STrib: Pitino far exceeded budget for private jet travel

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scher215 said:
I usually really like Bomani but that is disappointing. I'm sure he's using the Myron article which I don't think mentions it either?
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Of course Myron's article didn't mention that the spending was approved. That's what ticked me off about the article. ESPN picks up in this stuff and runs with it without doing any of their own research. Just like with the sexual assault article the great Strib produced last fall involving the football team. Thanks Star Tribune!
 


Ewert86PC said:
Employee goes to manager says "my flight budget of $100,000 is too small."
Manager says "okay here's $100,000 more."
It is up to the employee to prudently use the appropriate amount of that $100,000 & is not beholden to use all of it.
if the employee goes back to manager and says "I need more" and Manager says " okay here is another $100,000" then why have a budget if you overspend what is alloted by 200%? That says both the manager and employee are scamming the system, by trying to make their own bottomless pockets budget.

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Did you read what atsgopher had to say about internal controls? If you did, you either didn't understand it or you simply have an anti-Pitino agenda.
 

Ewert86PC said:
Employee goes to manager says "my flight budget of $100,000 is too small."
Manager says "okay here's $100,000 more."
It is up to the employee to prudently use the appropriate amount of that $100,000 & is not beholden to use all of it.
if the employee goes back to manager and says "I need more" and Manager says " okay here is another $100,000" then why have a budget if you overspend what is alloted by 200%? That says both the manager and employee are scamming the system, by trying to make their own bottomless pockets budget.

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Your whole line of "reasoning" has no grasp of reality! As many others have stated, budgets are targets that can be adjusted at the discretion of management. The private air travel targets are a contract placeholder that outlines a minimum that will be provided, just so the coach can assure that he gets at least that amount. You can bet that the upcoming private air travel budgets will be increased to put them more in line with the schools we expect to compete with. I had a similar knee jerk reaction to the not filling the gas tank, but I would assume that Pitino learned that from his prior mentors at Florida and Louisville. Time is money and if you want your coach spending 30 minutes looking for a station and paying for a plane to wait on the runway then you may be penny wise and dollar foolish.
 

alchemy2u said:
Your whole line of "reasoning" has no grasp of reality! As many others have stated, budgets are targets that can be adjusted at the discretion of management. The private air travel targets are a contract placeholder that outlines a minimum that will be provided, just so the coach can assure that he gets at least that amount. You can bet that the upcoming private air travel budgets will be increased to put them more in line with the schools we expect to compete with. I had a similar knee jerk reaction to the not filling the gas tank, but I would assume that Pitino learned that from his prior mentors at Florida and Louisville. Time is money and if you want your coach spending 30 minutes looking for a station and paying for a plane to wait on the runway then you may be penny wise and dollar foolish.
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How can having an AD and a coach who don't respect budgetary rules have any authority over players who don't think that social media and personal conduct rules apply to them?

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Ewert86PC said:
How can having an AD and a coach who don't respect budgetary rules have any authority over players who don't think that social media and personal conduct rules apply to them?

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Coach Pitino didn't violate any budgetary rules. The Star Tribune article expressly states that the expenses were approved.
 

vagopher said:
Coach Pitino didn't violate any budgetary rules. The Star Tribune article expressly states that the expenses were approved.
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God, I don't believe I have to sound like your mother, but here goes.... "If all your friends jumped off a bridge would that make it the right thing to do?"

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I am disappointed that we only give our coack 50k or roughly 8 hours, for private jets, to be quite honest. That is peanuts to what other universities are spending and it is peanuts compared to the revenue brought in by U athletics. If we want to compete with the big dogs, we need to allocate more money for such an expense.
 

Ewert86PC said:
God, I don't believe I have to sound like your mother, but here goes.... "If all your friends jumped off a bridge would that make it the right thing to do?"

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Well you're not my mother. I'm probably old enough to be your grandfather. But as others have stated, asking for authority to exceed budget allotments is not improper, and is entirely appropriate where it serves the best interests of the program. And when those requests are approved, its not a basis for criticizing him. You don't like Pitino, and I respect that. But this is not a basis for criticizing him.
 



Let's also remember his contract guaranteed him $50k for private jet use. No where in his contract does it say he cannot exceed that number. Basically, if there is absolutely no money left in the department, he gets to use $50k. If there is more money, and he gets approval to use it for private jet travel, well, he gets to.

And let's also remember that this program, without any real recent success, is a top 15 program in the country when it comes to revenue per Forbes. So, the money is obviously there.
 

Ewert86PC said:
God, I don't believe I have to sound like your mother, but here goes.... "If all your friends jumped off a bridge would that make it the right thing to do?"

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Terrible analogy. Everyone knows jumping off a bridge is a bad idea. Requesting additional funds for work related expenses is a standard practice in business. You're criticizing Pitino for not doing his boss' job.
 

GophersInIowa said:
Terrible analogy. Everyone knows jumping off a bridge is a bad idea. Requesting additional funds for work related expenses is a standard practice in business. You're criticizing Pitino for not doing his boss' job.
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Everyone in "the real world" knows that you have to do your boss' job, so it must be a valid criticism.

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Ewert86PC said:
How can having an AD and a coach who don't respect budgetary rules have any authority over players who don't think that social media and personal conduct rules apply to them?

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You really don't get it. In the vast majority of cases (especially Division 1 Athletics), budgets are not a finite number. They are more so a guideline used to show what a department or sport may want to spend. Things change, occurrences happen and you have to adjust the budget up or down accordingly. If you do not understand that, I don't think anyone here can help you. It seems to me you've haven't ever worked with a budget before or you were to scared to ask about going over budget.

The fact is, Pitino asked, it was approved by his superiors. Where the money came from is not his concern. It is not my concern either when I ask to go over budget on something. It is either approved or it isn't and it is up to people with a much higher pay grade to figure that out.
 



Ewert86PC said:
Everyone in "the real world" knows that you have to do your boss' job, so it must be a valid criticism.

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I spent 40 years in the real world practicing law where I represented numerous Fortune 500 companies and sat on numerous Boards of Directors. I worked with budgets and reviewed audit reports. The real world that I know is different than yours. I admire your tenacity, but not your understanding of "the real world".
 

Ewert86PC said:
Everyone in "the real world" knows that you have to do your boss' job, so it must be a valid criticism.

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I guess I should have been fired long ago because I've never done my boss' job. So if everyone else is supposed to do his/her job, what is a boss/manager supposed to do?
 

I think part of the problem is that most people have little comprehension of business travel. Twenty years ago I used to travel a lot. My expenses were typically $10,000 to $12,000 per month (all air travel was coach -- unless I got a frequent flyer upgrade). So, when I look at the numbers being tossed around in this case my reaction is, seriously? This is much ado about absolutely nothing. In my entire career, I have never been pinged about expenses. You do what you have to to get the job done and it is your boss who worries about the budget. BTW, the only time I ever stopped to top off the gas tank in a rental car was if I had plenty of time and happened to drive by a gas station.
 

harrys ghost said:
I think part of the problem is that most people have little comprehension of business travel. Twenty years ago I used to travel a lot. My expenses were typically $10,000 to $12,000 per month (all air travel was coach -- unless I got a frequent flyer upgrade). So, when I look at the numbers being tossed around in this case my reaction is, seriously? This is much ado about absolutely nothing. In my entire career, I have never been pinged about expenses. You do what you have to to get the job done and it is your boss who worries about the budget. BTW, the only time I ever stopped to top off the gas tank in a rental car was if I had plenty of time and happened to drive by a gas station.
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What is the usual "penalty" for not topping off the gas tank?
 

harrys ghost said:
I think part of the problem is that most people have little comprehension of business travel. Twenty years ago I used to travel a lot. My expenses were typically $10,000 to $12,000 per month (all air travel was coach -- unless I got a frequent flyer upgrade). So, when I look at the numbers being tossed around in this case my reaction is, seriously? This is much ado about absolutely nothing. In my entire career, I have never been pinged about expenses. You do what you have to to get the job done and it is your boss who worries about the budget. BTW, the only time I ever stopped to top off the gas tank in a rental car was if I had plenty of time and happened to drive by a gas station.
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With all due respect Harry, things have changed.

I worked in the public sector for a fortune 500 company before coming back to a private company. During my time with said public company we had a similar expense policy, as a middle manager, I had my own expense account and credit card and all I had to do was submit monthly, supply receipts and everything was approved.

I've since transitioned to one of the private companies I served and remain in close contact with my former employer and many old co-workers. Annually they've halved the expense budget for sales and managerial positions. Coach travel exclusively and incidentals only covered at half the cost in some instances. This particular company has plans to save in excess of a billion dollars from discretionary spending in the next 5 years. Expense accounts are a HUGE bullseye in business today.
 


e.bigelow said:
Usually the price per gallon is significantly higher. Like a dollar to a couple dollars. Isn't it?
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If that. Even so you're talking $10-20 per 'incident'. They spent more paying the auditor to write that part of the report than they would save in 5 years of Pitino taking hours of his time to stop at the Quick-E-Mart.
 

howeda7 said:
If that. Even so you're talking $10-20 per 'incident'. They spent more paying the auditor to write that part of the report than they would save in 5 years of Pitino taking hours of his time to stop at the Quick-E-Mart.
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But.... he's... soo entitled!!!

The whole report is BS. The parts about (heard this on The Right Time last night) about him taking a rental car after away games could be simply explained by him hitting the recruiting trail right after a game.

Coyle said the successful coaches he's been around worked extremely hard at recruiting. Sounds like that's exactly what Pitino did. So much so that he did 3x more than what the Minnesota athletic department expected him to do.


Imagine if he hadn't.....
 

howeda7 said:
If that. Even so you're talking $10-20 per 'incident'. They spent more paying the auditor to write that part of the report than they would save in 5 years of Pitino taking hours of his time to stop at the Quick-E-Mart.
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Winasota Gopher said:
But.... he's... soo entitled!!!

The whole report is BS. The parts about (heard this on The Right Time last night) about him taking a rental car after away games could be simply explained by him hitting the recruiting trail right after a game.

Coyle said the successful coaches he's been around worked extremely hard at recruiting. Sounds like that's exactly what Pitino did. So much so that he did 3x more than what the Minnesota athletic department expected him to do.


Imagine if he hadn't.....
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Agree on both posts. It is such a joke of a story.
 

howeda7 said:
If that. Even so you're talking $10-20 per 'incident'. They spent more paying the auditor to write that part of the report than they would save in 5 years of Pitino taking hours of his time to stop at the Quick-E-Mart.
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Depends on the agency. Some have charged as much as $9 and change per gallon, others are less than a dollar over the going rate.
 


Winasota Gopher said:
With all due respect Harry, things have changed.

I worked in the public sector for a fortune 500 company before coming back to a private company. During my time with said public company we had a similar expense policy, as a middle manager, I had my own expense account and credit card and all I had to do was submit monthly, supply receipts and everything was approved.

I've since transitioned to one of the private companies I served and remain in close contact with my former employer and many old co-workers. Annually they've halved the expense budget for sales and managerial positions. Coach travel exclusively and incidentals only covered at half the cost in some instances. This particular company has plans to save in excess of a billion dollars from discretionary spending in the next 5 years. Expense accounts are a HUGE bullseye in business today.
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In my case things haven't changed much. Those quoted numbers were just for my expenses (I have never had what one would term an "expense account").
 

Jon Weisbrod chimes in:

There are a lot of things to be upset about when it comes to University of Minnesota athletics.

Richard Pitino’s private jet usage is simply not one of them.

Also, ESPN college basketball writer, and former Star Tribune scribe, Myron Metcalf — who seems to jump at every opportunity to take shots at the U — penned a rather scathing article two days ago basically declaring that Pitino is an irresponsible and woefully inept coach. His headline read: “Richard Pitino won't fill up gas tanks and it's costing Minnesota money.”

I’m not saying we shouldn’t be critical of Pitino, because we should. I think even he’d acknowledge many of his shortcomings over the last three seasons. But let’s find something else to complain about.

Attracting top-level talent to Minnesota is a challenging job, especially considering many people outside the state perceive this part of the country as a frozen wasteland comparable to the North Pole. If our men’s basketball coach needs to take a few extra trips to California, or Texas, or Florida, or wherever, to seal the deal with a promising young player, I’m OK with that.

Now, let’s start winning.

http://www.southernminn.com/owatonn...cle_24d5d23d-8d74-503e-acdc-b7fbd93297b5.html

Go Gophers!!
 




I agree that recruiting jet travel cost should be a non-issue. It should be adjusted to something realistic. Richard went hard at recruiting like he was supposed to.

People want to win in big time basketball and football, but they don't want to spend the money. I am not saying we should over-spend, but we should have a realistic recruiting budget to commensurate with the geography and other recruiting limitations that Gopher athletics face for football and basketball.

Until we start winning consistently, this is what is needed. Once we win B1G titles, I expect the burden cost to drop when kids want to come here.

tOSU does not have this problem as they can pick and choose recruits within a 200 mile radius. We don't have this problem with hockey because we are in hockey country backyard.

That is how we got Norwood Teague. Cheap cheap. We got what we paid for. People want BMW's at the price of a Yugo.

This reminds me of a former senior director at work. He was a conservative budget guy, and he always balanced or go considerably below the operational/R&D budget and then some. This made it difficult for everyone to execute because now they have to find alternative solutions taking up considerable time and resources. As a result, we missed a lot of our R&D targets and eventually he was fired.

The AD better be keeping an eye on the price.
 

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