I want to respond to both of these statements because both are incorrect
(02-27-2012 06:12 PM)SF Husky Wrote: UL basically plays at a NBA arena for their basketball so they can charge a lot more because of the facilities etc. Have you look at how much it cost them to rent that arena? The bottom line isn't that much greater than other big basketball schools.
This is not remotely true. Louisville's Profit alone would rank number 2 in total revenue of all college basketball teams. That is just their profit versus other teams pre-expense revenue. How you get that their bottom line isn't greater than other schools, well I don't know what to tell you.
(02-28-2012 11:31 AM)Frank the Tank Wrote: Louisville's lease deal is a sweetheart one beyond belief. They're getting revenue from the new arena that's more in line with owning it (even though they don't actually own it) as opposed to renting out an NBA facility. Suffice to say, Louisville is making a killing on basketball with the new stadium (both on revenue and take-away profit).
It actually is not a sweatheart lease at all: not when compared to say an NBA team or another college team. They actually pay more in rent for use of the YUM Center than most NBA teams, despite the fact of utilizing half as many dates. For example, UofL's Men's team pays 4 times the amount to rent the YUM center as the OKlahoma City Thunder due to rent the Cheseapeake Energy Center, despite UofL only using 23 game dates, versus 50 for the Thunder (plus the playoffs). Not to mention that the Thunder keep more or less all revenue from game day activities, all parking revenue, and portions of revenue from non-NBA activities, and prevent the arena from scehduling major events in May or June as they have to reserve dates for a possible playoff (but don't pay to block out those dates). For that matter, UofL's women's team pay almost as much in rent as the Thunder pay, despite them only hosting about 18 games per year versus what the Thunder host, and being a much lower revenue activity.
The only NBA teams that pay more than UofL are the ones who play in big market, privately owned arenas. In no way would it be considered a "sweetheart deal" when compared to NBA leases, much less other colleges. There is absolutely no college team that even remotely pays what Louisville does, not even in the same stratosphere. And to go futher, there are no NBA teams in small and midsized markets that pay close to what Louisville pays in rent (reminder that Louisville would be the smallest or second smallest NBA market if it had a team). And in the cases of the few large market teams who do pay more, in those cases, the teams don't really have the leverage to force sweetheart deals (it's not like the Clippers are really going to leave LA, or the 76ers really leave Philly to go to market 1/4 the size). It is also why in only its second season, the YUM Center is profitable, and nearly every other publicly financed arena is not. The City gets just about all of the advantages of an NBA team in terms of Arena traffic (the men's team averages more people per game than any NBA team, and the women's team avergas about 10,500 per game, which gives the city 41 downtown events that average of 16,850 visitors, which would be 16th in the NBA this year just behind the Nuggets, only getting a combine rent that would equate in the top 10 in the NBA, and withotu havign to block out two months for the NBA playoffs, and not giving up non basketball revenue to the NBA team. Thus it is a win/win for both parties.