UConn losing $40M a year on sports - cut sports?

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econalum
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UConn losing $40M a year on sports - cut sports?

Post by econalum » Sat Jan 19, 2019 4:21 pm

Oh, the perils of being in the AAC. While of course, their football team loses $$, even their Women's BBall team loses $3M. Listed here as it was on ESPN as a bball story.

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basket ... d/25802369
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Re: UConn losing $40M a year on sports - cut sports?

Post by KahunaK » Sat Jan 19, 2019 4:25 pm

That is an eye-opener. Perhaps being in the ACC is not what it is all cut out to be. The strange thing is that it lists football, men's an women's bball as losing about $17M. All their other sports lose $23M???? Is that possible? Not clear on what their issues are. Maryland had similar problems and that is what motivated them going to the Big10. Anyone have any insights?

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Re: UConn losing $40M a year on sports - cut sports?

Post by minutefanjsf » Sat Jan 19, 2019 4:31 pm

The accounting method for determine whether a school is in the red or black is very strict and relies primarily on ticket sales. Maybe 10 programs across the country make money using these measures. Athletics are not a money maker for schools they are an expense. Always have been always will be.

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Re: UConn losing $40M a year on sports - cut sports?

Post by McKinney » Sat Jan 19, 2019 5:42 pm

KahunaK wrote: Sat Jan 19, 2019 4:25 pm That is an eye-opener. Perhaps being in the AAC is not what it is all cut out to be.
Some of this they've brought on themselves. UCONN spends more than any other public school outside of the power conferences, $20M more than the next biggest spender (Cincy). Combine that with the largest subsidy in the country and they're an easy target for the media.

However, they're not a P5 school. They don't get a $50M+ TV share like the P5 bottomfeeders receive.

In comparison to G5 schools, they're alright. From the perspectives of subsidy as a percentage of revenue (~51%), subsidy per capita ($1,312), and subsidy as percentage of cost of attendance (2.4%).
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Re: UConn losing $40M a year on sports - cut sports?

Post by wmmmfan » Sat Jan 19, 2019 8:36 pm

AAC is a bad deal when schools have to fly their non revenue sports all over the place.

I don’t know why UConn, Temple and Navy, don’t go Independent in football. Temple could go back to the A10 and UConn back to the big east for all other sports, travel is less and more affordable than AAC. Northeast schools need to be realistic when it comes to football and stop chasing fools gold.

Army, Navy, Temple, UConn Liberty, New Mexico State, BYU and UMass would provide each other with base schedules with their other sports in more logical geographic conferences.

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Re: UConn losing $40M a year on sports - cut sports?

Post by PintOGuinness » Sun Jan 20, 2019 6:25 am

When all the power conferences realigned early in the century, the only school which got screwed worse than UMass was UConn. And they're paying for it now.

Fact.
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Re: UConn losing $40M a year on sports - cut sports?

Post by MJatUM » Mon Jan 21, 2019 12:28 pm

KahunaK wrote: Sat Jan 19, 2019 4:25 pm That is an eye-opener. Perhaps being in the ACC is not what it is all cut out to be. The strange thing is that it lists football, men's an women's bball as losing about $17M. All their other sports lose $23M???? Is that possible? Not clear on what their issues are. Maryland had similar problems and that is what motivated them going to the Big10. Anyone have any insights?
All the other sports lose $23M because their revenue is practically zero. As someone below this post said, for almost all schools athletics is an expense and it's no more true than for non-revenue sports in geographically spread out conferences. Gotta really suck when they get the travel bill to send the Tennis teams out to SMU or Houston - hell even the Florida schools.

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Re: UConn losing $40M a year on sports - cut sports?

Post by McKinney » Mon Jan 21, 2019 9:17 pm

PintOGuinness wrote: Sun Jan 20, 2019 6:25 am When all the power conferences realigned early in the century, the only school which got screwed worse than UMass was UConn. And they're paying for it now.

Fact.
UConn got screwed? IDK they've had some pretty miraculous things happen in the past twenty years:

- To my knowledge, they're the only FCS school who has ever been guaranteed a spot in a football power conference before moving up. (Villanova was too, but obviously, they didn't take up that offer)

- They got a 40k seat stadium without having to take on any kind of financial risk in. The state foot the bill and UConn just "rents" it.

- Their WBB and MBB programs have won 14 national titles in the past 20 years.

- They were considered in the top four final candidates for the Big XII expansion (that ultimately didn't' happen).

So, how did UConn get screwed worse than UMass? I'd be over the moon for even half of those milestones. And I hate it.
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Re: UConn losing $40M a year on sports - cut sports?

Post by Sheck » Mon Jan 21, 2019 11:22 pm

McKinney wrote: Mon Jan 21, 2019 9:17 pm - They got a 40k seat stadium without having to take on any kind of financial risk in. The state foot the bill and UConn just "rents" it.
FWIW UConn actually pays $170k per game to rent that stadium in addition to other operating costs (pg 9).
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Re: UConn losing $40M a year on sports - cut sports?

Post by Bay Area UMie » Tue Jan 22, 2019 2:01 am

To me, this discussion topic begs the question “what about the financial situation at UMass Athletics? Well, unfortunately, our finances are not much better than the situation in Storrs. UMass’ annual athletic operating budget generates a deficit of $37.2m (total $’s, fiscal 2017) i.e. the University’s general fund and student fees are tapped to plug this deficit. UConn’s $40m subsidy (financed thru the GF and student fees) represents 50% of the total annual athletic budget, our $37.2m million represents 78% of our total annual athletic budget (34th highest %, out of 230 departments reporting).

As someone mentioned in this thread, it is virtually impossible to begin to think of ever attaining a self-sustaining athletic department at UMass without the $38-$42m annual media rights fees each of the PAC12/Big10/SEC schools receive-Texas reported $86m in annual media and licensing fees. Interestingly, a spokesman for UConn was quoted in the Courant a few days ago that the $40m deficit level or similar levels were “not sustainable” and that the athletic department was looking at new revenue sources and cutting costs to better manage the red ink. Stay tuned…

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Re: UConn losing $40M a year on sports - cut sports?

Post by eldonabe » Tue Jan 22, 2019 12:33 pm

PintOGuinness wrote: Sun Jan 20, 2019 6:25 am When all the power conferences realigned early in the century, the only school which got screwed worse than UMass was UConn. And they're paying for it now.

Fact.
Umass screwed itself years before the realignment by not setting up football when it was on the map from hoops (even before that really....). They had the cache` to get some better recruits and get the ball moving (no pun intended).


UConn did not get screwed - the simple fact is that UConn thought much more highly of itself than anyone/everyone else did. They really thought they would be anointed into the ACC when everything settled - that narrow vision is what killed them. They should have go to the Big 12 with West Virginia. When your Women's hoop team is the cornerstone of your athletics program, you got problems on the national perception meter!

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Re: UConn losing $40M a year on sports - cut sports?

Post by McKinney » Tue Jan 22, 2019 1:57 pm

Sheck wrote: Mon Jan 21, 2019 11:22 pm
McKinney wrote: Mon Jan 21, 2019 9:17 pm - They got a 40k seat stadium without having to take on any kind of financial risk in. The state foot the bill and UConn just "rents" it.
FWIW UConn actually pays $170k per game to rent that stadium in addition to other operating costs (pg 9).
Operating costs are a sunk cost because they'd have to pay those anyway even if they owned the stadium outright.

I'm guestimating here, let's say 3% coupon rate on the bonds. So that rent would cover idk maybe ~20% of the capital expenditure for Rentschler field over the lifetime of the bonds?

Please correct me if I'm wrong. If they dropped football, there wouldn't be any games, so they wouldn't need to pay anything to the state. They wouldn't be left with the burden of a $100M hunk of steel and concrete. That would be the state's problem.

If that's the case, then there was no risk for them in moving up. And there was a large potential reward being guaranteed entry to a BCS AQ conference.
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Re: UConn losing $40M a year on sports - cut sports?

Post by NilesGold » Tue Jan 22, 2019 2:04 pm

^ Am I right in understanding that UConn spends roughly DOUBLE what UMass does on athletics? If true, there's no fucking way you can blame that on their inclusion in the AAC. That screams of mismanagement by UConn admin, which wouldn't be surprising based on how they've handled their football and basketball coaching firing/hiring lately.

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Re: UConn losing $40M a year on sports - cut sports?

Post by PintOGuinness » Tue Jan 22, 2019 4:28 pm

McKinney wrote: Mon Jan 21, 2019 9:17 pm
PintOGuinness wrote: Sun Jan 20, 2019 6:25 am When all the power conferences realigned early in the century, the only school which got screwed worse than UMass was UConn. And they're paying for it now.

Fact.
UConn got screwed? IDK they've had some pretty miraculous things happen in the past twenty years:

- To my knowledge, they're the only FCS school who has ever been guaranteed a spot in a football power conference before moving up. (Villanova was too, but obviously, they didn't take up that offer)

- They got a 40k seat stadium without having to take on any kind of financial risk in. The state foot the bill and UConn just "rents" it.

- Their WBB and MBB programs have won 14 national titles in the past 20 years.

- They were considered in the top four final candidates for the Big XII expansion (that ultimately didn't' happen).

So, how did UConn get screwed worse than UMass? I'd be over the moon for even half of those milestones. And I hate it.
McKinney, all of what you cite above just reinforces my point that they got screwed over royally. With that pedigree and all of those accomplishments how is it that not only did the ACC pass on inviting them(more than once) to join the conference but the Big 10 did as well? Heck the Big 10 chose Rutgers over them. Yes, Rutgers.
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Re: UConn losing $40M a year on sports - cut sports?

Post by PintOGuinness » Tue Jan 22, 2019 4:31 pm

eldonabe wrote: Tue Jan 22, 2019 12:33 pm
PintOGuinness wrote: Sun Jan 20, 2019 6:25 am When all the power conferences realigned early in the century, the only school which got screwed worse than UMass was UConn. And they're paying for it now.

Fact.
Umass screwed itself years before the realignment by not setting up football when it was on the map from hoops (even before that really....). They had the cache` to get some better recruits and get the ball moving (no pun intended).


UConn did not get screwed - the simple fact is that UConn thought much more highly of itself than anyone/everyone else did. They really thought they would be anointed into the ACC when everything settled - that narrow vision is what killed them. They should have go to the Big 12 with West Virginia. When your Women's hoop team is the cornerstone of your athletics program, you got problems on the national perception meter!
Eldon - totally agree that UConn's hubris was likely part of the reason why they didnt get an invite. Their AD royally fucked up. And also agree that the groundwork for UMass going into a Power Conference and bumping up to FBS should have been laid in the 90's during the golden era of UMass hoop.
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