BleedGopher
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per USA Today:
The American economic boom of the last decade has gone hand-in-hand with a fundamental change in the financial reach of college athletics. Beyond the obvious growth areas like television revenue and the College Football Playoff, which helped fuel an exponential rise in coaching salaries, athletic departments became much more sophisticated at getting their fans to part with large amounts of money.
As the stock market roared and businesses thrived, schools climbed over each other to promote hotshot fundraisers into athletic director jobs, launch eight- and nine-figure facilities projects, endow coaching positions and reorient their stadiums toward amenities and premium experiences.
But the looming economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic has raised a question that athletic departments of all sizes are scrambling to assess: Is the party over?
“One of the byproducts we’re facing is people who have lost 25 or 30% of their net value of their portfolio or their retirement funds, that’s going to have some impact on us,” said Utah State athletic director John Hartwell, who finished a $36 million project in 2016 that added 24 luxury suites and more than 700 premium seats to the Aggies’ football stadium. “You could have someone who was buying a suite and 10 club seats but may say, hey I don’t need those extra seats anymore. I think we all have to be prepared for that, but we’re trying to be as proactive as we can. We’re making sure we try to touch base with all of our donors to keep them engaged.”
In a sense, college athletics is no different other sports and entertainment businesses, all of which will face various levels of uncertainty in the post-coronavirus pandemic world. But what made college athletics different, particularly in the last several years, is how much of its growth was fueled by philanthropy and invested in luxuries that were primarily designed to appeal to recruits.
But from the very top of the sport to the bottom, the availability of those revenue streams are being challenged in ways that even administrators who went through the 2008 financial crisis are unsure how to assess.
“Even back then, you knew there was an endgame,” Hartwell said. “History told you the market is going to turn back up, stay the course. But this encompasses people’s financial health, their physical health and, in some cases, mortality. It’s a whole different ballgame. There’s just so much uncertainty still out there that we can’t quantify. We can all guess, but until the health risks have subsided we can't really come up with scenarios that have meat to them. And in the meantime we control what we can control.”
Go Gophers!!
The American economic boom of the last decade has gone hand-in-hand with a fundamental change in the financial reach of college athletics. Beyond the obvious growth areas like television revenue and the College Football Playoff, which helped fuel an exponential rise in coaching salaries, athletic departments became much more sophisticated at getting their fans to part with large amounts of money.
As the stock market roared and businesses thrived, schools climbed over each other to promote hotshot fundraisers into athletic director jobs, launch eight- and nine-figure facilities projects, endow coaching positions and reorient their stadiums toward amenities and premium experiences.
But the looming economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic has raised a question that athletic departments of all sizes are scrambling to assess: Is the party over?
“One of the byproducts we’re facing is people who have lost 25 or 30% of their net value of their portfolio or their retirement funds, that’s going to have some impact on us,” said Utah State athletic director John Hartwell, who finished a $36 million project in 2016 that added 24 luxury suites and more than 700 premium seats to the Aggies’ football stadium. “You could have someone who was buying a suite and 10 club seats but may say, hey I don’t need those extra seats anymore. I think we all have to be prepared for that, but we’re trying to be as proactive as we can. We’re making sure we try to touch base with all of our donors to keep them engaged.”
In a sense, college athletics is no different other sports and entertainment businesses, all of which will face various levels of uncertainty in the post-coronavirus pandemic world. But what made college athletics different, particularly in the last several years, is how much of its growth was fueled by philanthropy and invested in luxuries that were primarily designed to appeal to recruits.
But from the very top of the sport to the bottom, the availability of those revenue streams are being challenged in ways that even administrators who went through the 2008 financial crisis are unsure how to assess.
“Even back then, you knew there was an endgame,” Hartwell said. “History told you the market is going to turn back up, stay the course. But this encompasses people’s financial health, their physical health and, in some cases, mortality. It’s a whole different ballgame. There’s just so much uncertainty still out there that we can’t quantify. We can all guess, but until the health risks have subsided we can't really come up with scenarios that have meat to them. And in the meantime we control what we can control.”
As challenges loom for college athletics because of coronavirus, question becomes: Is the party over?
Since the NCAA tournament was canceled because of COVID-19, the volume of questions and issues athletic directors are facing is almost immeasurable.
www.usatoday.com
Go Gophers!!
