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[CL82]

Yes, you stated that correctly. Basketball generated $10.6M in 2023 revenue while football lost $13M. This is the trend I was trying to point out. Our football program does not sustain itself and adds to the deficit year after year. It’s not a sound strategy.

Do you have a link to those figures?

The total net loss for the athletic department was well in excess of the $13 million you tribute to Football. I know for the 2022 budget the total deficit was approximately $53 million.

 

[jostar1]

Yes, you stated that correctly. Basketball generated $10.6M in 2023 revenue while football lost $13M. This is the trend I was trying to point out. Our football program does not sustain itself and adds to the deficit year after year. It’s not a sound strategy.

It's the only strategy that gets us in to a power conference. Looks like there may be changes in the power conferences and hopefully an opportunity for UConn to get invited. So we carry on for now.

 

[FearThePups]

Do you have a link to those figures?

The total net loss for the athletic department was well in excess of the $13 million you tribute to Football. I know for the 2022 budget the total deficit was approximately $53 million.

A bit of a long article but it’s in here.

https://www.ctinsider.com/sports/uconn/article/huskies-ncaa-financial-report-18607929.php

 

[FearThePups]

A bit of a long article but it’s in here.

https://www.ctinsider.com/sports/uconn/article/huskies-ncaa-financial-report-18607929.php

I think the $53M you mentioned is the subsidy amount the school gets.
The overall subsidy, with student fees taken into account, was $53 million in 2022 and $35.8 in 2023.
Whether it’s $50 million or $30 million, such subsidies are always going to be met with skepticism by factions of the tax-paying public. UConn athletics has, though, generated more money in recent years, capitalizing most recently on the success of the men’s basketball program, which generated $10.6 million in 2023.
Per the article, Football operated at a $14 million deficit in 2023. That’s all I had said.

 

[Luna]

It's the only strategy that gets us in to a power conference. Looks like there may be changes in the power conferences and hopefully an opportunity for UConn to get invited. So we carry on for now.

We are in a power conference

 

[freescooter]

I don't think the tournament you have in mind makes that money. People would not have the same level of interest, especially as the Big 2 conferences would demand that 3/4 of each conference made the tournament. And it would be right after their conference tournaments?

You can see how unappealing this all is.

I agree with this. It would be the end of post season basketball at least as far as anyone caring about it. But that isn’t the same thing as whether they could do it or whether it would be more prestigious than the remaining NCAA member tournament. Of course the P4 could do it. And it would, rightly I think, be viewed as the “real” national championship. If the P4 decided to run their own basketball tournament, away from the NCAA, the NEWBIE would offer to clean the locker rooms if necessary to be allowed in. And the situation here is why although there are more non-P4 schools in the NCAA, they have zero leverage to stop the P4 from having there way. I mean now they want to reduce the number of bids to mid-majors. Even talk about eliminating auto bids for league champs. After all if the NEC doesn’t get a bid maybe Purdue would have lost to us twice! And wouldn’t you rather watch a 9-11 Rutgers play a 7-13 Iowa State anyway?

 

[freescooter]

We are in a power conference

Yeah, sure. You keep pretending.

 

[Padutch5]

I think the $53M you mentioned is the subsidy amount the school gets.
The overall subsidy, with student fees taken into account, was $53 million in 2022 and $35.8 in 2023.
Whether it’s $50 million or $30 million, such subsidies are always going to be met with skepticism by factions of the tax-paying public. UConn athletics has, though, generated more money in recent years, capitalizing most recently on the success of the men’s basketball program, which generated $10.6 million in 2023.
Per the article, Football operated at a $14 million deficit in 2023. That’s all I had said.

I dont think anyone outside of UCONN itself really knows what the true financial picture of UCONN sports is. Yes UCONN pays an exorbitant amount to use the XL center, but it really is like an inter company expense. That amount goes from UCONN to the state of Ct that also happens to own UCONN.
I have no idea what these numbers use for the cost of athletic scholarships. Is it the advertised cost of tuition, room and board or is it the average tuition rate actually paid by students which is more like 60% of the advertised rate across all schools?
it is widely believe that athletic success [like national championships] translates into increased applications. Colleges across the Northeast are experience a decline in applications while UCONN is experiencing a significant increase. How does this translate into the numbers used in these analyses?

 

[kobe]

We are in a power conference

 

[CL82]

I think the $53M you mentioned is the subsidy amount the school gets.
The overall subsidy, with student fees taken into account, was $53 million in 2022 and $35.8 in 2023.
Whether it’s $50 million or $30 million, such subsidies are always going to be met with skepticism by factions of the tax-paying public. UConn athletics has, though, generated more money in recent years, capitalizing most recently on the success of the men’s basketball program, which generated $10.6 million in 2023.
Per the article, Football operated at a $14 million deficit in 2023. That’s all I had said.

I found the same article. I'd rather see the actual financials because the way they parse the numbers isn't particularly useful. For the time being let's use the $30 million institutional support number as a proxy for athletic department losses even if you were to eliminate the $14 million football deficit, that would be a $16 million remaining loss.

So no, if we eliminated football the athletic department would not be running at breakeven and certainly not at a surplus.

Solvency is a measure of assets versus liabilities which isn't particularly relevant to your hypothetical.

I think it's important to address the mythology that somehow football is putting the athletic department into the red. It's not.

 

[CL82]

Ugh, I'm actually agreeing with Kobe.

 

[CL82]

I dont think anyone outside of UCONN itself really knows what the true financial picture of UCONN sports is. Yes UCONN pays an exorbitant amount to use the XL center, but it really is like an inter company expense. That amount goes from UCONN to the state of Ct that also happens to own UCONN.

The state of Connecticut pays the university of Connecticut, which then pays the CDRA, which still turns a deficit, which the state ends up paying.

Given that, why have the university pay anything? If it's all a Shell game why take CDRA losses off of their balance sheet and put them on the UConn athletic department? From the outside that makes it look like our athletic department is 1) inefficiently run and 2) not a stable partner for a potential addition to a power conference.

Instead, have UConn play there for ant no direct cost and share in both parking and concession revenues. This will result in the athletic departments profit and loss statement more accurately reflecting their profitability. The state can continue to subsidize the CDRA, but would write one check instead to them for the full amount instead taking a portion of the CDRA loss and subsidizing it through the university. We will continue to support the Hartford economy by playing games there, we will be better positioned for real alignment, the state can continue to support the patronage jobs of being a board member on the CDRA, in the massive losses they pile up and they will be more transparent to the public. Everybody wins.

 

[jostar1]

We are in a power conference

We're talking money here, in case you didn't notice.

 

[FearThePups]

I found the same article. I'd rather see the actual financials because the way they parse the numbers isn't particularly useful. For the time being let's use the $30 million institutional support number as a proxy for athletic department losses even if you were to eliminate the $14 million football deficit, that would be a $16 million remaining loss.

So no, if we eliminated football the athletic department would not be running at breakeven and certainly not at a surplus.

Solvency is a measure of assets versus liabilities which isn't particularly relevant to your hypothetical.

I think it's important to address the mythology that somehow football is putting the athletic department into the red. It's not.

It generates no revenue so yes if it did, we would get closer to a balanced budget. But to say it doesn’t contribute to the deficit is wrong.

 

[bendm]

We are in a power conference

For basketball, yes. For football, no

 

[huskymedic]

It generates no revenue…

UConn Football generates millions in revenue annually - it just doesn’t currently generate enough revenue to cover expenses. There is a difference.

Win and they will come…

 

[Duncan Idaho]

I found the same article. I'd rather see the actual financials because the way they parse the numbers isn't particularly useful. For the time being let's use the $30 million institutional support number as a proxy for athletic department losses even if you were to eliminate the $14 million football deficit, that would be a $16 million remaining loss.

So no, if we eliminated football the athletic department would not be running at breakeven and certainly not at a surplus.

Solvency is a measure of assets versus liabilities which isn't particularly relevant to your hypothetical.

I think it's important to address the mythology that somehow football is putting the athletic department into the red. It's not.

MBB is helping put UConn in the red too. They lost 4 million in FY2023

 

[UConnJim]

One of the first things you learn as a financial analyst is that financial statements don't tell the real story. You have to look closely at allocated expenses and in many cases restate them and reallocate them. I once worked for a business that applied a flat overhead rate to product lines which made a small product line look unprofitable so they sold the product line. Then they figured out there really was very little overhead actually used by the product line and it was actually very profitable. They changed their cost accounting after that and made a better effort to determine actual overhead costs per product line.

UConn's athletic accounting has many bad assumptions although I think they have been making adjustments. Think about this. If you recruit an athlete from CT, UConn says the scholarship cost is x. If the student is from out of state, the scholarship cost is 2x (+/-). Does that really make sense? Things like student intramurals, etc fall under the athletic budget. There are many other examples I could site, but we have gone through this many times before. The biggest revenue opportunity for UConn is from football and that requires turning around performance. And, ultimately, an invite to the P4 and higher revenues will come from having respectable football.

 

[superjohn]

MBB is helping put UConn in the red too. They lost 4 million in FY2023

UConn basketball brings the University and state enormous amounts of cash.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

UConn basketball brings the University and state enormous amounts of cash.

That's great. The basketball teams contributed 10MM to the AD budget deficit in FY2023. WBB recruiting had the same recruiting expenses as the football team.

 

[Waquoit]

Win and they will come…

Or lose in a power conference.

 

[superjohn]

That's great.

FTFY

 

[jostar1]

That's great. The basketball teams contributed 10MM to the AD budget deficit in FY2023. WBB recruiting had the same recruiting expenses as the football team.

What is your point?

 

[AllHusky]

Kobe,

Where you been man? How about a FB wager, straight up, who has the most wins this fall, Huskies or Pussycats?

 

[FearThePups]

UConn basketball brings the University and state enormous amounts of cash.

No argument there.