(01-02-2013 12:47 PM)DesertBronco Wrote: (01-02-2013 12:36 PM)EA3 Wrote: It's a problem.
I'm not convinced it's 100% about the budget and the fact that we have DI hockey.
I'm more inclined to believe that our athletic dept. is extremely conservative and refuses to spend the extra 100-120k per year to get us 7 or 8 non conference home games.
Why are you inclined to believe that EA3? Do you have a handle on the budget they have to spend and what they're choosing to allocate?
Fill us in. I've asked you this before, you dodge the issue when you make this claim. Why do you make it so often and with such conviction?
To answer your questions as simply as possible...
Here is why I believe that:
It costs about 40k to buy a mid major home game. When compared to travel expenses, using High Point as example...I find the monetary difference cannot be that far apart. WMU pays for a charter bus to take the 17 members of the team, 4 coaches, athletic trainer, 2 team managers, director of ops, and at least one WMU rep (sean fagan) to Detroit. That's a minimum of 26 people. They fly commercial to Charlotte...likely costing about $350 per tic. They charter another bus, provide per diem money and/or provide all meals, stay two nights in a hotel (13 rooms at $150 per night)
Here's a rundown:
$300 charter bus to detroit airport
$9100 in plane tics ($350 x 26 people)
$3000 for charter bus for 2 days in NC
$2340 for meals ($15 per meal, 6 total meals, 26 people)
$3900 for hotel ($150 per night, 2 nights, 13 rooms)
$300 return charter bus from detroit
Total = $18940 (expenses as figured by an outsider)
Now if we averaged 3100 per home game last year...I would say approximately 2500 of those people paid a MINIMUM of $13 per tic.
Do the math...does it add up? Does it make sense that we are on the road? Is it worth trading the @ High Point game for a home game that we buy for 40k? I'd say heck yes. Even without factoring in the revenue of a game, it's well worth 20k or so to get another home game. Throw in the revenue from the game, and we are likely making money.
Again, we just spent 140k to buyout our football coach, and threw in another 100k per year for his assistants. We also just got a check from the MAC for Temple leaving...and another one is coming for NIU's Orange Bowl appearance...and yet another one is coming for Ohio's Sweet 16 appearance...all of which were unexpected. Our athletic dept. has money. How much? I don't know. But we aren't poor. If we were, we'd be scheduling bball games like we did last year, and we'd be scheduling football games against all top 25 teams/programs to maximize paydays.
It isn't expensive to buy home games against mid majors in basketball. Why we aren't doing it is beyond me. Again, if I had to guess...it's because our athletic dept. is fairly conservative. They CHOOSE not to spend the money.
No, I do not have exact numbers for our budget. However, it does not take a rocket scientist to use simple math when a few key variables are public knowledge (where we play, how we get there, cost of buying a game, etc...)
Why with such conviction? Because athletic departments don't operate from paycheck to paycheck. They likely have money that is either ear marked for something else...or they choose not to spend it on home games for bball.
More importantly...why would you, DB, be so inclined to disagree with such a statement? Are you such a "company guy" that you support everything the admin does without questioning whether it makes sense?
