Arizona needs a big donor. Why not Tucson's Arte Moreno? | Greg Hansen

He has owned the Los Angeles Angels for 23 years, overseeing the rise of Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani to stardom, and winning six AL West championships. 

Not counting mega-star UA athletes who grew up elsewhere, such as Rob Gronkowski, Annika Sörenstam and Steve Kerr, Moreno and maybe gymnast Kerri Strug are the Tucsonans whose names have drawn the most attention nationally.

I bring this to your attention for two reasons.

First, Moreno has been a generous and consistent donor to the UA athletic department (and other areas on campus) since the mid-1980s. About 15 years ago, rumors spread that Moreno ended his relationship with the UA because athletic director Greg Byrne is an ASU alumnus.

That was not true. Moreno no longer stands on the sideline at UA home football games, as he did in the Mike Stoops years, but when I interviewed him before his induction into the Pima County Sports Hall of Fame in 2019, Moreno asked, “Are we ever going to get to a Rose Bowl?'“

At the end of his emotional speech at the Hall of Fame, he said, “Go Cats.”

Using the GI Bill from his days serving in the Army and spending a year in Vietnam, Moreno graduated from the UA in 1973. Although his donations to his alma mater haven't (yet) merited putting his name on a sports facility such other key UA donors Jim Click, Roy Drachman, Cole Davis, Bill Hillenbrand, Richard Jefferson, Terry Francona, Bill and Ginny Clements and David Lowell, it would be a walk-off home run if the UA and Moreno, now 80, could merge to put his name on a sports facility now that his days in Major League Baseball are about to end.

Perhaps he could be Arizona's version of Oregon's Phil Knight, the Nike founder whose financial donations helped turn the Ducks from a mid-level college sports program into one of national prominence.

My second reason for bringing this topic to the surface is that Arizona is currently in the process of hiring a director of annual giving for the athletic department — the No. 1 person in the UA's world of sports finances, a person to manage donor benefits, donor support, as well as the acquisition and retention of philanthropic endeavors.

The position is so vital that in its advertisement for the job, the UA required 13 paragraphs to list must-have requirements.

When AD Desireé Reed-Francois hires her new director of annual giving, one of that person's first calls should be to Arte Moreno.

The finances of college sports have changed so dramatically in the last five years that unless you have a donor of Arte Moreno's resources, it's almost impossible to remain competitive. 

Here's how things are changing. Last week, Duke approved a sponsorship deal with Edward Jones — a powerful financial advisor firm — to put its name on the sacred Cameron Indoor Arena basketball floor, next to that of Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski. Not only that, the Oregon Ducks are going to put the Edward Jones logo on its football field, named after ex-Ducks coach Rich Brooks.

Anything goes, right?

A few weeks ago, Iowa State staged a George Strait concert at its on-campus football stadium. The average ticket price was $575. All 61,000 seats sold out. Cyclones AD Jamie Pollard said the gross profit of the concert was “like a whole football season” and that the school is working on another concert for the summer of 2027.

Now it's Arizona's turn to keep up with the Joneses financially. If its new fundraising director can embrace Arte  Moreno and bring the former Tucson High student back home, it might not need to give George Strait a call.