Quotes from Allen Greene on Buffalo rebranding

"We haven't lost [the focus on prominence within New York], we've just shifted it."

We'll have more coming to you from our sit-down with Allen Greene later tonight, but a first look:

On the financial impact of redoing the branding, on the football field, basketball court, and uniforms:

"I want to squash the concern of wasting state money. ... The football field needed to be replaced last year. ... We were getting new turf no matter what. The basketball court ... that gets repainted every couple of years."

"[It won't be] money wasted, but money that would have been spent as a part of normal maintenance."

Greene also went on to mention that the football uniforms were due for a replacement this year anyway, and that a 'generous relationship with Nike' will help out with the Basketball options. Other sports will rotate out as they come, but donors can boost that process.

On reaching more deeply into the Western New York community, who have other collegiate sports options:

"We need to be relevant. It goes back to winning, and being able to tell our story. ... My hope is that people in the community recognize that our success rate is improving. ... But this is also new for people in our community. College athletics was either not part of their decision to come to UB or part of their experience at UB.

Greene noted that Athletics imagery has found its way into the wider University advertisements of the branding recentering, and that UB is "in a race" with state-level competition to get up to gear quickly.

On fundraising, the Facilities Master Plan and other connected projects:

"The New York Bulls Initiative, and I call that the 'vision', as well, but our strategic plan, essentially, does not change. The one piece that gets readjusted, is that branding piece, but it's just a hair because of the tagline that we're going to use."

"From a facilities perspective, this is where I think the community's involvement is very, very critical. We have not been in a position for very long where we have been able to raise large amounts of money. That's where we need the community's involvement. Recognizing and seeing that we can have success here. We haven't for a long time, but it's achievable."

"Those that are excited about having Buffalo back on the jersey, I strongly encourage those people to step up and support our program."

Again, Robby is going to have a lot more on his chat with Greene, but the AD, even more than his predecessor, is placing responsibility on fans and the community to support the program and its teams more.