[Vision2020] Football

[Tim Lohrmann]

Lesee, Michigan lost money for two seasons, Wisconsin
planned poorly for going to the Rose Bowl and Ohio
State broke even in a couple of fiscal years. 
This info is anecdotal at best. Such anecdotes may be
notable because they are unusual not because they are
the rule.

But if a program IS losing money, I guess the question
would come down to the bottom line. Does it makes more
sense to subsidize and keep alumni contributions
flowing OR alienate alumni by cutting the football
budget--thereby insuring that giving from sports
minded alumni slows to a trickle?
        TL



--- Ron Force <rforce@moscow.com> wrote:
> That's what athletic boosters would like you to
> think.  Unfortunately, the
> costs are so large that only a handfull can break
> even without general fund
> subsidies.  From the article:
> 
> "One reason B.C.S. members do not want to share is
> that college sports have
> become so immensely expensive that even some of the
> biggest of the big lose
> money. The University of Michigan, which averages
> more than 110,000 fans for
> home football games, lost an estimated $7 million on
> athletics over the
> course of two seasons, between 1998 and 2000. Ohio
> State had athletic
> revenues of $73 million in 1999-2000 and ''barely
> managed to break even,''
> according to the book ''Unpaid Professionals:
> Commercialism and Conflict in
> Big-Time College Sports,'' by Andrew Zimbalist, a
> Smith College economics
> professor. A state audit revealed that the
> University of Wisconsin lost
> $286,700 on its Rose Bowl appearance in 1998 because
> it took a small army, a
> traveling party of 832, to Pasadena."
> 
> >From the Chronicle of Higher Education May 31,
> 2002:
> 
> When Budgets Are Tight, Subsidies for Sports Are a
> Harder Sell
> 
> "...Apart from a few dozen sports programs that get
> millions of dollars in
> television revenues and consistently sell out huge
> stadiums and arenas, most
> colleges that play big-time sports don't bring in
> enough money to pay their
> bills. Many therefore subsidize their sports
> programs in some way, and those
> subsidies are often unpopular with many professors
> and some students."
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ********************************************
> Ron Force	      	  rforce@moscow.com
> Moscow Idaho USA
> ********************************************
> 
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: vision2020-admin@moscow.com
> [mailto:vision2020-admin@moscow.com]On
> > Behalf Of Tim Lohrmann
> > Sent: Monday, December 23, 2002 10:50 AM
> > To: Ron Force
> > Cc: vision2020@moscow.com
> > Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Football
> >
> >
> > As the "minor league" for the NFL, NCAA football
> is
> > big business for sure. But I'm not convinced
> football
> > programs in general "guzzle" resources at the
> expense
> > of other programs at the University level.
> > Surprisingly, most of them more than pay their own
> > way.
> 
> >
> 
>
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