Courant: UConn athletics deficit grows to $43.5 million

[upstater]

Private companies can run a deficit and be successful because they are growing market share or show tremendous promise in their future prospects of lowering costs and turning a profit

Doesn’t take a genius to realize this isn’t the case with UConn athletics

UConn athletics are part of a university. It's the overall budget of the university that is in question. This is like a business taking a loss on a unit because of the benefit provided to the overall entity.

I'm not going to get into it too much but the business practices brought to universities in the last 15 years have hurt overall universities badly. I'd say athletics losses are more the result of business thinking entering the university than any academic concerns. Also, business practices coincidentally coincided with a 1,000%+ increase in non-faculty administrators hellbent on assessment. A giant waste of time and a total deflation of morale.

 

[mrl2016]

UConn athletics are part of a university. It's the overall budget of the university that is in question. This is like a business taking a loss on a unit because of the benefit provided to the overall entity.

I'm not going to get into it too much but the business practices brought to universities in the last 15 years have hurt overall universities badly. I'd say athletics losses are more the result of business thinking entering the university than any academic concerns. Also, business practices coincidentally coincided with a 1,000%+ increase in non-faculty administrators hellbent on assessment. A giant waste of time and a total deflation of morale.

Businesses divest individual units all the time.

Look I get athletics will likely always run in the red but the coaches payroll number jumped out at me. I’d love to see the breakdown of that. If 90% of that is basketball and football okay. But I’d love to know how much is coming from sports I don’t see as ‘beneficial’ to the university.

Given only basketball, football, and hockey had any real ticket sales revenue, in my opinion, the accounting needs to be done on a sport by sport level and donations should be included. Make donors check a box for which sports they want there contribution to go towards, or a box for an equal allocation.

That way you can tell which are really performing poorly and which if any are in need of cuts. Manage each sport as its own individual P&L to push accountability throughout lower levels of the organization.

You know your sport is running deep in the red? Maybe you get creative and start a fundraiser. That’s better than having no idea and waiting for AD Dave to cut your sport

 

[UConnJim]

Businesses divest individual units all the time.

Look I get athletics will likely always run in the red but the coaches payroll number jumped out at me. I’d love to see the breakdown of that. If 90% of that is basketball and football okay. But I’d love to know how much is coming from sports I don’t see as ‘beneficial’ to the university.

Given only basketball, football, and hockey had any real ticket sales revenue, in my opinion, the accounting needs to be done on a sport by sport level and donations should be included. Make donors check a box for which sports they want there contribution to go towards, or a box for an equal allocation.

That way you can tell which are really performing poorly and which if any are in need of cuts. Manage each sport as its own individual P&L to push accountability throughout lower levels of the organization.

You know your sport is running deep in the red? Maybe you get creative and start a fundraiser. That’s better than having no idea and waiting for AD Dave to cut your sport

The revenue, expense, and coaching salary data on each sport at UConn is readily available online if you want to dig, although, in my opinion, the revenues of some sports can be understated and the expenses of many sports are understated. Based on the report I have attached from 2017, some sports that don't generate revenues attract donors and some do not.

https://senate.uconn.edu/wp-content...Senate-UBC-Report-on-AD-Subsidy-to-Senate.pdf