Daryl Gross will no longer be featured in Fly Syracuse commercials

If you are a resident of the Syracuse area, you probably know about the Fly Syracuse campaign. The Fly Syracuse campaign is an attempt to keep airline fees out of Hancock International Airport low. Their intent is to convince people to fly through the carriers at Hancock instead of driving to Rochester or Albany where the flights are much cheaper. The campaign has put together billboards, print advertisement and has television commercials featuring local people flapping their arms like a bird in areas around Syracuse. One of the most famous images from the commercial happens to by Syracuse Athletics Director DOCTOR Daryl Gross flapping his arms like a buffoon on the steps of Hendricks Chapel. (Check the 0:08 second mark of the following video)



However, the news came out in Donnie Webb's blog yesterday that the Athletics Department is going to be making a few purchases. First comes the news that ribbon boards may soon be added to the Carrier Dome (which I have long thought would make it look so much better). The second and more important news which I caught on the Idiot's blog this morning was that the Athletics Department may soon have their own private jet. All I can say is are you fucking kidding me?

I know that DOCTOR Daryl Gross is Mr. Hollywood. But honestly? You think a private jet makes sense here?

I don't know about you guys, but I actually keep tabs on private jets and those things are pretty damn expensive to use every year. With the cost of aviation fuel skyrocketing, how exactly can the Athletics Department justify that cost? I took a look at one of the premiere companies for private jet timesharing, NetJets, to get an idea of the cost of using a jet for a year and it is unbelievable.

For a base fee of $416,625 a year you can own a 1/16 share in a jet from them. Tack on an acquisition fee, management fees, occupation fees, and other hidden costs and you can see that this could balloon pretty quick. But let's just assume that it would cost you the base fee for a a 1/16 share of a jet per year. That turns into $6,666,000 a year to essentially own the jet. Let's say that they have a roughly 25% profit margin and it is going to cost you $5,000,000 to own your own private jet each year.

Think about all of the things that they could fund with $5,000,000. The Athletics Department could take 4 years of that and build the Olympic facility that is needed for swimming and diving, Tennity Ice Pavilion could be expanded so that the Women's Ice Hockey program could play on campus, we could fully fund scholarships for sports that were dissolved years ago such as Baseball and Wrestling.

And of course while doing that, DOCTOR Daryl Gross could continue to be featured in advertisements promoting the use of local air carriers. Not to mention all the US Airways Frequent Flyer miles he could be racking up...