Gophers listed as 13th in FBS for total athletic department debt with $218MM

[BleedGopher]

Go Gophers!!

 

[Word]

Not Coyle's strong suit.

 

[hello-world]

Not Coyle's strong suit.

Nothing wrong with debt as long as they can service the interest. A lot of big time programs making similar investments on that list. And frankly I'm not sure how Minnesota can stay competitive w/o investing in facilities given location, etc.

Also wasn't most of that from the village? Was that even his project? Feel like I remember fundraising for that back when Kill was the coach.

 

[Word]

Nothing wrong with debt as long as they can service the interest. A lot of big time programs making similar investments on that list. And frankly I'm not sure how Minnesota can stay competitive w/o investing in facilities given location, etc.

Also wasn't most of that from the village? Was that even his project? Feel like I remember fundraising for that back when Kill was the coach.

Regardless, fundraising is not his strong suit.

 

[MGGopher]

Nothing wrong with debt as long as they can service the interest. A lot of big time programs making similar investments on that list. And frankly I'm not sure how Minnesota can stay competitive w/o investing in facilities given location, etc.

Also wasn't most of that from the village? Was that even his project? Feel like I remember fundraising for that back when Kill was the coach.

Ding, ding, ding. Lot of incredible athletic programs on that list. That said, the statistic is flawed as "total debt" isn't all that useful. Debt compared to spending, giving, total budget is more interesting, as is the interest rate at which debt is being serviced as you mentioned.

 

[MGGopher]

Regardless, fundraising is not his strong suit.

I'm genuinely curious about whether there are statistics/reports on his fundraising vs. previous AD's and those at comparable institutions. Coyle definitely isn't a dynamic public speaker, but I wonder how he does behind the scenes with fundraising.

 

[Some guy]

people have accumulated debt from the last 7 years are in better shape than those needing to the next 7

 

[fmlizard]

Regardless, fundraising is not his strong suit.

There are definitely programs that fundraise for athletics better, but I think the U is a more challenging place to do it than many P5 programs.

The three dynamics at play are

1. Pro sports city with lots of competition for the discretionary sporting and sports marketing dollar. MSP is on a very short list of metros that host all 4 major pro sports and a P5 program.
2. Upper Midwestern sensibilities that are more reluctant to spend money on funding college sports when it could be funding other things. The $10M donation goes to fund the science lab instead of a new locker room. Wisconsin and Iowa run into this too. It's not at all a bad thing but it's a cultural reality.
3. Higher costs. Look at the list and notice how many urban schools are on the debt list - Cal, San Diego State, Arizona State, Georgia Tech, Washington. Urban life often creates more wealth but also higher costs.

 

[GopherLaundry2013]

There are definitely programs that fundraise for athletics better, but I think the U is a more challenging place to do it than many P5 programs.

The three dynamics at play are

1. Pro sports city with lots of competition for the discretionary sporting and sports marketing dollar. MSP is on a very short list of metros that host all 4 major pro sports and a P5 program.
2. Upper Midwestern sensibilities that are more reluctant to spend money on funding college sports when it could be funding other things. The $10M donation goes to fund the science lab instead of a new locker room. Wisconsin and Iowa run into this too. It's not at all a bad thing but it's a cultural reality.
3. Higher costs. Look at the list and notice how many urban schools are on the debt list - Cal, San Diego State, Arizona State, Georgia Tech, Washington. Urban life often creates more wealth but also higher costs.

One thing that isn't listed here that puts the Gophers at a major disadvantage is having Division 1 hockey at all of the Division 2 schools, which creates a wedge for what should be a large portion of our "t-shirt" fanbase. Due to the "rivalries" we have with UMD, SCSU, MSU, and even BSU a lot of their alums and students hate the Gophers in hockey which bleeds over into our revenue generating sports that we don't even compete with them in.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

Regardless, fundraising is not his strong suit.

MEGA TONGUE was supposed to be a great fundraiser…. he didn’t do well either…

I think it is a challenging place to suddenly increase the amount of fundraising income dramatically.

 

[The SF Rock]

Finding the needed NIL in the new collegiate sports paradigm is the challenge the U must successfully address.

 

[short ornery norwegian]

I can't tell from the OP if there is any further description or detail on how the figures were calculated.
what is considered "debt" in this chart?

pretty hard to evaluate unless you know the details.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

I can't tell from the OP if there is any further description or detail on how the figures were calculated.
what is considered "debt" in this chart?

pretty hard to evaluate unless you know the details.

I am skeptical about all the financial info for a given school.

Not everyone does their accounting the same way. And despite many being public schools, information is not always easy to get or accurate.

 

[The SF Rock]

As public institutions this should be standardized and legit. I do not doubt they hid as much of it as they could.

 

[upnorthkid]

Building stadiums and renovating facilities for people’s entertainment costs money. More at 10

We were also given 60 million in revenue from the B10 in 2022 and it’s only going up. This is a complete non story unless you’re in the group that wants college sports to not exist how they do now (as semi professionals). There’s nothing “crippling” the University from this

 

[hello-world]

people have accumulated debt from the last 7 years are in better shape than those needing to the next 7

This is super random but the biblical analogy applied to the current credit cycle was pretty funny

 

[Some guy]

This is super random but the biblical analogy applied to the current credit cycle was pretty funny

You must be a catholic elementary school alumni

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

Speaking of fundraising ... double gopher score points available for the current Learners to Leaders raising effort.

 

[Ski U Mah Gopher]

I call BS on Nebraska's accounting.

They pay cash for all they're capital improvements and new facilities? Even Michigan & Ohio State (much richer programs) don't do that.

 

[Gophers_4life]

This is a nothingburger.

$100M per year from the Big Ten is coming to the U starting I believe for the 2024-25 fiscal year.

And as others noted: debt was very cheap (not as much now), and it was for bricks and mortar, the fundamental foundation of athletics dept.

 

[Gophers_4life]

I call BS on Nebraska's accounting.

They pay cash for all they're capital improvements and new facilities? Even Michigan & Ohio State (much richer programs) don't do that.

They have an absurdly delusional fan base.

Just built a $150M football facility? I have no idea, but wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if it was already paid for by donors.

 

[Gophers_4life]

I'm genuinely curious about whether there are statistics/reports on his fundraising vs. previous AD's and those at comparable institutions. Coyle definitely isn't a dynamic public speaker, but I wonder how he does behind the scenes with fundraising.

He comes off as a dork and terrible at public speaking, but that doesn’t mean he’s a bad AD.

Is he any worse than Maturi?

I don’t know if he’s any better than any other AD in getting penny-pinching Scandinavians to donate money to U athletics, there probably have never been any that blew the doors off there.

 

[disco]

Cal's debt is so high because they had to renovate a stadium built in 1922 on a fault line to protect it from earthquakes. That was a major undertaking.

San Diego State just built a new stadium as well on the site of the old Jack Murphy stadium. It's very nice.