Danielos38
07-19-2011, 10:55 PM
http://maryland.247sports.com/Article/Loh-Announces-Sports-Budget-Review-31956
Not sure which section to put this in. I figured that football is coming up and budget issues would effect football more than basketball. Basketball is pretty much safe.
So, the Maryland Athletic Department has had notorious budget issues over the past couple of years. This is pretty much directly attributable to the inept leadership of Debbie Yow and the recent lack of success of our revenue sports. This committee seems to be clearly designed to cut some teams and figure out ways to increase the revenue. It's long overdue. We have a small endowment, which I believe is either the 2nd lowest or the lowest in the ACC. Much like the federal government, to start getting this department right, we have to cut spending and increase revenue... there's no other way to make up such large shortfalls. Anything and everything should be on the table.
Before giving your plan to fix the budget, there are a bunch of factors to consider.
*Maryland carries more sports than most schools in the ACC. Because of its relatively low endowment, especially relative to the number of sports we carry, some will have to be cut.
With that, comes title 9 concerns. Here are the statues of Title IX that must be complied with:
Whether the selection of sports and levels of competition effectively accommodate the interests and abilities of members of both sexes
The provision of equipment and supplies;
Scheduling of games and practice time;
Travel and per diem allowance;
Opportunity to receive coaching and academic tutoring on mathematics only;
Assignment and compensation of coaches and tutors;
Provision of locker rooms, practice and competitive facilities;
Provision of medical and training facilities and services;
Provision of housing and dining facilities and services;
Publicity.
This essentially breaks down to the facts that schools have to carry as many, if not more, women's athletic scholarships than men. Because Maryland obviously carries football, those scholarships have to be made up somewhere in women's sports. Something to consider.
*When choosing to cut teams, one must think of the political consequences. There are donors attached to even non-revenue teams who happen to care about a certain sport. That is the case with Maryland baseball and a few others.
*As a general rule of thumb, each non revenue sport costs the school approximately $1 in total per year. Men's basketball and football both make money, while women's basketball, men's lacrosse and men's soccer are all generally revenue neutral, and thus are obviously not subject to being cut. Not that anyone would want to cut any of those anyway.
*You also have to consider existing facilities when cutting sports. Though it is a popular sport in the area, the Maryland baseball field is in prime location in the center of campus, right near the team houses and practice fields, which could be utilized in a much more revenue beneficial way. However, softball has their own complex on the outskirts of campus. Because that is a women's sport with a decent number of roster spots and uses land that is not otherwise particularly valuable, it is probably not the best one to cut.
*Now we come to increasing revenue. Obviously, there are a lot of ways that you could increase revenue. Realistically, most of the revenue potential is in football. All that men's basketball with take to increase revenue is winning. It seems absolutely clear that simply winning will fill Comcast on a regular basis and max out basketball's revenue potential. Not much to do there. There's no real opportunity for making any substantial revenue increases in non-revenue or revenue neutral sports, so there's really no reason to discuss those. Increasing revenue all comes down to football. What would you do? Winning is an obvious answer that would clearly help. However, the ACC isn't a football powerhouse and we're probably never going to be at the Virginia Tech level, so some other things do need to happen to make football more financially beneficial on a regular bases.
In making your plans, try to be as realistic as possible. I plan on e-mailing mine to Randy Eaton and Kevin Anderson. I know for a fact that Eaton reads his, I'm not sure about Anderson.
Here's mine:
Men's sports to cut:
*Cross country: It's the only non-fully funded sports that uMD carries. They aren't particularly successful and there aren't any facilities concerns. This is the easiest one to cut, IMO.
*Track and Field: Same reasons as XC. Not successful, no facilities concerns.
*Tennis: Again not successful. No revenue what-so-ever. Courts are basically in a parking lot and are utilized by students anyways.
*Swimming: Not a successful team, no revenue. The pool is in the recreation center and is often utilized by students. Plus, there are a lot of scholarships/roster spots to be cut, making it easier to cut a few women's sports as well.
Women's Sports to Cut:
*Cross Country: Same reasons as men's.
*Track and Field: Same reasons as men's.
*Water Polo: Couldn't this just be a club sport like at most other schools? Making this an official sports costs us a tremendous amount more than having it as a club sport. It's in the same pool as swimming. Seemingly easy one to cut for me.
*Tennis: Same reasons as men's.
As a result the department would be left with:
Mens
1. Baseball
2. Basketball
3. Football
4. Golf
5. Lacrosse
6. Soccer
7. Wrestling
Womens
1. Basketball
2. Field Hockey
3. Golf
4. Gymnastics
5. Lacrosse
6. Softball
7. Soccer
8. Swimming
This would leave us with 15 sports. I have a feeling that these cuts are probably more dramatic than the athletic department and administration would go for. Admittedly, I don't really care about any sports other than men's basketball, soccer, lacrosse and football. I care some about women's basketball. As a result, I'm not too sentimental about any of the sports that I'm proposing to cut.
That brings us to revenue increases. As I said earlier, the only real opportunity to do this is football.
Obviously, winning is going to fill the stadium more than it is and sell more luxury suites. I feel like a good place for Maryland football to be would be to competing for division titles regularly with a berth in the ACC Championship once every five years or so. I'm still not sure if that will be enough to fill the stadium on a regular basis.
With the Redskins and Ravens around, both with huge fanbases, it's going to be hard to get people to buy season tickets for both.
My plan would revolve around huge upper deck deals for families, youth football players and groups. Even if you only break even on those last game by game group ticket sales, it's worth just getting them into the stadium to buy concessions. I think that seeing a full stadium on TV can have an underrated and large impact on future ticket sales. People, especially in the DC area are very event oriented. MD football games look/feel much more like a big event when the stadium is full and loud. Hopefully, the initial loss/break even will facilitate an improved atmosphere and experience, resulting in increased future season ticket sales.
So that's about it. What say you? How are you going to save the athletic department? Huge changes have already been made in our revenue sports with new coaches, will the athletic department as a whole chance too?
Not sure which section to put this in. I figured that football is coming up and budget issues would effect football more than basketball. Basketball is pretty much safe.
So, the Maryland Athletic Department has had notorious budget issues over the past couple of years. This is pretty much directly attributable to the inept leadership of Debbie Yow and the recent lack of success of our revenue sports. This committee seems to be clearly designed to cut some teams and figure out ways to increase the revenue. It's long overdue. We have a small endowment, which I believe is either the 2nd lowest or the lowest in the ACC. Much like the federal government, to start getting this department right, we have to cut spending and increase revenue... there's no other way to make up such large shortfalls. Anything and everything should be on the table.
Before giving your plan to fix the budget, there are a bunch of factors to consider.
*Maryland carries more sports than most schools in the ACC. Because of its relatively low endowment, especially relative to the number of sports we carry, some will have to be cut.
With that, comes title 9 concerns. Here are the statues of Title IX that must be complied with:
Whether the selection of sports and levels of competition effectively accommodate the interests and abilities of members of both sexes
The provision of equipment and supplies;
Scheduling of games and practice time;
Travel and per diem allowance;
Opportunity to receive coaching and academic tutoring on mathematics only;
Assignment and compensation of coaches and tutors;
Provision of locker rooms, practice and competitive facilities;
Provision of medical and training facilities and services;
Provision of housing and dining facilities and services;
Publicity.
This essentially breaks down to the facts that schools have to carry as many, if not more, women's athletic scholarships than men. Because Maryland obviously carries football, those scholarships have to be made up somewhere in women's sports. Something to consider.
*When choosing to cut teams, one must think of the political consequences. There are donors attached to even non-revenue teams who happen to care about a certain sport. That is the case with Maryland baseball and a few others.
*As a general rule of thumb, each non revenue sport costs the school approximately $1 in total per year. Men's basketball and football both make money, while women's basketball, men's lacrosse and men's soccer are all generally revenue neutral, and thus are obviously not subject to being cut. Not that anyone would want to cut any of those anyway.
*You also have to consider existing facilities when cutting sports. Though it is a popular sport in the area, the Maryland baseball field is in prime location in the center of campus, right near the team houses and practice fields, which could be utilized in a much more revenue beneficial way. However, softball has their own complex on the outskirts of campus. Because that is a women's sport with a decent number of roster spots and uses land that is not otherwise particularly valuable, it is probably not the best one to cut.
*Now we come to increasing revenue. Obviously, there are a lot of ways that you could increase revenue. Realistically, most of the revenue potential is in football. All that men's basketball with take to increase revenue is winning. It seems absolutely clear that simply winning will fill Comcast on a regular basis and max out basketball's revenue potential. Not much to do there. There's no real opportunity for making any substantial revenue increases in non-revenue or revenue neutral sports, so there's really no reason to discuss those. Increasing revenue all comes down to football. What would you do? Winning is an obvious answer that would clearly help. However, the ACC isn't a football powerhouse and we're probably never going to be at the Virginia Tech level, so some other things do need to happen to make football more financially beneficial on a regular bases.
In making your plans, try to be as realistic as possible. I plan on e-mailing mine to Randy Eaton and Kevin Anderson. I know for a fact that Eaton reads his, I'm not sure about Anderson.
Here's mine:
Men's sports to cut:
*Cross country: It's the only non-fully funded sports that uMD carries. They aren't particularly successful and there aren't any facilities concerns. This is the easiest one to cut, IMO.
*Track and Field: Same reasons as XC. Not successful, no facilities concerns.
*Tennis: Again not successful. No revenue what-so-ever. Courts are basically in a parking lot and are utilized by students anyways.
*Swimming: Not a successful team, no revenue. The pool is in the recreation center and is often utilized by students. Plus, there are a lot of scholarships/roster spots to be cut, making it easier to cut a few women's sports as well.
Women's Sports to Cut:
*Cross Country: Same reasons as men's.
*Track and Field: Same reasons as men's.
*Water Polo: Couldn't this just be a club sport like at most other schools? Making this an official sports costs us a tremendous amount more than having it as a club sport. It's in the same pool as swimming. Seemingly easy one to cut for me.
*Tennis: Same reasons as men's.
As a result the department would be left with:
Mens
1. Baseball
2. Basketball
3. Football
4. Golf
5. Lacrosse
6. Soccer
7. Wrestling
Womens
1. Basketball
2. Field Hockey
3. Golf
4. Gymnastics
5. Lacrosse
6. Softball
7. Soccer
8. Swimming
This would leave us with 15 sports. I have a feeling that these cuts are probably more dramatic than the athletic department and administration would go for. Admittedly, I don't really care about any sports other than men's basketball, soccer, lacrosse and football. I care some about women's basketball. As a result, I'm not too sentimental about any of the sports that I'm proposing to cut.
That brings us to revenue increases. As I said earlier, the only real opportunity to do this is football.
Obviously, winning is going to fill the stadium more than it is and sell more luxury suites. I feel like a good place for Maryland football to be would be to competing for division titles regularly with a berth in the ACC Championship once every five years or so. I'm still not sure if that will be enough to fill the stadium on a regular basis.
With the Redskins and Ravens around, both with huge fanbases, it's going to be hard to get people to buy season tickets for both.
My plan would revolve around huge upper deck deals for families, youth football players and groups. Even if you only break even on those last game by game group ticket sales, it's worth just getting them into the stadium to buy concessions. I think that seeing a full stadium on TV can have an underrated and large impact on future ticket sales. People, especially in the DC area are very event oriented. MD football games look/feel much more like a big event when the stadium is full and loud. Hopefully, the initial loss/break even will facilitate an improved atmosphere and experience, resulting in increased future season ticket sales.
So that's about it. What say you? How are you going to save the athletic department? Huge changes have already been made in our revenue sports with new coaches, will the athletic department as a whole chance too?