Does UConn pay rent

[cabbie191]

to play at XL, or Mohegan Sun, or Bridgewater for regular season "home" game?

 

[alexrgct]

WCBB is Uconn's world. South Carolina and ND are "merely " paying rent.

 

[UcMiami]

to play at XL, or Mohegan Sun, or Bridgewater for regular season "home" game?

There are contracts signed that vary by venue - I am sure they spell out the disposition of revenue from the game, and suspect that Uconn is guaranteed some base level number. It is not dissimilar to the way the revenue is allocated internally from the games at Gampel between the school, the AD overhead, and the WCBB program, just in that case no actual money changes hands.

 

[Carnac]

to play at XL, or Mohegan Sun, or Bridgewater for regular season "home" game?

Your query got me to thinking if any other D-1 programs play any of their home games at other local venues.
I know our (Southern California) two major programs, UCLA and USC do not. UCLA has played all of their games in their on campus facility (Pauley pavilion) since June 1965. USC began playing its games in the Los Angels Memorial Sports Arena in 1959 which is in Exposition Park (across the street from the campus).

A brief history.............The Sports Arena became the home court of the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA when they moved from Minneapolis in 1960 (through 1967), the UCLA and USC basketball teams and the NBA Los Angeles Clippers from 1985-99.

It was also the site of the 1968 and 1972 NCAA men's basketball Final Four, the 1992 NCAA women's Final Four, the boxing competition during the 1984 Olympic Games, was a primary site for the 1960 Democratic National Convention and has been a popular site for movies including multiple editions of the Rocky series.

Now they play in The Galen Center that opened on October 12, 2006. If they wanted to expand their exposure, they could. There are many local venues within a 50 mile radius of their campuses that could and would be glad to facilitate them. To date, I don't recall either of them playing game off campus.

 

[UcMiami]

Your query got me to thinking if any other D-1 programs play any of their home games at other local venues.
I know our (Southern California) two major programs, UCLA and USC do not. UCLA has played all of their games in their on campus facility (Pauley pavilion) since June 1965. USC began playing its games in the Los Angels Memorial Sports Arena in 1959 which is in Exposition Park (across the street from the campus).

A brief history...The Sports Arena became the home court of the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA when they moved from Minneapolis in 1960 (through 1967), the UCLA and USC basketball teams and the NBA Los Angeles Clippers from 1985-99.

It was also the site of the 1968 and 1972 NCAA men's basketball Final Four, the 1992 NCAA women's Final Four, the boxing competition during the 1984 Olympic Games, was a primary site for the 1960 Democratic National Convention and has been a popular site for movies including multiple editions of the Rocky series.

Now they play in The Galen Center that opened on October 12, 2006. If they wanted to expand their exposure, they could. There are many local venues within a 50 mile radius of their campuses that could and would be glad to facilitate them. To date, I don't recall either of them playing game off campus.

A number of schools have two venues for basketball, a smaller (and usually older) one for most women's games and a larger one for the men. The women sometime shift to the larger venue when either a top ranked or a big rivalry team comes to town. I believe Uconn is unique in have two major home venues 35 miles apart and a third one they sometimes use. The Sun is considered a Neutral Site and not a Home Court - same as the Garden.

 

[cabbie191]

One of the reasons I posed the question is a discussion on VolNation about how much the respective WCBB teams at Tenn and UConn make/lose.

My sense is that trying to figure out college athletic budgets and profit/loss margins is a terribly complicated task, and I doubt that the same accounting norms are used at every school. For example, the share a conference receives for television money may or may not be shared equally among the member institutions, but even in conferences where each school gets the same amount, how they split it up amongst their teams probably varies a lot.

The discussion got me thinking about whether UConn has extra costs, beyond bus travel to the other sites, for playing at three off-campus "home" sites. Hence the question about rent.

By the way, does anyone know if the UConn annually posts profit/loss data by team? The opening poster on VN was using figures from 2010 stating that both schools lost about $720,000 on their women's basketball programs that year (Note - the post did not describe where the data came from) with UConn losing a bit more than Tenn, but that the Lady Vols made a profit of $29,000 last year.

 

[UcMiami]

One of the reasons I posed the question is a discussion on VolNation about how much the respective WCBB teams at Tenn and UConn make/lose.

My sense is that trying to figure out college athletic budgets and profit/loss margins is a terribly complicated task, and I doubt that the same accounting norms are used at every school. For example, the share a conference receives for television money may or may not be shared equally among the member institutions, but even in conferences where each school gets the same amount, how they split it up amongst their teams probably varies a lot.

The discussion got me thinking about whether UConn has extra costs, beyond bus travel to the other sites, for playing at three off-campus "home" sites. Hence the question about rent.

By the way, does anyone know if the UConn annually posts profit/loss data by team? The opening poster on VN was using figures from 2010 stating that both schools lost about $720,000 on their women's basketball programs that year (Note - the post did not describe where the data came from) with UConn losing a bit more than Tenn, but that the Lady Vols made a profit of $29,000 last year.

It is really really difficult to get bottom line numbers on any 'department' within a university and especially within something as complex as an athletic department for its member programs. How the school charges and allocates the tuition room and board numbers for scholarship athletes, how the overhead for the infrastructure is allocated and how salaries for trainers, tutors, academic advisors, and security, or revenues from concessions and logo merchandise are divided. Add in issues with donations that are non-specific, general rights questions, merchant sponsorships payments and it is a real rats nest that can get extremely 'political'. Then the broadcast rights are also a little murky.

Uconn has in the past been one of the programs that has operated for a year or more in the black, but it is tenuous and I suspect with Geno's increased salary and the general first class operations of the program 'red' is the new norm. The 'red' is offset easily by the 'good will' generated by the program. Any fair accounting of the programs good will value to the University would easily tip the scale back into the black. Uconn depends on the politicians for large subsidies to its operating budget, and they and the tax payers of the state are more willing to part with funds because of the WCBB program's popularity. There is a reason that Uconn brought some WCBB players to Hartford to testify before the legislature!

Your last question - there is all sorts of information available about Uconn income and expenses and budgeting, though how easily interpreted it might be I have no idea - being a public institution everything is subject to freedom of information requests and much is published without the need for those requests being made.

 

[Wally East]

This report from the General Assembly's nonpartisan Office of Legislative Research has revenue and expense numbers from 2009.

 

[cabbie191]

This report from the General Assembly's nonpartisan Office of Legislative Research has revenue and expense numbers from 2009.

Thanks very much for the link.

 

[bags27]

The graduation rate for [UConn] women's basketball players who entered in the 2001-02 school year is 100%..... The 2001 freshman cohort graduation rate among all Division I women's basketball programs was 65%.
Geno gets the smart ones!

 

[49erdan]

Your query got me to thinking if any other D-1 programs play any of their home games at other local venues.
I know our (Southern California) two major programs, UCLA and USC do not. UCLA has played all of their games in their on campus facility (Pauley pavilion) since June 1965. USC began playing its games in the Los Angels Memorial Sports Arena in 1959 which is in Exposition Park (across the street from the campus).

A brief history...The Sports Arena became the home court of the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA when they moved from Minneapolis in 1960 (through 1967), the UCLA and USC basketball teams and the NBA Los Angeles Clippers from 1985-99.

It was also the site of the 1968 and 1972 NCAA men's basketball Final Four, the 1992 NCAA women's Final Four, the boxing competition during the 1984 Olympic Games, was a primary site for the 1960 Democratic National Convention and has been a popular site for movies including multiple editions of the Rocky series.

Now they play in The Galen Center that opened on October 12, 2006. If they wanted to expand their exposure, they could. There are many local venues within a 50 mile radius of their campuses that could and would be glad to facilitate them. To date, I don't recall either of them playing game off campus.

In the 2011-12 Basketball season UCLA actually played 18 home away from Pauley Pavillion while it was being remodeled. The UCLA men's basketball team will play 14 of its 18 home games at the Los Angeles Sports Arena and four others at the Honda Center in Anaheim while Pauley Pavilion is shut down for remodeling construction.http://espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=6309895

 

[Carnac]

In the 2011-12 Basketball season UCLA actually played 18 home away from Pauley Pavillion while it was being remodeled. The UCLA men's basketball team will play 14 of its 18 home games at the Los Angeles Sports Arena and four others at the Honda Center in Anaheim while Pauley Pavilion is shut down for remodeling construction.http://espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=6309895

Ooops....you're right Dan, I forgot about their remodel. Thanks.

 

[Carnac]

The graduation rate for [UConn] women's basketball players who entered in the 2001-02 school year is 100%..... The 2001 freshman cohort graduation rate among all Division I women's basketball programs was 65%.
Geno gets the smart ones!

So true. An athlete's GPA is not factored in to their national ranking.
Unfortunately, there is a point guard at my granddaughter's high school that is an "all-district" athlete; has all the tools.

Unfortunately she's been remiss in keeping her grades up, and consequently did not receive any scholarship offers.
She received hundreds of letters of interest, but no offers (they checked her transcripts), she's not alone.
How many youngsters do we know that fell victim to poor grades? Youngsters that had the talent to play at the next level.

There were 2 other players of lesser talent on the team that did receive and accepted scholarship offers.
Her only hope now is to go to a junior college and bring her grades up to a acceptable level, and hope a 4 year program becomes interested, and takes note.

 

[j66kicker]

The opening poster on VN was using figures from 2010 stating that both schools lost about $720,000 on their women's basketball programs that year (Note - the post did not describe where the data came from) with UConn losing a bit more than Tenn, but that the Lady Vols made a profit of $29,000 last year.

Pat was making ~$2 million - easily accounts for the difference, even with the recent slight drop-off in home attendance.

 

[2Husky]

I think they used to pay about $40k per game at XL and kept ticket revenue, but in the new contract no rent and revenue sharing

 

[AdamOwe]

I think they used to pay about $40k per game at XL and kept ticket revenue, but in the new contract no rent and revenue sharing

I can't comment on the new contract but as far as the old one is concerned, I had read that the games in "the Backwater of Bridgeport" and at Mohegan Sun were part of a negotiation between Uconn and the Civic Center. I searched but can't find those articles though I did run across this http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/art...xl-center-wrangle-over-short-term-lease-talks which comes remarkably close to your approximation of the per game lease.

Long time lurker-rookie poster says hello.

 

[UcMiami]

I can't comment on the new contract but as far as the old one is concerned, I had read that the games in "the Backwater of Bridgeport" and at Mohegan Sun were part of a negotiation between Uconn and the Civic Center. I searched but can't find those articles though I did run across this http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/art...xl-center-wrangle-over-short-term-lease-talks which comes remarkably close to your approximation of the per game lease.

Long time lurker-rookie poster says hello.

The issue with the Hartford site was the previous contract locked in 'x' number of home games at the venue and Uconn didn't want to cut the Gampel games to play games in Bridgeport. The Sun games are not 'home' games but classified as neutral site and usually associated with a 'special event' on the calendar. The most recent negotiations with Hartford were to lower the guaranteed games there I believe and allow for up to three games being in Bridgeport. I think with Bridgeport getting into the NCAA regional pool of venues, they are limited in the number of Uconn regular season games each year they can schedule with 2 (?) becoming the maximum - otherwise Uconn would not be allowed to be assigned to the Bridgeport regional site.