DI Budget woes thread...

[tornado]

seeing more and more, almost every day about Athletic Dept budget woes...

-we've had a lot about SIU

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=27650

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=27650

-at UNI & Missouri State

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=27650

-and of course Bradley was in trouble due to the problems under Glasser & Cross then the big drop in enrollment. Thankfully that is now reversed under Dr. Roberts.

But today - one of the wealthiest University Athletic Departments in all of college sports...
one of the few that generate a huge profit every year...
University of TEXAS is laying off a whole bunch of their staff in the Athletic Department

https://www.hookem.com/2018/06/04/texas-athletics-lays-off-least-13-staff-members-departmental-restructuring/

the first of the reader comments in that article is a gas....hints that it is all the academic tutors being laid off because nobody studies anyway.

[tornado]

Yikes- the hits keep coming...

now Auburn cans SIX Athletics Administrators ("six senior administrative staffers"}

https://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2018/06/6_auburn_athletics_adminstrato.html

[tornado]

Pitt will drop women's tennis - they went 1-69 since joining the ACC
They dropped men's tennis about 20 years ago..

Pitt cites that Women's Tennis ...
"had the highest operating expenses ($25,969) per player of any team"
... other than men’s & women's basketball & football..

The current players can leave, transfer or stay and their scholarships will be renewed anyway - https://www.post-gazette.com/sports/...s/201904050005

[tornado]

Column in The Southern reveals that SIU's ATHLETIC budget deficit was $4.06 million - largest in the MVC (2016-17)
It was $4.3 million the year before in 2015-16.
SIU's new deal with Banterra (bank) for naming rights to their arena will benefit them about $5 million over a ten year span.

...after SIU hired new head coach Bryan Mullins, it resulted in just
SIXTY (60) new season ticket requests so far. (60 seats, not 60 orders) - but sales to the general public are just now starting.

https://thesouthern.com/news/local/s...=home-breaking

Evansvlle last year sold 551 NEW season tickets in just the FIRST WEEK after new head coach Walter McCarty was hired - that went over 900 by mid-April 2018 and almost hit 2000 by end of the summer

https://www.14news.com/story/37842096/over-500-new-season-tickets-sold-since-hire-of-aces-head-coach-walter-mccarty/

https://www.courierpress.com/story/sports/college/evansville/2018/04/12/look-best-and-worst-case-scenarios-evansville-basketballs-2018-19-roster/511426002/

https://www.14news.com/2018/11/16/ue-mens-basketball-works-bring-younger-larger-crowds/

[Da Coach]

Well, the same thing happened here at Bradley, and maybe worse.
Bradley suffered $6 million per year athletic department losses over the final 3-4 years of the Glasser/Cross administration,
And when the Board of Trustees finally wiped the slate clean, and got rid of the President, AD, and head coach and replaced them with far more capable people, it did not result in immediate surge in ticket sales. I suspect SIU fans are a little like Bradley fans. We were so beaten down with year after year of bad teams, and an administration that was so inept and didn't care about the fans, that many long time loyal fans finally just gave up or moved, or decided they weren't coming back for other reasons.
Bradley's average attendance in 2015-16 (Wardle's first season) rose only from 5,726 (in 2014-15) to 5,953. That was a small increase of only 227 fans per game.
But then in Wardle's 2nd year, the average attendance actually dropped down to 5,487, a drop of 466 and an all-time post-Armory low.
And even more discouraging, this past season's average attendance was even lower! In 2018-19, despite a 20-win season, a MVC Championship, and an NCAA bid, the average home attendance in 2018-19 was just 5,429 , another all-time low!
So despite the best efforts of the Bradley Board to change things, and the great things that Dr. Chris Reynolds, and the new coaches have accomplished, the damage done by Glasser/Cross/Ford are still having their effects, and attendance, ticket sales, and revenues are not recovering.

Bradley's historical attendance numbers since 1978-
Year/rank/Gms..total.....avg....change
2019........16..86,871..5,429 down 270 (all games at Carver)
2018 .......15..85,489..5,699 up 212 (all games at Carver)
2017 #96 15 82,318 5,487 down 466 (all games at Carver)
2016 #91 15 89,299 5,953 up 227 (all games at Carver)
2015 #94 16 91,614 5,726 down 882 (Carver average 5827)
2014 #74 17 112,335 6,608 up 51 (Carver average 6,984)
2013 #79 18 118,024 6,557 down 1,083
2012 #68 16 122,245 7,640 down 807
2011 #56 16 135,148 8,447 down 892
2010 #52 15 140,079 9,339 up 229
2009 #55 18 163,981 9,110 down 490
2008 #52 19 183,392 9,600 down 128
2007 #53 17 165,376 9,728 up 508
2006 #54 14 129,086 9,220 down 117
2005 #51 15 140,065 9,337 up 159
2004 #52 15 137,667 9,178 down 173
2003 #47 14 130,907 9,351 up 279
2002 #47 13 117,935 9,072 down 50
2001 #51 15 136,683 9,112 down 1,066
2000 #41 14 142,495 10,178 up 646
1999 #44 15 142,980 9,532 down 237
1998 #41 13 127,001 9,769 up 144
1997 #41 14 134,755 9,625 down 47
1996 #44 13 125,733 9,672 up 151
1995 #47 14 133,288 9,521 up 707
1994 #46 16 140,700 8,794 up 1,523
1993 #67 13 94,523 7,271 up 278
1992 #78 13 90,904 6,993 down 391
1991 #70 13 95,995 7,384 down 357
1990 #65 13 100,632 7,741 down 1,177
1989 #51 13 115,939 8,918 down 1,098
1988 #36 16 160,263 10,016 up 1,307
1987 #41 14 121,922 8,709 down 199
1986 #37 14 124,712 8,908 up 1,366
1985 #60 15 113,124 7,542 up 350
1984 #62 15 107,881 7,192 down 1,821
1983 #38 16 144,209 9,013 up 1,730
1982 #56 17 123,810 7,283 down 33
1981 #55 14 102,430 7,316 up 63
1980 #59 16 116,050 7,253 up 503
1979 #64 14 94,500 6,750 down 113
1978 #56 16 109,800 6,863

[tornado]

....just to beat a dead horse....

add the totals of average attendance DROPS from 2011 thru 2015 and the number comes to...
892+807+1083+882= 3664

HOLY ****!!! THREE THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED fans lost due to whatever the heck was going on between 2011-2015...
...and there's still people like Kirk Wessler and a couple completely clueless and preposterously ignorant fans who still
continue to claim the people in charge back then were actually good people...

[tornado]

A couple recent stories out of the MVC

-Missouri State discusses dropping programs- they cite budget issues, and dropping the field hockey program saved them almost half a million dollars annually
https://www.news-leader.com/story/sp...ed/1693380001/

-Northern Iowa's enrollment drops to historically LOW levels....sure to cause budget issues as it did here under Glasser...
..and they blame the current economy and LOW unemployment, saying when the job market is this good, kids just don't go to college, they go get a job
https://whotv.com/2019/07/09/uni-pro...source=twitter

[Tommy]

Universities are so subsidized by government that they run just like government. They take other people's money, reward themselves (the people making the budgetary decisions) and spending less than they bring in is not ever a concern because they'll just go back and ask for more subsidies (aka our money).

Budgeting is something every individual has to do in order to survive, but government and the lobbyist industries aren't held to the same expectations as individuals and therein lies the problem.

This will continue to be a problem until universities are forced to operate and survive on their own merits. You better believe the cost of an education would drop if they did this, as well.

[tornado]

There is an issue with some colleges being "for profit" and as you might guess, the people who run public universities
are vehemently against "for profit" universities and want to legislate or force them out of existence.
But if there's one thing I learned from being a business-owner for 40 years, it's that waste & inefficiency (things that are rampant
in anything run for or by the government) are virtually non-existent in for-profit businesses run by smart people.
We should have more such options for kids choosing college.

[bradleyfan124]

Universities are so subsidized by government that they run just like government. They take other people's money, reward themselves (the people making the budgetary decisions) and spending less than they bring in is not ever a concern because they'll just go back and ask for more subsidies (aka our money).

Budgeting is something every individual has to do in order to survive, but government and the lobbyist industries aren't held to the same expectations as individuals and therein lies the problem.

This will continue to be a problem until universities are forced to operate and survive on their own merits. You better believe the cost of an education would drop if they did this, as well.

Ask Western Illinois University about that. They layed off a bunch of people and then gave their outgoing President a nice cushy retirement send off with a salary that is better than most

[Tommy]

There is an issue with some colleges being "for profit" and as you might guess, the people who run public universities
are vehemently against "for profit" universities and want to legislate or force them out of existence.
But if there's one thing I learned from being a business-owner for 40 years, it's that waste & inefficiency (things that are rampant
in anything run for or by the government) are virtually non-existent in for-profit businesses run by smart people.
We should have more such options for kids choosing college.

Amen and well said.

Ask Western Illinois University about that. They layed off a bunch of people and then gave their outgoing President a nice cushy retirement send off with a salary that is better than most

Great example and sadly the norm, not the exception.

[tornado]

......... attendance DROPS from 2011 thru 2015 ......

interesting video from 2013 about loss of student support

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8uNquvwSfI&feature=youtu.be