Budget Question

[drinks at Northpoint]

Recently, there was alot of discussion about the Gophers football budget and how it compared to the rest of the Big Ten. An elderly newspaper reporter said we had the lowest budget in the Big Ten. People with the facts said we were in the middle. Maturi also said we were in the middle. One of the items Maturi said we didn't spend as much on was strength and conditioning. He said that where OSU might have two paid staff for that position, we only had one.
Maturi said that he had the ability to pay a well known and experienced coach, not Saban money, but good money. I think that would mean $3.5 million to $4 million for the entire staff including assts. Kill's and his assistants base salary will be significantly less than that.
My question is, since we obviously will be saving money on the coaching staff, will we invest in the support staff of trainers and other personnel that can be just as important to winning?
Just think, we are paying a Director of Golf (John Harris) who doesn't attend meets. He hired a womens golf coach, paid her a salary, and told her she is not allowed to coach or attend away meets so he could then hire his son in law to be the de facto coach. Just think if some of that salary was invested in a program that made money. (I'm not saying cut womens golf, just spend money wisely).

 

[Silvio]

That is a good question. From much of my reading on this board here is what I have learned (been told) about the football budget.

1. It is a very apples to oranges to pineapples to pears comparison for all schools.
2. The numbers released putting the U at the bottom are not accurate, but those people can not give you accurate numbers other than to say that the U is in the "middle".
3. It appears that Kill will be making roughly what Brewster made, but probably paying his assistants less overall. I would think those salaries are probably pretty even in the large scale. My point is that if the money is really there for an extra strength coach now, it was there before.
4. Don't know about the golf situation you mentioned however I think a couple of items are worth remembering. The salaries being talked about for the two women's head golf coaches probably are not great. College golf (at least the Men's game) is global for recruits and players. Golf is probably the biggest sport in the state that in terms of revenue generated and general interest from the public and the U has a top notch agronomy program which sends a lot of graduates into Golf Course Management positions.

 

[Southpaw]

1. It is a very apples to oranges to pineapples to pears comparison for all schools.
2. The numbers released putting the U at the bottom are not accurate, but those people can not give you accurate numbers other than to say that the U is in the "middle".

You're right on the apples to oranges comment. Here's a link from a previous thread discussing football revenue.

http://fringebowlteamblog.com/?p=2431

Minnesota is #23 out of the 65 BCS schools in reported total sports revenue (not bad IMO). Where it gets hard to compare between schools is what each school counts as "football revenue". For example, MN doesn't count parking revenue for football, basketball or hockey games as revenue for that sport; that money goes to the Transportation and Parking Dept (most schools count game-related parking income as revenue for the applicable sport). The MN Athletic Dept seems to have a strategy of underreporting sports revenues to justify high ticket prices. Those mandatory premium seat fees charged by the Athletic Dept for our game tickets must be counted as revenue for that sport, right? WRONG !!! That revenue is hidden in a General Revenue category not allocated by gender or sport - this revenue pays for the non-revenue sports, but the sport generating the revenue doesn't get credit for it. That way Maturi and company can claim that we're only in the middle of the pack as far as basketball and hockey revenue is concerned (not sure about football) and that an expnasion of premium seat fees is warranted. Truth is, our basketball and hockey revenue are second to none in the Big Ten.

 

[Silvio]

Number 23 out of 65 isn't bad, but also remeber that they are 7th in the new BigTen. I don't think anyone is trying to claim that Minnesota is in the middle for Hockey revenue, we agree on that. I wouldn't be surprised if BB isn't in the middle for the BigTen, granted that is probably a tightly packed group but I wouldn't call it second to none.

 

[drinks at Northpoint]

Do you think we will invest in more trainers and other important staff? Maturi said a few months ago we couldn't afford to, does the money saved in a less known coach get spent in another area of the fb program or invested in womens golf?

 

[GoAUpher]

1. It is a very apples to oranges to pineapples to pears comparison for all schools.
2. The numbers released putting the U at the bottom are not accurate, but those people can not give you accurate numbers other than to say that the U is in the "middle".
3. It appears that Kill will be making roughly what Brewster made, but probably paying his assistants less overall. I would think those salaries are probably pretty even in the large scale. My point is that if the money is really there for an extra strength coach now, it was there before.

1) Can't be said enough. It's hard to get a crystal clear picture b/c of how the numbers get crunched at each school.
2) The numbers most folks were up in arms about were from the last season in the Dome. Besides not being apples to apples, they didn't include any of the new stadium revenue streams. So they were the best numbers available at the time but anyone applying logic could see that we weren't going to be behind Indiana with TCF open. The new numbers release earlier this season put us 6-7ish in the new Big Ten. Again, they aren't apples to apples so you can't suddenly start trusting them because they look better for the U. But it is clear that TCF made a big difference in where the U stands on this front.
3) Agreed. I don't think the U went "cheap" with the Kill hiring as he and his staff are going to get nice raises. But since there is a lot of money left compared to the funds they were going to tap if a "name" would come here I would certainly hope that at least some of the difference in revenue would get directed back to the FB team.

 

[Southpaw]

I wouldn't be surprised if BB isn't in the middle for the BigTen, granted that is probably a tightly packed group but I wouldn't call it second to none.

I started a thread on the BB board that compared BB season and individual game ticket prices at Big10 schools (see below) - we're at or very near the top price-wise (and that doesn't even count the substantial income generated from premium seat fees). Admittedly, it's difficult to compare when all details are not available, but it seems MN already has the most extensive premium seat fee structure in the Big 10 (in terms of magnitude of the fee and percentage of seats in the arena requiring a fee)... and, as we're all painfully aware, the expansion of premium seat fees is coming in the 2012 season.

http://www.forums.gopherhole.com/boards/showthread.php?t=22846