15 donors use suit to resume dispute with 12th Man Foundation

Fifteen longtime donors to Texas A&M athletics have filed suit against the fundraising 12th Man Foundation, extending into the new year a longrunning dispute over seating and parking rights at the revamped Kyle Field.

The latest lawsuit, filed last week in Newton County, lists as defendants the foundation and 28 current and former foundation trustees. Plaintiffs are donors to endowed athletic scholarships at A&M who live in Newton, Richmond, Kilgore, Conroe, Hearne, Kingwood, Houston, Brownwood, Mansfield, Katy, Dallas, Wichita, Kan., and Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.

The suit alleges breach of contract and other violations by the foundation and its directors. The plaintiffs seek either to have what they believe are their proper seat locations at Kyle Field restored or, as an alternative, damages, costs and fees in excess of a million dollars.

Hines lead plaintiff

The state lawsuit, which lists as its lead plaintiff Nathan Hines of Newton, a 1980 A&M graduate, is the latest of more than a dozen suits filed against the foundation since 2011.

The initial suits involved parking privileges, but most involved ticketing issues and were filed after A&M spent $485 million to expand Kyle Field and imposed a reseating program moving hundreds of endowed donors to less desirable seats unless they made further contributions.

Most of those cases were settled out of court under confidential terms, and a federal class action suit was dismissed on procedural grounds in 2015.

Attorneys are asking a Newton County judge to declare all endowed donors, excluding those who have settled disputes with the foundation, to be granted class action status.

The latest case is based in large part on depositions and information gathered by Houston attorney Scott McQuarrie, who has been involved in similar lawsuits involving seating and parking rights at A&M since 2011. McQuarrie filed the suit on behalf of Hines and the other defendants along with attorneys Bill Cobb of Austin and Blair Bisby of Jasper.

The 77-page document details the relatively humble beginnings of the foundation’s fundraising efforts on behalf of A&M and its growth from annual revenues of less than a million dollars in the 1980s to more than $46 million in 2015.

That growth, however, has been achieved by means that were “anything but consistent with long-established Aggie culture” and violates the school’s cherished honor code that “an Aggie does not lie, cheat or steal, or tolerate those who do,” the suit said.

Reseating at issue

Attorneys claim that foundation officials began in 2004 to downgrade parking rights granted to longtime donors in favor of requirements that would bring money from new donors to the foundation. That culminated, he said, in the reseating campaign associated with the stadium’s expansion.

“The drive for money displaced honor,” the lawsuit said.

The suit singles out for particular scorn several board members who “engaged in half-truths and disinformation, constructed and/or engaged in sham appeals processes, concealed their actions … and even resorted to overtly threatening behavior, all in pursuit of more money.”

McQuarrie said the 15 plaintiffs would be required to spend at least $3.64 million, in addition to making additional contributions to the 12th Man Foundation, to retain seating and parking privileges they were guaranteed either for life or for periods of up to 30 years when they signed endowment agreements.