The Press just uploaded another puff piece about our program. Click HERE to view. Nice article, but it does not tell the full story.

Kenny Hawkins is a GREAT local reporter, but he won't touch the truth about Bartow. Don't really blame him.

I've emailed Joe and Nathan at the press to let them know that the FIRE MURRY BARTOW thread passed 50,000 clicks today.

I encourage folks to make some noise this week. Like I mentioned on another thread, Sander emailed me back (and Bucfaithful as well). Every little bit helps.

I'm thrilled that the basketball teams generated revenue. That's encouraging news and the athletic department deserves 'props' for that. The turnaround for interest in the women's program is remarkable. I can remember attending games and me, swvabucsfan, and a few others were the only ones in the stands. Coach Ezell deserves a raise for stimulating interest in ETSU women's basketball.

However, as CaptainJack' points out, critical pieces remain missing. First, I'm skeptical of the "11% more students" claim. How did they arrive at that figure? Second, I wish the author would've put these attendance figures in some context and show data over the last 4-5 years. Perhaps this one-year spike occurred because of the novelty of Freedom Hall and return to the SOCON rather than an upward trend? Lastly, and this is a complaint logged for years, I wish the author would've published actual attendance figures.

I too am glad revenues are up and want them to go even higher. But nowhere does the author even mention the state of the men's program. From a fan's point of view we are no longer competitive for the SoCon championship. We are on the outside looking in and the the writers for the Press either do not understand this or they do not care. They are sports writers and it should be a hot topic for them rather than puff pieces. [/i]

I look at it this way. Revenue numbers are up, but prices went up. thus the revenue numbers are up. That's not a good way of looking at it. any business would look at the margins. Last year, i raised my rates, so my revenue numbers were up also. However, my costs also went up, so my margins stayed the same. Those type claims are misleading.

I think one of the most bothersome parts of the article is this line:
"ETSU Athletic Director Richard Sander said he isn’t sure whether it was the change in conference or venue (or both) that brought the popularity increase, but he’ll take it, regardless."

Shouldn't we have SOMEONE who is analyzing why we had the increase and ways to keep it going? Isn't that good business sense? I don't think revenue increases continue well on winging it constantly.

Look at the dramatic increases on the women's side. An enthusiatic coach, competitive team, a decent X's and O's coach, = interest in the program. I question the men's increases with the exception of the monies. The increase in ticket prices askew that figure.

(03-12-2015 08:10 AM)Bennett42 Wrote:  I look at it this way. Revenue numbers are up, but prices went up. thus the revenue numbers are up. That's not a good way of looking at it. any business would look at the margins. Last year, i raised my rates, so my revenue numbers were up also. However, my costs also went up, so my margins stayed the same. Those type claims are misleading.

And expenses went up. We had to pay the city to use their facility

(03-12-2015 08:10 AM)Bennett42 Wrote:  I look at it this way. Revenue numbers are up, but prices went up. thus the revenue numbers are up. That's not a good way of looking at it. any business would look at the margins. Last year, i raised my rates, so my revenue numbers were up also. However, my costs also went up, so my margins stayed the same. Those type claims are misleading.

The article said attendance was up by 107 per game. I'd say that is looking at both Price and Quantity, the components of revenue.

(03-12-2015 09:12 AM)BucDoctor Wrote:  

(03-12-2015 08:10 AM)Bennett42 Wrote:  I look at it this way. Revenue numbers are up, but prices went up. thus the revenue numbers are up. That's not a good way of looking at it. any business would look at the margins. Last year, i raised my rates, so my revenue numbers were up also. However, my costs also went up, so my margins stayed the same. Those type claims are misleading.

The article said attendance was up by 107 per game. I'd say that is looking at both Price and Quantity, the components of revenue.

We know we made more money then last year but how much did we spend this year compared to last year? Hell I don't care if I made a million dollars more then last year if I had to spend 2 million to make it.

All criticisms noted with respect, I ultimately don't give a damn about the $200,000 figure that won't even pay the coaches' salaries and expenses, I bet. Show me some measure of profitability or a projection that it will ever happen. Assure the fanbase that season tickets aren't going up again next year if they want the improvements that have been promised.

Another question: what were costs at the dome compared to FH? Deduct the $50K FH lease from revenues, the gross income without donations already goes down to $150,000. Furthermore, I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the donations now being built into season ticket prices actually inflate all of these numbers. In the past, I believe, you ticketholders made a separate donation. Last year's revenues in comparison to this year's comes across as superficial and incompatible.

Hey, cool, it's nice that revenues are up. Student attendance was so appalling in recent years, I wouldn't be surprised that the Greek night's success this year skewed the avg favorably this time. As the season dragged on, I had no idea there were more than 20-30 students in attendance. If there are actually more, they're not sitting together. They don't know each other exists.

Better put the revenues to good use in FH and to give Ezell a raise, otherwise, revenues will drop at FH (lower attendance) next year and Ezell may be gone. At this point, other than to assure good seats for the future, I see no reason for anyone to purchase season tickets to the men's games. Just buy your tickets at the door (and let the press praise how much higher walk-up attendance is next year! Ha!).

They are probably getting fairly accurate numbers of student attendance (more so than season ticket holders actually showing up) because of scanning ID cards.

I've actually noticed more than a few students sitting in empty season ticket seats. If the ticket holder doesn't show up, most people don't notice or even care.

I am always glad that revenues are going up. Could the increase possibly be because as a SoCon member again we might be getting more fans from the other schools showing up? We have close schools like WCU, Wofford and Furman as opposed to schools like FGGU, North Florida and Stetson. I would think there would be more fans come because of that but that is just an idea and I have no data to support it. I still wish the reporter had mentioned the relative decline of the program and its inability to compete.

Bucfan81, that's an astute observation. The better attended games seemed to have opposing fans. That's got to explain a large part of increased attendance. And, to be fair, it signals on one count the intelligence of the SoCon move. On the other hand, local attendance could still be stagnant or failing. Many season ticket holders were NOT at games across the season, especially as the team's slump continued.

Student attendance is probably the most accurate, queenladybug, I agree. But my point remains that there is not a unified student presence at most games. Greek night was, once again, the best attended and was raucous at points. But I think we lost the game! Ouch!

One of the worst things the program does for student attendance is continue to lose the games that students show up to in large numbers! Putting on a demonstration of failure to the students when it really counts, seriously.

I still suspect that season ticket revenues are being inflated by the inclusion of the mandatory donation. I would like to k ow how they treated the donation in the past - I thought it was a separate exchange.

In light of BARTOW OUT I redact all previous criticisms of revenues, attendance, and program quality with respect to the athletic department and university leadership. Thou art redeemed! And we, the fans, availed.

On the revenue side, remember that the dome has hosted a few events they normally don't thanks to FH, so that could provide an increase in revenue not mentioned in the article as well.

Speaking of puff pieces, isn't it ironic that the JC Press runs that puff piece today and CBS Sports breaks Bartow's firing the same day?

Incredible how inept the paper is now.