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>>True leaders hope for the best but prepare for the worst, and right now athletics directors like the University of Florida’s Scott Stricklin and UCF’s Danny White are at least contemplating how their programs could endure the financial calamity if somehow the 2020 college football season is canceled.
“For right now, it’s all manageable,” Stricklin says of the coronavirus pandemic that has shut down sports, “but the question your mind goes to really quickly is if this lasts into another school year. From a financial standpoint, if we’re not playing football games in the fall, it will shake the foundation of college athletics. As everyone knows, football pays for the enterprise to go forward.”<<
>>...Believe it or not, right now college athletic departments are actually saving money with non-revenue sports baseball, softball, golf and tennis shutting down. However, that would quickly shift if this shutdown affected football.
“That would be a game-changer,” says Stricklin, who estimates that football accounts for about 85% of UF’s sports income. “… It’s not just ticket revenue; it’s the donations that go along with that. It’s the sponsorship money that goes along with the idea that games are going to be played. And then there’s the TV money. If there aren’t games that are being broadcast, we probably aren’t going to get TV money.”<<
>>So let’s do what must be done:
Let’s navigate these dire straits, stay home and beat the living hell out of this virus so we can get back to where we belong.
Back to the cheers and the beers and the music-to-our-ears in stadiums, arenas and ballparks across the nation.
As we’re starting to see now during this medical and financial crisis, our sports teams need us as much as we need them.<<
“For right now, it’s all manageable,” Stricklin says of the coronavirus pandemic that has shut down sports, “but the question your mind goes to really quickly is if this lasts into another school year. From a financial standpoint, if we’re not playing football games in the fall, it will shake the foundation of college athletics. As everyone knows, football pays for the enterprise to go forward.”<<
>>...Believe it or not, right now college athletic departments are actually saving money with non-revenue sports baseball, softball, golf and tennis shutting down. However, that would quickly shift if this shutdown affected football.
“That would be a game-changer,” says Stricklin, who estimates that football accounts for about 85% of UF’s sports income. “… It’s not just ticket revenue; it’s the donations that go along with that. It’s the sponsorship money that goes along with the idea that games are going to be played. And then there’s the TV money. If there aren’t games that are being broadcast, we probably aren’t going to get TV money.”<<
>>So let’s do what must be done:
Let’s navigate these dire straits, stay home and beat the living hell out of this virus so we can get back to where we belong.
Back to the cheers and the beers and the music-to-our-ears in stadiums, arenas and ballparks across the nation.
As we’re starting to see now during this medical and financial crisis, our sports teams need us as much as we need them.<<