$9.25 Million?

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RodentRampage said:
Focusing on the fact that we didn't pay rent at the dome isn't just not telling the whole story, it's barely even reading the cover. Yes, we didn't pay rent there, but that's more than made up for by the revenue streams that we didn't get from the dome: It was a good deal to give us free rent at the dome, but it was a good deal FOR OTHER PEOPLE.

It's like getting a free car that you need to put in thousands of dollars of repairs to keep it running, it's a bad deal.
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The story was about EXPENSES, not total revenue of a program. All I was saying was the story didn't tell the whole story from the UofM's perspective. Probably the only University in the country to play lease free and also not be accountable for any expenses towards upkeep of their stadium. If we were we wouldn't be the bottom of the Big Ten as we were.
 

GoGophers2005 said:
The story was about EXPENSES, not total revenue of a program. All I was saying was the story didn't tell the whole story from the UofM's perspective. Probably the only University in the country to play lease free and also not be accountable for any expenses towards upkeep of their stadium. If we were we wouldn't be the bottom of the Big Ten as we were.
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It's a fair point, but it is surprising that even the avowed "haters" of building TCF didn't bring that up again and again. The U supporters also always claim that the University Athletic Department is one of the few that are charged full tuition by their school.

In your research did you find that to be true or not?
 

Goldmember--transcendent post. Poster HOF for that alone.

This news actually makes me happy considerin the numbers come from our last season in the Dome. Now, with TCF stadium and the now prolific Big Ten network revenue streams should skyrocket. This should in turn lead to much more spending for the football program (which obviously is already occurring with the advent of the new stadium, new practice field, Brew´s helicopter recruiting stunts which are great for visibility, etc.)

With the giant student population the Gophers should be able to spend as much as any school in the Big Ten not named Ohio State, Michigan, or Penn State. If it doesn´t it will be time for us to to grab torches and pitchforks, and apply some public pressure.
 

8-2

The article pointed out that we are 8-2 vs teams with smaller football budgets than our own.
A few years ago, we lost to Bowling Green, Florida International, and NDSU.
That means one of those three teams spent more on their football program than a Big 10 school. We are being outspent by either a team from the MAC, a team from the Sun Belt, or a team from the least important state in the country.
When Maturi announced the decision to bring back Brewster, he said that Gopher football has struggled longer than just when Brewster has been coach. We needed to find out why, well I think we see a reason.
 

I don't see revenue improving for the program (beyond concessions/parking from TCF) without a vastly improved product. Will the university spend the money necessary to improve that product and hope that revenue will follow? How did schools, like Wisconsin, Northwestern, Iowa, and Purdue do it? Did they spend on their football program to improve their product or was it some combination of skill (hiring the right coach) and luck (timing a bad tOSU/Michigan season)?
 


Bottom line....Playing in TCF Bank is going to raise our revenues (so we look better compared to other teams in the Big Ten) and also going to raise our expenses (which will move us up on the list of the debated story we all read).

For years the Michigans and Ohio States were playing in huge stadiums with minimal upkeep. Michigan stadium for the most part is a big pit with seats, not much infrastructure to take care of. Most of these Big Ten stadiums were paid off decades ago, maybe even 50-60 years ago. But now, pretty much every team has taken on some sort of debt of financing to pay for remodels and expansions. I think Minnesota got back into the arms race at the right time. Wisconsin or Iowa can't afford to take on any more debt, and Michigan for the time being is also tapped out after their practice and stadium additions. It will be interesting to see where the Gopher program is at in 10 years. Will we be adding 10,000 seats and encroaching the top 1/4 of the Big Ten in revenues? If Wisconsin and Iowa are there, no reason to think we can't be.
 

drinks at Northpoint said:
The article pointed out that we are 8-2 vs teams with smaller football budgets than our own.
A few years ago, we lost to Bowling Green, Florida International, and NDSU.
That means one of those three teams spent more on their football program than a Big 10 school. We are being outspent by either a team from the MAC, a team from the Sun Belt, or a team from the least important state in the country.
When Maturi announced the decision to bring back Brewster, he said that Gopher football has struggled longer than just when Brewster has been coach. We needed to find out why, well I think we see a reason.
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Read the article again....it said it didn't include any of the military academies or whatever they call the DI-AA.
 

RodentRampage said:
Yes, I do.

At the dome:

Revenue from concessions: 0$
Revenue from parking: 0$
Half-empty stadium begging people to come to games with $10 tickets.

At TCF:

The U gets all the revenue from concessions.
The U gets all the revenue from parking
Full stadium at full price.

That adds up to a lot of money. It's not going to move us to the top of the revenue charts, but it's going to make a big improvement.
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Just imagine how much cash would role in if the concessions were (1) edible, and (2) sold with the aid of cash registers.
 

I vote we lower expenses by not hiring a security firm that insists on full body cavity searches upon entry into the stadium.
 



Wow! This statistic makes me sick. How can we be one of the biggest schools in the country and only spend $9.25 million on our football program? We have some of the most expensive tickets in the Big Ten. I guess it's because we had to build Ridder Arena and support the rest of the women's sports at the U. This school needs to realize that you need to spend money to make money.
 

began11 said:
Wow! This statistic makes me sick. How can we be one of the biggest schools in the country and only spend $9.25 million on our football program? We have some of the most expensive tickets in the Big Ten. I guess it's because we had to build Ridder Arena and support the rest of the women's sports at the U. This school needs to realize that you need to spend money to make money.
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We had the most expensive tickets in the Big Ten? We had many games where the U begged people to go to games with $10 tickets. The dome situation was terrible for revenue. You have to make money before you can spend it.
 

Didn't one of the local news stations do a story on this recently?
I seem to remember one of those 'man on the street' stories where they interview random students. The focus of the story was 'why is the football recruiting budget so high'. One of the 'facts' presented was that we spent more on recruiting than Iowa.
 

drinks at Northpoint said:
Didn't one of the local news stations do a story on this recently?
I seem to remember one of those 'man on the street' stories where they interview random students. The focus of the story was 'why is the football recruiting budget so high'. One of the 'facts' presented was that we spent more on recruiting than Iowa.
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The U of M's football recruiting budget is very high. Someone posted a link here a while back (I'll try to dig it up), and if I remember correctly the U's football recruiting budget was 2nd, or maybe 3rd, in the Big Ten. However, it takes up a disproportionately large amount of the relatively miniscule overall football budget.
 



I think the right approach is being taken - but it is probably futile. Maturi knows in this ultra competitive sports market of Minneapolis WINNING is the only thing that will draw new fans that will increase the revenue of the program.

Instead of spending a bunch of money on marketing, etc, which won't work anyway without the wins - he is putting the money toward recruting. That's also why he hired Brewster. Recruiting. Better players = more wins = the fans we need.

Unfortunately, the area that we have NEEDED to capitalize on is keeping the 4-5 star local players here. These are the kids we inheritently have an advantage in recruiting because they are from MN. However, because of the sports environment in this town that they have been raised in their whole life, these kids have shown time and time again they have no interest in staying and helping the hometown team. Their focus is the NFL.

Goldmember's post is right-on. The Vikings coming here was the beginning of the end of the Gopher football program. It started the attendance slide and eventual move into the dome. It started the apathy of the local fanbase which has trickled down to the high profile kids that have no care to stay home.

If the Vikings were to leave it would start the long process back to where fans will start caring for the football team. Until then, we will be forced to live with a slashed football budget.
 

http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/20...y-grows-on-football-program-instead-of-trees/

The numbers are out today for the profit. The link actually calls it revenue but when reading it closer I believe they are talking about how much profit each school makes for their football programs.

Of the 66 BCS programs, Minnesota ranks 21st with $16.34M. What makes me mad is when I look at the expenses and the profit and calculate the percentage of all revenue that is being used on football programs, Minnesota is in the top 10 for cheap.
1. Texas 25.76%
2. Georgia 30.41%
3. Penn State 30.97%
4. Nebraska 32.47%
5. Notre Dame 32.92%
6. Michigan 34.51%
7. Florida 34.56%
8. South Carolina 34.81%
9. Minnesota 36.15%
10. Michigan State 36.46%

The other schools on this list can afford to be have a low expense percentage because they bring in so much more revenue. Minnesota doesn't have that luxury. The fact that we aren't in the 50-75% range like most other schools that are of the same caliber is a sign that the administration would rather run a program on the cheap and use the profits to fund the non-revenue sports instead of reinvesting into the football program.
 

We could gut the non-revenue sports to funnel more money over to the football team. Whether you think that is a good idea or a terrible idea, it's not going to happen. What needs to happen is that, since the non-revenue sports are already well-funded, for the new revenue from TCF to go to the football team.
 

began11 said:
Wow! This statistic makes me sick. How can we be one of the biggest schools in the country and only spend $9.25 million on our football program? We have some of the most expensive tickets in the Big Ten. I guess it's because we had to build Ridder Arena and support the rest of the women's sports at the U. This school needs to realize that you need to spend money to make money.
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Are you kidding? Some of the most expensive tickets in the Big Ten? I'd say Minnesota is smack dab in the middle of the Big Ten in ticket prices and donations and definately not in the top 4. Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin all are above or equal to Minnesota. Not sure about Michigan State or Illinois.
Secondly your statement about spending money to make money is shortsighted. The University and the athletics program recently spent 180 million dollars to help fund the 300 million TCF Bank Stadium, so I think they realized it. Please remember this was from 2008-2009 school year, the year BEFORE we moved into TCF Bank. So that number will be higher.
 

josh087 said:
Goldmember's post is right-on. The Vikings coming here was the beginning of the end of the Gopher football program. It started the attendance slide and eventual move into the dome. It started the apathy of the local fanbase which has trickled down to the high profile kids that have no care to stay home.

If the Vikings were to leave it would start the long process back to where fans will start caring for the football team. Until then, we will be forced to live with a slashed football budget.
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I think that's a pretty pessimistic view of the situation. Having the Vikings in town certainly doesn't help our ability to hold the interest of the average rube. But we should have the population base to make up for some of that, and I don't know why any of it would directly correlate to what the U decides to spend on football.
Even if we're second fiddle in the state, the football team is still the revenue engine of the athletic department. What the U spends on football is an internal decision, and the single biggest driver of the decision is the priorities of the people making the decision more than it is the external realities of our place in the hearts and minds of the average Joe.
 

RodentRampage said:
Yes, I do.

At the dome:

Revenue from concessions: 0$
Revenue from parking: 0$
Half-empty stadium begging people to come to games with $10 tickets.

At TCF:

The U gets all the revenue from concessions.
The U gets all the revenue from parking
Full stadium at full price.

That adds up to a lot of money. It's not going to move us to the top of the revenue charts, but it's going to make a big improvement.
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They were estimating the new stadium would bring in $3 Million more in revenue per season, but that was before they outlawed alcohol.
 

I firmly believe Gopher Football and the Vikings can coexist. But the U needs to be smart about protecting its "college football" niche. Unlike the strategy of 60's and 70's, they seem to understand that they are not (and should never desire to be) any sort of direct competitor to the Vikings.

I think that's one of the reasons the U has been sooooo unwilling to waiver on the alcohol issue. They know they need to maintain a product that is very unique and different from the NFL. And part of that is to have protocol that is similar to the most successful programs among the other 119 FBS schools ... not the Vikings, as some politicians demand.

There are other markets of similar size that have been able to find a healthy professional sports/ major college athletics balance. Denver, Seattle, and Phoenix all come to mind. Prior to the 60's, the Gophers just had a very large margin for error. The region was exploding with growth and they were the biggest show in town. The game is more complicated in 2010.
 

Oh, gee! You think the fact that 20,000 season ticket holders in Mich & OSU are willing to pay $5,000 each for priority seating matters tontthe program? Methinks yer correct!!! LOL
 


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