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| Chris Del Conte |
Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Chris Del Conte chats live Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. CT. Fans are encouraged to submit their questions now.
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TCU Moderator: Welcome to today's online chat with TCU director of intercollegiate athletics. |
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| Trevor: Any news yet if the SMU game will be a night game? |
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Chris Del Conte: Due to Big 12 television contracts, we won't have a kickoff time for that game until mid-September. We'll let you know as soon as I know. |
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| David: What are you most looking forward to this upcoming fall season? |
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Chris Del Conte: I'm excited about everything! From the return of our student-athletes to campus, the Cowboys Classic game with LSU, men's basketball heading to Canada soon for an exhibition tour and the start of volleyball and soccer. It's just a great time to be a Horned Frog! |
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| Brian: Are you going to get twitter? |
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Chris Del Conte: Definitely not! I have enough problems without me tweeting on a daily basis, but I'll respond to any email. I'll leave the tweeting to our head football coach. |
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| Ryan (Colorado): I heard you are an avid skier. What is your favorite run in Taos? |
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Chris Del Conte: I wouldn't say I'm an avid skier, but I've been known to hit the slopes every once in awhile. My favorite ski run in my hometown of Taos, New Mexico, is Al's Run. Best ski mountain in America! |
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| Steve (Houston): What is the future of donor parking? Some of the top concerns are the future for Lot 1A donors due to recent constructions and how empty Lot 5W is. |
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Chris Del Conte: There is an immediate concern with parking because of all the construction on campus, but I believe we'll be able to accommodate everyone's needs once the Greek housing village is completed. As far as Lot 5 is concerned, we've had a significant increase in demand as last year was the first year Lot 5 was open. We expect it to be sold out in the years to come. |
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| Jared (Houston): Will TCU customize the color of the new Big 12 logo to better suite our schools livery? |
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Chris Del Conte: Yes. As you may have noticed at Big 12 Media Day, Commissioner Bob Bowlsby introduced the future Big 12 logo. It will be customized to fit each conference member's school colors. |
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| Ryan (Denver): The results of a player survey at the Big 12 Media Days revealed that players unanimously said they want a championship game at the end of the football season. What, if anything, do you expect the Big 12 office to do to address this? Seems like players and fans want to see this. Thanks and appreciate all you do! |
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Chris Del Conte: At this current time, there are no plans for expansion or a conference championship game. I will say it was good to hear the players' thoughts. That same survey had the players saying Gary Patterson was the coach they'd most like to play for outside of their own coach. |
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| Jim (Granbury): Is there any talk or plans for expansion for parking in general on the TCU campus. Many schools such as Baylor,Texas and others have them. With limited real estate on the campus I can see this as a obvious solution for the problem at sporting events as well. If revenue is a problem, have ticket holders pay into it just as they do now for crummy parking. Thanks for your time. |
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Chris Del Conte: Parking on campus is always a premium and game-day parking is something we're always looking to improve. We appreciate your thoughts. As you saw last year, we were able to obtain Lot 5 which we never had before. We will continue to find ways to improve the game-day experience for our fans. |
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| Jeff (League City): When will the new TCU football entrance video make its debut on GoFrogs.com? And are you having it produced by your in-house people who did the Fear the Frog video? |
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Chris Del Conte: Our new football intro video is being produced by an outside agency and will be available soon. |
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| Scott: Will The Frog Horn be on the field this season? |
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Chris Del Conte: Count on it! |
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| Bob Burleson: Do you ever check online fan sites like spitblood.com, thefroghorn.com, purplemenace.com? What are you thoughts on sites like those? |
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Chris Del Conte: All the fan sites are defined by folks with a great passion for TCU, and we have a tremendous fan base. On occasion, I'll receive updates on certain topics that are trending. |
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| Scott Fort Worth: I've found that I have a better success rate in business when I meet with people face to face. Would you say that meeting people face to face is better than sending emails? |
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Chris Del Conte: Absolutely! |
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| Dustin: What is TCU doing to fix the technical problems with Frog Vision? I don't know anyone that was able to log in and watch today's press conference. |
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Chris Del Conte: We apologize for the difficulties today and will have the press conference in its entirety available on our website this afternoon. |
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| Dimples (Temple): With all the talk about Div. 4, are there any worries about where they stop weeding out and start re-landscaping? |
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Chris Del Conte: There's a lot of discussion nationally about the creation of a new division within the NCAA. All I can say is that I'm proud of the fact that we're a member of the Big 12 Conference. |
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| Boomhauer(Arlen): Which sports would you look to add if expanding the atheltic offerings for competition? |
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Chris Del Conte: We're in the process of evaluating which possible new sports best fit us in the Big 12. We'll keep you posted. Give my best to Hank! |
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| Jrod (Fort Worth): Is the marketing department planning on stepping up the efforts to get fans and students into their seats earlier this year- and staying too? |
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Chris Del Conte: Yes. We will continue to stress to all of our fans that we need to create the greatest home-field advantage in the country by arriving early, staying late and cheering loud. |
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| Britt (SW FW): With the influx of TV revenue that TCU Athletics has now received in the Big 12, what is your plan to increase the amount of staff to keep pace with the growth of the department? |
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Chris Del Conte: We're constantly evaluating the needs of our department and will add staff accordingly. |
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| Scott (Austin): Any update you can give us on 'TCU' being added to the upper deck? Was my favorite campus landmark besides frog fountain. |
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Chris Del Conte: That is something we're struggling with. In the old stadium, the TCU was on a chairback. With the benchbacks in the new stadium, we're having difficulty in how to get this done where it looks legible. We'll continue to try to find a solution to make it happen. |
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| Carl (Euless): Excited to have Casey Pachall back at TCU! |
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Chris Del Conte: Me too! |
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| Lance (Keller): Can the Rangers get back in the playoff hunt? |
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Chris Del Conte: In Nolan we trust! |
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| Tommy G. (Fort Worth, TX): How is DMC fundraising going? |
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Chris Del Conte: Fantastic! We recently secured another major gift. |
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| Wally (Aledo): What's next on the facilities list after the DMC? |
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Chris Del Conte: We're making some improvements to baseball and track and field. |
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| Jerry Russell (FW): How cool is it to have the LSU game a month away? |
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Chris Del Conte: I can't wait! |
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| bert Thompson (Euless): How many suits do you own? |
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Chris Del Conte: Bert: Too many to count! |
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| Bob Tulsa (OKC): Remember Winchells' Donuts? |
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Chris Del Conte: Of course! Winchell's was a staple! |
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| Kimberly (Austin): No question here. Just wanted to say thanks for all you do for our university and that I don't understand the complaints regarding parking. I wonder if Jim has ever been to a football game at Texas or Baylor. Parking garages haven't helped their parking issues at all. |
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Chris Del Conte: Thanks for the shout out! We do our best to serve our TCU community. |
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| Jason (Dallas): When do the parking lots open at AT&T Stadium on the 31st? |
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Chris Del Conte: They open four hours before, so 4 p.m. on Aug. 31. |
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| NEDS: why is it that Coach P's weekly pressers are not available for free viewing on FrogVision? |
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Chris Del Conte: I understand your concern. As part of our renegotiation with our website provider, Coach Patterson's press conferences became part of their inventory. Our model is very similar to peer institutions. |
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| Dave (FW): Are there non-season-parking areas for tailgating around the stadium? |
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Chris Del Conte: No. All parking around the stadium is season parking only. |
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| Richard: Happy to see the bench backs throughout the stadium, but why not chair backs? |
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Chris Del Conte: Thanks for noticing. I am happy to report that we were able to provide a bench back for all our patrons in the 200 and above levels, as a result of feedback from our fans. However, to maximize capacity in our stadium, we need to keep the bench backs. |
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TCU Moderator: That concludes today's online chat with TCU director of intercollegiate athletics Chris Del Conte. Thanks for joining us. |
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