe that you have an excellent chance at having the children of George and Cynthia Mitchell to fund an indoor tennis facility at Texas A&M. I would suggest you contacting Don Birklebach from the College of Science to discuss this newest pet project of George and Cynthia Mitchell posthumously. Don worked closely with George Mitchell and was able to complete the building of the #2 ranked academic station in the world with the Astro Space Physics building. Be sure to name all aspects of the facility after Cynthia Woods Mitchell . Don Birklebach was able to solicit close to $100 million in donations to the college of science projects. This is a very delicate project and Don knows exactly how to manipulate George Mitchell's children and just imagine how tedious having 12 billionaires that have to be coddled and overcome, their personal prejudice of being tea sips.


If this project takes flight, you will be playing at the grandest tennis facility in the world within a year. Your goal is achievable . My father class of 56 set at dining room table in my house and ate pork ribs while watching George Mitchell write a check to fund the entirety of them Astro Space Physics building including sustaining George's dream into perpetuity. An indoor tennis court is relatively small change.

Be careful to not offend the children of George Mitchell, by being too brusque, as we have not gotten funds from the children since George's death. Don Birklebach may be the finest fundraiser in academic fundraising and he is in College Station . Contact Don and talk with him about your dream. If you can't make contact with Don call Dean Joe Newton he has been intimate in the fundraising as well. Joe and Don were quite a team.

If you read my post again, no where did I say it wasn't a necessity for the program. I also said I believe in rewarding success.

The point of my post was my view of what the administration sees. You're on perhaps the most successful Texas A&M athletics team across all sports in the each of the past 2 years, using the worst facilities. Yet the posters on this thread act like it's hurting us in recruiting and performance.

College athletics is a business. You invest into facilities for football/basketball/baseball, and expect to see returns. Those returns come in the form of revenues from championships and tv deals, increased season ticket purchases, etc. Tennis can provide none of that. Not saying it's right, but we continue to beat a dead horse here

taylorswift13 said:

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That's it Court 1 tomorrow morning -

Carson Branstine vs DevinHester_GoBears1

I got my life savings on Carson to win 6-0, 6-0

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I can guarantee I'd win at least a game. But I'll wait and take your life savings until after your upcoming tour, Tswift

Great post. A lot more eloquent than mine and I agree with all of these points. Everyone here supports Carson and women's tennis. Being realistic doesn't mean you have an axe to grind. It's easy to say "Go Carson, you're the best!" and we all agree and that is going to get a lot of blue stars, but it's also important to be realistic about the situation.

Everyone is so quick to find a villain, but we're on the same team here. When I say "focus on tennis" what I mean I'd like to see us win an indoor title and I'd be just as worried about Conner Weigman spending time on social media before a big football game trying to get facilities upgrades. Bjork is also not the villain. He's trying to run a business and he's not going to spend money on a part of the business that doesn't make money unless he has to. As tennis fans we may not like it, but he's also not wrong.

The most important post is the guy who keeps asking how much it's going to cost. I'd also like to know this. This is the newest thing I could find: https://gotigersgo.com/news/2021/5/20/general-groundbreaking-set-for-24-million-leftwich-tennis-center.aspx

aggietennisfan said:

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The lack of indoor facilities hurts us in scheduling. Non conference play is January and February. Very risky for a team to travel and play here and not get to play the match. Having to go play at Baylor in order to advance to the national indoors could easily be used against us with other schools that are recruiting the same players. Not being able to practice and train properly on a day to day basis. Not being able to practice indoors when preparing to play the national indoors and also not being able to prepare to play any match indoors which oftentimes happens in SEC play. Definitely would not want to schedule an indoor team on the road as well just look at what happened to our men's team against Ohio State a few days ago. Countless examples of why this will catch up with us.

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Last year the Women's had to play indoors at the NCAA's and lost a close one to eventual National Finalist OU. Had we more practice and more matches playing indoors, maybe just maybe we would have won and then anything could have happen.

aggietennisfan said:

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The lack of indoor facilities hurts us in scheduling. Non conference play is January and February. Very risky for a team to travel and play here and not get to play the match. Having to go play at Baylor in order to advance to the national indoors could easily be used against us with other schools that are recruiting the same players. Not being able to practice and train properly on a day to day basis. Not being able to practice indoors when preparing to play the national indoors and also not being able to prepare to play any match indoors which oftentimes happens in SEC play. Definitely would not want to schedule an indoor team on the road as well just look at what happened to our men's team against Ohio State a few days ago. Countless examples of why this will catch up with us.

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When? Admin has been waiting for this to catch up with us for over a decade now. Any non-tennis fan views the ITA indoors as a preseason tournament with no meaning. I believe we even opted not to take part in it a few years ago.

You think Joffe or CSQ don't show players a picture of the "barn" in Bryan as an attempted recruiting advantage? And those are just coaches who have direct experience. And it still clearly hasn't harmed us in the past few years. Until the AD's see an actual negative impact from a lack of premium facilities, they'll continue doing what they're doing.

Also, it amazes me that we've only began to complain about scheduling in the past 2 years when we've been a top 5 team. Prior to that we were scheduling cupcakes to ensure we made the .500 rule (have to be over .500 to make the tourney), and with our grueling SEC schedule, that was never a given.

Chapa96 said:

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JPN06 said:

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Great post. A lot more eloquent than mine and I agree with all of these points. Everyone here supports Carson and women's tennis. Being realistic doesn't mean you have an axe to grind. It's easy to say "Go Carson, you're the best!" and we all agree and that is going to get a lot of blue stars, but it's also important to be realistic about the situation.

Everyone is so quick to find a villain, but we're on the same team here. When I say "focus on tennis" what I mean I'd like to see us win an indoor title and I'd be just as worried about Conner Weigman spending time on social media before a big football game trying to get facilities upgrades. Bjork is also not the villain. He's trying to run a business and he's not going to spend money on a part of the business that doesn't make money unless he has to. As tennis fans we may not like it, but he's also not wrong.

The most important post is the guy who keeps asking how much it's going to cost. I'd also like to know this. This is the newest thing I could find: https://gotigersgo.com/news/2021/5/20/general-groundbreaking-set-for-24-million-leftwich-tennis-center.aspx

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Freakin Memphis is getting an Indoor Facility?? Goodness.....

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$24 Mil for 30 courts...18 outdoor, 12 indoor it looked like.

Insane facility

They cut Memphis assistant's salary (supposedly due to COVID) and he has to fundraise just to pay the guy. Memphis won their conference last year with no paid assistant, so it's the same argument that Devin Hester makes above. Why pump more money into a money-losing program that is exceeding expectations with what they already have?

So in even more irony, the school that is getting this elite $24M facility can't even "reward" the coach who fundraised like a legend for it (or his assistant who has been there 7 years) with $40K per year...so they have a volunteer associate head coach. Truly sad.

I would love to contribute to a new facility. Unfortunately I'm about $23.99M away from being able to make it the Harry Dunne Tennis Center but I'd certainly contribute if there was a way to direct it exclusively to this project and not have it repurposed for icy white football helmets.

Harry Dunne said:

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They cut Memphis assistant's salary (supposedly due to COVID) and he has to fundraise just to pay the guy. Memphis won their conference last year with no paid assistant, so it's the same argument that Devin Hester makes above. Why pump more money into a money-losing program that is exceeding expectations with what they already have?

So in even more irony, the school that is getting this elite $24M facility can't even "reward" the coach who fundraised like a legend for it (or his assistant who has been there 7 years) with $40K per year...so they have a volunteer associate head coach. Truly sad.

I would love to contribute to a new facility. Unfortunately I'm about $23.99M away from being able to make it the Harry Dunne Tennis Center but I'd certainly contribute if there was a way to direct it exclusively to this project and not have it repurposed for icy white football helmets.

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"Harry Dunne Indoor Tennis Courts" does roll off the tongue though...

Bigfoot-Dunne Tennis Center sounds even better if you can come up with the rest of the money!

I might have some money after my next world tour ends… The Taylor Swift Tennis Complex at Texas A&M sounds very nice I sang at the US Open 20 years ago when I was 13

Looks like Rice had multiple donors and each major donor had a court named after them. Seems like that would be the way to go.

Fun Fact: It has ben 631 days since this team has lost an outdoor match.

Aggie MBA said:

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aggiedrjdub said:

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Looks like Rice had multiple donors and each major donor had a court named after them. Seems like that would be the way to go.

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I'm confident that with an AD backed fundraising campaign, Aggies would step up. We always do.

What I'd like to see:

Update the plans now, make it a UNC level facility with several naming opportunities, and roll out the campaign right after we bring home a few more championships this spring.

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2 things:

I highly doubt there is going to be an AD backed fundraising campaign. It hasn't happened before now other than summer 12th Man Foundation meetings

We need to update plans and roll out immediately, not wait til after winning more championships. The tennis programs have waited long enough.