How will the U pay for the Athletes Village?

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Stan

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I am surprised at how little media coverage there has been about the U's fundraising for the Village. Obviously the fundraising environment was really challenging last year and it will take time for Coyle to ramp things up, but in a recent Podcast, Doogie said we were around $90 million. We made a pretty big move to go from $0 to $70 million with some very public gifts, a big external program, etc. The next $20 million seems to have gone slower. Well we still need another $90 million or so. Obviously the Village is getting built as we speak so that is awesome, but how does this end up getting funded? It's hard for me to imagine a scenario where we can raise another $90 million, unless Coyle has some big ideas we haven't seen.
 

"Doogie said"

Doogie also at one point said that as far as he knew no new money had been raised during the interim AD's time. That's to say Doogie apparently didn't ask or look or do anything.... and then tweeted.

You can save yourself some time by disregarding Doogie.
 

There will be enough money in the new TV/BTN deal to cover those costs if 'fundraising' falls short.

No one is panicking.
 

Stan said:
I am surprised at how little media coverage there has been about the U's fundraising for the Village. Obviously the fundraising environment was really challenging last year and it will take time for Coyle to ramp things up, but in a recent Podcast, Doogie said we were around $90 million. We made a pretty big move to go from $0 to $70 million with some very public gifts, a big external program, etc. The next $20 million seems to have gone slower. Well we still need another $90 million or so. Obviously the Village is getting built as we speak so that is awesome, but how does this end up getting funded? It's hard for me to imagine a scenario where we can raise another $90 million, unless Coyle has some big ideas we haven't seen.
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I believe there was a threshold $$ amount that triggered the build start, so they must have a financing alternative in place that gets paid down as more donations come in. They've got time. A good FB and BB season with little to no drama in the department will help ramp back up the donations for this project.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
"Doogie said"

Doogie also at one point said that as far as he knew no new money had been raised during the interim AD's time. That's to say Doogie apparently didn't ask or look or do anything.... and then tweeted.

You can save yourself some time by disregarding Doogie.
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He must work for free...
 


I also would like an update on fundraising. It seems like we could expect some substantial gifts from the usual suspects, but we should also be seeing the school cultivate relationships with new donors, so that we aren't up Snit Creek when the current big boys retire or matriculate to that big campus in the sky.
 

Doogie does really good interviews. Asked direct questions and Coyle gave some political answers.

Coyle said he is fine with where fundraising is and that he is building the relationships.


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I suspect that they will keep what progress is made quiet until they can make a splash. There will also be tax considerations for donors so lawyers and accountants get involved in determining timing. I expect that, there will be some kind of announcement around Homecoming, with some additional donations revealed in December.
 



MaxyJR1 said:
Doogie does really good interviews. Asked direct questions and Coyle gave some political answers.

Coyle said he is fine with where fundraising is and that he is building the relationships.
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Yes he does and yes Coyle did. They both did their job here IMHO. Doogie gets too much heat here. Sure he's a reporter, and not a bad one, but he's also a sports "gossip columnist". Same as Sid, Charley Walters, and a number of guys at ESPN, CBS Sports and Fox.

That means that he has to throw a lot of stuff out there. Which guarantees that more stuff will be wrong than right. Though on Twitter, it seems to be the other way around.
 

OP answered own question in his post. No media coverage because it is being built now and will be finished whether or not they raise another dime. What they are short will be taken from other places in the budget or passed on in tuition hikes.
Nothing to see here.


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Kaler was on with Sid and Dave at the Fair last Sunday. He said Coyle is getting out and meeting people (boosters and potential donors), making the point that people are more likely to donate if they have a personal connection with the AD/chief fundraiser.

Kaler also said he sees the fund-raising as a long-term project - not a matter of months but years. If I heard him correctly, Kaler said they will build the new facilities now, and continue fund-raising until they're paid for.
 



short ornery norwegian said:
Kaler was on with Sid and Dave at the Fair last Sunday. He said Coyle is getting out and meeting people (boosters and potential donors), making the point that people are more likely to donate if they have a personal connection with the AD/chief fundraiser.

Kaler also said he sees the fund-raising as a long-term project - not a matter of months but years. If I heard him correctly, Kaler said they will build the new facilities now, and continue fund-raising until they're paid for.
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That's good.

All the donation stuff, season ticket stuff... it's all relationships.

This will take years to see how it plays out.
 


I always assumed the Golden Gophers had some form of gold reserves.... gold is pretty pricey these days... cash out a bit?
 


Spoofin said:
OP answered own question in his post. No media coverage because it is being built now and will be finished whether or not they raise another dime. What they are short will be taken from other places in the budget or passed on in tuition hikes.
Nothing to see here.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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What a dumb statement. The AD doesn't get a dime from the university.
 


When I heard Lou Nanne was involved I really thought he would get it done. It is obvious that people who have much money don't want to share it and two, its going to take a good year or two on the football field to bring in the bucks. I remember after North Dakota beat us, the giving increased dramatically for North Dakota as winning cures all for the most part.

As usual its going to come down to the football team to carry the load on this even though others are benefiting as well.
 



SJUgopher said:
It was a boondoggle but it does bring in several million per month now
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If memory serves me right; the projections went from 34 mill per yr, to 17 mill per yr, to 1.7 mill pr yr. :banghead:

Of course the projection were made by the cmpany that was selling the machines.
 


station19 said:
If memory serves me right; the projections went from 34 mill per yr, to 17 mill per yr, to 1.7 mill pr yr. :banghead:

Of course the projection were made by the cmpany that was selling the machines.
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yup! Terrible.
 


PMWinSTP said:
So how do they cover their yearly shortfall of roughly $7 million?
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Using the word "yearly" is an anti athletic department slant that's interesting to see on this message board...

The $7M loss last year after turning a profit the year before was due almost entirely to the change in policy that forces universities to cover full cost of attendance vs. just their scholarship fees. BTW, that accounts for about 6% of the budget. Budgeting for that policy change for future years (keep in mind the U has a July-June fiscal calendar) should mean they don't consistently operate with a loss. If not then heads need to roll because that's terrible financial management. One other thing to note is the annually escalating TV-based revenue and the bump in scholarship donations from the seating increase, which will outweigh the year-over-year season ticket drop.

I'm not concerned at all about the athletic department having the ability to finance the remaining $60-70 themselves through a combination of donations, financing, & budgeting and am confident that there will not be an impact on tuition or student fees to offset the costs. The slow rate of fundraising doesn't hurt the general student population. It actually hurts the track team and other olympic sports whose follow-on phase 2 projects are next up and will be slow to start without raising the money quickly through donations.
 


AeroGopher said:
Using the word "yearly" is an anti athletic department slant that's interesting to see on this message board...

The $7M loss last year after turning a profit the year before was due almost entirely to the change in policy that forces universities to cover full cost of attendance vs. just their scholarship fees. BTW, that accounts for about 6% of the budget. Budgeting for that policy change for future years (keep in mind the U has a July-June fiscal calendar) should mean they don't consistently operate with a loss. If not then heads need to roll because that's terrible financial management. One other thing to note is the annually escalating TV-based revenue and the bump in scholarship donations from the seating increase, which will outweigh the year-over-year season ticket drop.

I'm not concerned at all about the athletic department having the ability to finance the remaining $60-70 themselves through a combination of donations, financing, & budgeting and am confident that there will not be an impact on tuition or student fees to offset the costs. The slow rate of fundraising doesn't hurt the general student population. It actually hurts the track team and other olympic sports whose follow-on phase 2 projects are next up and will be slow to start without raising the money quickly through donations.
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That's a strange first line you got there...what exactly do you mean?

I'm about as big a Gophs athletics booster as there is on this board. His comment was just plain false. Sports subsidies are built into the university's general operating budget. The athletic department has run a yearly deficit of $7-8 million for at least the past 5 years.

http://www.twincities.com/2015/11/15/umn-athletics-budget-shortfall-is-among-biggest-in-big-ten/
 

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