RE: Is WMU President willing to spend to support mens basketball? ?
Charm-I agree with you, as I too hate seeing BB and Hockey fans pitted against one another, as the 800# gorilla in the room is football. But football is here to stay and maybe they catch lighting in a bottle or find a miracle season, but they’ll never win a national championship.
SilentStryk09-I agree that BB has the greatest upside, can win some conference tournaments to get into the March Madness Tournament and that would generate a 1 game, possible 2 games press coverage. But they’ll never win a national championship.
BroncoFAN 1-I do not agree with you that MBB profits far exceed anything hockey will bring in. If you take a look at WMU 20/21 Summary Budget you will see men’s basketball budget is actually $220K more than men’s hockey. The primary difference is Lawson Arena, as it generates a lot of income for WMU through ice rentals.
Looking at another web site, WMU men’s basketball revenue was the #6 highest in the MAC (middle of pack), 30% less than the top three MAC revenue leaders in Ohio, Buffalo and Akron. But none of the MAC basketball programs posted a profit. But there is room for improvement.
WMU hockey revenue was the #6 highest in NCHC (bottom 1/3rd), 50% less than the three top NCHC revenue leaders in CC, ND and UMD. Three NCHC programs did post a profit at UMD, SCSU and CC. Hockey revenue is limited by the facility, but if that was addressed they could double revenue.
A survey I would love to see, is to ask the student body which of the 3 major WMU athletic programs (football, basketball or hockey) is their favorite to attend home games? This year Football offered 12 regular season games (6 home), with 2 away games vs top 25 teams, playing in the #11 ranked conference, Basketball offered 31 regular season games (13 home), 0 games vs current top 25 ranked teams and playing in the #18 ranked conference. Hockey offered 34 regular season games (14 home), 19 vs current top 10 ranked teams (9 at home), playing in the #1 ranked hockey conference in the country.
Regardless of the sport, I don't want to see any of WMU athletic teams competing with disadvantages. Our facilities and coaching salaries should be on par with other conference members.
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