(11-10-2014 08:51 AM)pbt140 Wrote: I am asking for numbers. I do know that JSU does not lose money in the football program, then again they are in the FCS. All I am asking is how much money is acceptable to lose. (I do not even know the numbers the program loses or gains) You seem to make the statement money is no object, we deserve a football team.
To some degree that's true. 80% or so D1 schools lose money on their athletic departments. What offsets that is that sports get the school's name out there. It is an integral part of the university experience, something that cements an undergrad's loyalty to their alma mater and leads to donations and bequests later in their lives. It is well established that investing in a college sports can lead to growth in enrollment and donations.
Our numbers are bad. I'll concede that. In defense I will also say that they could be *much* better if our program were managed in a way that improved facilities to have the amenities that other schools comparable to us do. If the front end investment was made to improve things instead of actively hamstringing us, keeping us in a dump of a stadium in a bad neighborhood, one UAT abandoned as obsolete and inadequate a quarter century ago and then saying "Look, they're not very good and don't sell many tickets".
Look at Central Florida. When they joined C-USA they were pretty much our mirror image. They had an old basketball arena, an old football stadium, and little success. The Florida Trustees are committed to growing *all* the schools in their system, and basically said that that Florida and FSU had enough and could fund raise for more, and concentrated on building other schools in the system. UCF has a new basketball arena and football stadium. They hired good coaches. When the time came for conference re-alignment, they were able to move up to a better conference that had a better TV contract and bowl connections, and last year they won a BCS bowl, with the attendant payout. Their enrollment has grown over that time. They're doing the same for FIU and FAU now.
UAB *didn't* move up when all but one other team in C-USA did. We didn't have adequate facilities, and no prospect of having them any time in the foreseeable future. We could have built a small stadium at a time when construction costs and financing were at historic lows. We could be playing on campus, with our students tailgating on the quad then walking to the game instead of taking a bus to the projects. We could be getting the parking money and concessions, money we do not get now. We could not be renting a stadium, but instead renting it out from time to time for events that Birmingham currently does not have a place to host. A smaller stadium that we can actually fill would lead to increased demand for season tickets. All of this affects our bottom line, our budget could look much better.
That, however, would take forward thinking and a willingness to grow an athletic program other than UAT's. Our BoT takes the attitude of a three year old... "Mine! Mine! Mine!", and regards every T-shirt and ticket sold, every corporate donation or skybox rented as money stolen from them. They are certainly not interested in equal representation of all three member schools on the board, or even anything close. Their bias is obvious, and the direction they lean is also.
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If Football Is Gone - So Am I
