Kansas receives largest gift in College Athletics History

[wiseman3]

 

[javadoc]

Throwing $300M of your own personal money at COLLEGE ATHLETICS?

David Booth, whoever he is, bless his heart, is a freaking idiot with existential priorities spectacularly out of whack.

 

[SUFaninNJ]

Awww, I thought it would be like a giant fruit basket or something.

 

[Chip]

Ok Mr. Weitsman, the gauntlet has been thrown down.

I think you should donate $300,000,000.01 and take the top spot.

 

[ImperialOrange]

Throwing $300M of your own personal money at COLLEGE ATHLETICS?

David Booth, whoever he is, bless his heart, is a freaking idiot with existential priorities spectacularly out of whack.

Imagine all the good you could do in the world for 300m? That's more than the annual gdp of 6 countries

 

[orangefog]

Imagine all the good you could do in the world for 300m? That's more than the annual gdp of 6 countries

WHERE ARE YOUR PRIORITIES?!?!?!?!?!?

 

[SUforme]

Merica...

 

[MSOrange]

Booth is most definitely the king of their athletic donors, but KU has gotten several large donations over the years from others. They got $25 million for the football stadium project only a week ago.

 

[Nick44]

Imagine all the good you could do in the world for 300m? That's more than the annual gdp of 6 countries

This.

I’ve often thought about what I would give the football program if I was ever a billionaire. Probably wouldn’t ever be more than 1-2% and I love this program the way it is at the moment. This guys family office/advisors are probably flabbergasted that they not only lose the ability to manage that much wealth but that it is going to support the Kansas football program. As opposed to some 501c3 that is actually doing some good in the world, which is becoming harder to find these days.

I’ll get off my soapbox now.

 

[MikeSU02]

Throwing $300M of your own personal money at COLLEGE ATHLETICS?

David Booth, whoever he is, bless his heart, is a freaking idiot with existential priorities spectacularly out of whack.

David Booth is the name on the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business.

He also founded and is chairman of Dimensional Fund Advisors.

 

[Hawknate144]

Over his lifetime Booth has donated about 650 Million if not more between Kansas and Uchicago, with bits, and by bits I mean 25 Million dollars, also going Texas, the Museum of Modern Art, and Georgetown.

UChicago's Business school and the Kansas Football Stadium are named after him

 

[Blanko97]

Throwing $300M of your own personal money at COLLEGE ATHLETICS?

David Booth, whoever he is, bless his heart, is a freaking idiot with existential priorities spectacularly out of whack.

Assuming the forbes article is right and he is "worth" 2B. If you are pretty conservative and say that only 35% of his net worth are semi-liquid funds that he himself will earn returns on, then he could pay out that 300M and then recoup that in 8 years with ~7% average return from the S&P. An insane amount of money for sure, but 1B is pretty ridiculous, 2B is even more insane.

Also, considering he is a finance/investing focused guy I’m assuming he’s significantly more liquid than those whose "net worth" is tied up in company stock, where a large sale would tank business’s value.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

I would guess there are other significant gift to causes that go unpublicized. I could be wrong. Perhaps is end game is to establish his own philanthrophic foundation when he dies.

 

[ScriptCuse]

$300M to College Athletics is actually INSANE dude lmfao

 

[FloridaCuse]

 

[javadoc]

David Booth is the name on the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business.

He also founded and is chairman of Dimensional Fund Advisors.

Good for him. He should know better.

 

[Niastri]

This.

I’ve often thought about what I would give the football program if I was ever a billionaire. Probably wouldn’t ever be more than 1-2% and I love this program the way it is at the moment. This guys family office/advisors are probably flabbergasted that they not only lose the ability to manage that much wealth but that it is going to support the Kansas football program. As opposed to some 501c3 that is actually doing some good in the world, which is becoming harder to find these days.

I’ll get off my soapbox now.

Lol, we need to think of the Wealth Advisors!

They probably are really upset to be losing $300 million from their assets under management. That's a cool $1.5 mil in annual advisory fees.

 

[DomeHolmes]

Assuming the forbes article is right and he is "worth" 2B. If you are pretty conservative and say that only 35% of his net worth are semi-liquid funds that he himself will earn returns on, then he could pay out that 300M and then recoup that in 8 years with ~7% average return from the S&P. An insane amount of money for sure, but 1B is pretty ridiculous, 2B is even more insane.

Also, considering he is a finance/investing focused guy I’m assuming he’s significantly more liquid than those whose "net worth" is tied up in company stock, where a large sale would tank business’s value.

Yes. That all makes sense to me and is not crazy, it’s just his priority. I don’t know how old the guy is, but assuming he’s older, it’s his right to do whatever he wants with the money he earned and “cant take with him”. He seems to be quite the philanthropist for other causes as well. Does not seem like it’s an either/or situation with him.

If he donated that money to the university, one might ask, “isn’t the $2 billion of tuition plus government grants enough for any given university?”

No one ever complains about academic gifts, but they often just go to endowments that sit there and create more money, rather than doing something constructive. Athletic gifts always go to something constructive.

 

[PAcuse]

Throwing $300M of your own personal money at COLLEGE ATHLETICS?

David Booth, whoever he is, bless his heart, is a freaking idiot with existential priorities spectacularly out of whack.

It's 10% of his net worth, I'm sure he will just cash some stocks or other rich people nonsense lol.

 

[cliftonparksufan]

It's 10% of his net worth, I'm sure he will just cash some stocks or other rich people nonsense lol.

According to your numbers, he must be worth now about $2.7 billion. Let's see, in that past 365 days, the Dow is up 13%, the NASDAQ is up 26% and the S&P500 is up 19 %. $300 Million is pocket change.

 

[longtimefan]

Yes. That all makes sense to me and is not crazy, it’s just his priority. I don’t know how old the guy is, but assuming he’s older, it’s his right to do whatever he wants with the money he earned and “cant take with him”. He seems to be quite the philanthropist for other causes as well. Does not seem like it’s an either/or situation with him.

If he donated that money to the university, one might ask, “isn’t the $2 billion of tuition plus government grants enough for any given university?”

No one ever complains about academic gifts, but they often just go to endowments that sit there and create more money, rather than doing something constructive. Athletic gifts always go to something constructive.

That is questionable, to say the least.

 

[CusefanATL]

Throwing $300M of your own personal money at COLLEGE ATHLETICS?

David Booth, whoever he is, bless his heart, is a freaking idiot with existential priorities spectacularly out of whack.

Overview
David Gilbert Booth is an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist. He is the chairman of Dimensional Fund Advisors, which he co-founded with Rex Sinquefield. Wikipedia
Born: 1946 (age 78 years), Lawrence, KS
Education: University of Kansas, The University of Chicago · See more
Spouse: Suzanne Deal Booth (m. 1998, divorced)
Organization founded: Dimensional Fund Advisors
Children: 2

imagine being these 2 kids... damn, there goes the bank account.

 

[SU68]

It's his money; he can spend it any way he wants to. The country is full of people telling other people how to spend their money.

 

[Surfan06001]

This.

I’ve often thought about what I would give the football program if I was ever a billionaire. Probably wouldn’t ever be more than 1-2% and I love this program the way it is at the moment. This guys family office/advisors are probably flabbergasted that they not only lose the ability to manage that much wealth but that it is going to support the Kansas football program. As opposed to some 501c3 that is actually doing some good in the world, which is becoming harder to find these days.

I’ll get off my soapbox now.

All I’m gonna say is that I wish we had whales with equally bad financial sense.

 

[SUfaninAZ]

It's his money; he can spend it any way he wants to. The country is full of people telling other people how to spend their money.

And everyone here wishes they had someone like him SU