r/terps • u/YankeePride11 • 19d ago
Football Where is Kevin Plank?
We have the one of the greatest brand founders who literally played for UMD football and is a billionaire sitting in our backyard. In the age of NIL, we could compete with his backing and UnderArmours branding. I have not heard if hes doing anything or involved as donor. Anyone got any info on this?
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u/steeveg33 19d ago
UA/Plann doesn’t have the deep pocket books you think it does.... call me when alumni Sergey Brin wants to get involved and then we can cook.
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u/UnquestionablyPoopy 19d ago
I know a former SGA President. At least in the mid-2010's, it was apparently a passed-down action item across every student body administration to try and re-engage Sergey Brin for fundraising. Allegedly he had a very negative experience at Maryland and has sworn off the school altogether.
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u/Seekoutnewlife 19d ago
Except he gives money to the school, just not sports
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u/UnquestionablyPoopy 19d ago
Has he? All of the donations I've seen are the "Brin Family" or in Michael (who taught at the school) + Eugenia's names. I'm unaware of him actually coming back to College Park or making a donation himself (even if it's his money).
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u/Seekoutnewlife 18d ago
That’s interesting. At some point he allowed UMD to use Google name in the UMD promo you see on tv during games. There must have been permission.
Not sure why giving in his parents name matters
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u/UnquestionablyPoopy 18d ago
I’m not aware of the Google promo. I referenced him giving in his parents’ names because there’s likely a significant difference in financial support if the money is coming from his parents (who were enriched by Sergey’s success) vs from Sergey himself. But this is all speculation, obviously.
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u/Seekoutnewlife 18d ago
The promo was in every conference football or basketball game. Probably around joining big ten time frame
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u/DullPlace6910 19d ago
Just curious, what was so negative? All that schooling kinda worked out, you know.
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u/UnquestionablyPoopy 19d ago
To my knowledge, it's still unknown. Maybe people were just mean to or dismissive of him?
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u/BlacksmithNo6332 19d ago
He’s already paying for everything else. Prior to Jim smith last year we were dead last in B1G for number of donors
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u/SafeFill1057 19d ago edited 19d ago
Spent all of his money on a shiny new facility with a track that can't even be used for any sanctioned events while he watched his company's value plummet. I don't think he's itching to donate to NIL, though it would probably be a smarter use of his money
Edit: apparently the track is regulation size. Whatever my source was years ago was wrong.
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u/SourceOfConfusion 19d ago
Can you explain why the track can’t be used for a sanctioned event?
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u/SafeFill1057 19d ago
Looks like I might have gotten that one wrong. It was either reported, or I was told somewhere that it was too small to be a regulation track. I still have issues with it literally never being open to the public, but it's in a crummy location for the public to use it anyways.
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u/VastNebula283 19d ago
It is not Kevin’s sole responsibility to step in and save the school every time the leadership fucks up. He’s done this many times.
He’s saving his own ass and has divested from most of his side projects to solely focus on his dying clothing brand.
Athletics are not what our most successful alumni donate too. Sergey Brin and Brendan Iribe both made donations recently to the school but for computer science, mathematics, etc.
Other than SVP and Kevin there aren’t many making donations into dying brands. It’s a waste of their money as results have not come with the investment.
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u/pew-pew-bacca 19d ago
Plank is right here. The stock has dropped by about 80% and his net worth has dropped by over 60% from its peak.
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u/lewcrewfivetwo 19d ago
Would now be a good time to load up on UA stock??
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u/Critical-Surround-6 19d ago
UA is more likely a buyout target at a sad valuation in the coming years. They’re a cash burner and I don’t see him getting it back up.
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u/Dazzling-Detective42 14d ago
Absolutely not. The chinese amazon brands are decent quality and are taking UA/Nikes lunch money in the fitness apparel market. Nike at least has shoes to fall back on, UA has terrible shoes. All I think UA has going for it is hunting gear.
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u/cdbloosh 19d ago
“Greatest brand”? UA has been in free fall for close to a decade. Did you post this from 2014?
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u/Tripl3Dee Class of 1997-2005 19d ago
UA has dropped a bunch, but it looks like this is an industry-wide thing, not just UA. Nike is also down 75% over the last 5 years, and Adidas is down 50%. Not sure where the market's shifting, but away from where it was. And Plank is on the bad side of it.
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u/Slow_Elk8803 19d ago
He’s been part of Maryland’s NIL strategic plan for years and developed this as well https://www.tbiaf.org/
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u/MrTooToo 18d ago
First Maryland needs an administration that supports sports and would use the funding accordingly. The current administration and football coach could care less for the success of Maryland football.
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u/TraditionalBottle884 Class of 1997-2005 18d ago
Can't just be on Plank and UA, we need to have a serious discussion about our new AD. This is his first major test, and he's said and done nothing so far that leads me to believe he's even considered making a move. He is absolutely failing until we see otherwise, if he can't or won't come up with the money to buy out Locksley soon (within the next week). Then I think we need to seriously consider replacing Jim Smith as well. His buyout isn't even that much for a program like ours by today's standards either, this should be an easy test for him.
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u/doggiedogma Juan Dixon 18d ago
Jim Smith is an Ohio St alum and doesn't care as much if the football and bball teams are winners. He is focused on finance, and winning is not his priority. UMD needs alums running the university and sports programs, only then will UMD have constantly elite athletic programs, alums care a lot more.
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u/90sportsfan 19d ago
UA went out of style and financial value years ago. If NIL had been around back then, it would have been really interesting to see how he could have potentially helped the program, but I don't think he's that big of an asset anymore.
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u/Comfortable-Skin7082 16d ago
UA was a fad for the most part. They never had quality and as other mentions the styling is awful. I was an elementary school PE teacher and it was the brand of 8-10 year old boys. U of MD soccer team is UA and most players wont wear there cleats im guessing because they’re not good. My son who is a high level player says they’re not good.
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u/TapEmbarrassed4376 Class of 2006-2012 19d ago
Under Armour is garbage
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u/Critical-Surround-6 19d ago
Plank is hardly a billionaire any longer and he’s not cash liquid. He’s no solution for funding. Barely staying afloat with his current support.
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u/Jt_marin_279 19d ago
This be belief that we have to rely on Kevin plank to save our football program needs to be smashed. We have a massive alumni base. There are plenty of hugely successful that if the relationships were managed correctly could very easily create a pool of funds that met the NIL requirements of a big-time football program.
Brin too. We don’t need one of the world’s richest people to help here. It would be nice, but we need to access the resources that are more readily available and from people who care about sports and want to see the program succeed.
That said, you have to ask yourselves: if you had $1 billion net worth or more would you stroke a big check to the football program now? I wouldn’t because you would also have to take on a lot of responsibility to ensure that your investment was put to work in smart ways, which means working with the current administration and athletic department that seems to be inept. It’s just not worth it.
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u/LeadbellySoprano 19d ago
Has Kevin Plank done anything successful recently? His Baltimore Peninsula idea flopped so bad he walked away. UA is in the shitter. He sold his farm for like 8m under asking I think. Alcohol brand stinks. Would welcome his donations, but I don’t care about his input or involvement
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u/Inner-Pomegranate937 19d ago
UA stock is down nearly 80% over the last 5 years… and they just lost Curry