Geno's State Contract

[UConner]

For those of you who don't know the Babe Ruth retort, back in the Twenties, Babe was paid $100,000 I think , which was more than President Hoover. When asked how he could be paid more than the President, he said "Well, I had a better year".

 

[JordyG]

Why, because he's a state employee and all state employee salaries have to be transparent. I guess in a state currently struggling to make ends meet, an employee whose public compensation approaches 2.5M/year is news: 400k for salary; 2M for giving 15 speeches/year; other things like basketball camps, etc. as much as he wants/can earn on the side.

Folks may quibble over whether Geno's getting compensated as much as comparable (although is anyone comparable in talent?) MCBB coaches, but overall this seems depressingly competitive with all the other absurd salaries paid college coaches. And, while Geno's certainly worth more to the State of CT than any other public figure (maybe even including UConn's very, very fine president), it sends a very bad message about priorities. I know it's the world we live in, and I personally am delighted for Geno and for every dollar he earns (and he really does earn it), but it is still not a good thing.

Still not paid enough. I wonder what his true market value would be if he were a free agent?

 

[ed4ourgirls]

Geno is a showbiz star. For at least as long as I have been alive, showbiz stars have
been compensated at a very high level.

Perhaps the larger issue is the degree to which the nation's institutions of higher
learning have become almost inexorably a part of the entertainment industry. I
say almost because at least one school, the University of Chicago, perhaps sensing
the possible corrupting influence of big time college athletics, abolished it's football
program in 1939 and left the Big Ten for other athletics in 1946. Can you imagine
a college president having the stones to do that today?

Like perhaps some others on this board, I am concerned about this while, at the
same time, acknowleging that I am part of the problem. Specifically, I am an
enthusiastic consumer of college sports entertainment, especially football and
women's basketball. Perhaps the system will evolve in the future, but at the
moment, it is what it is.

 

[bags27]

Geno is a showbiz star. For at least as long as I have been alive, showbiz stars have
been compensated at a very high level.

Perhaps the larger issue is the degree to which the nation's institutions of higher
learning have become almost inexorably a part of the entertainment industry. I
say almost because at least one school, the University of Chicago, perhaps sensing
the possible corrupting influence of big time college athletics, abolished it's football
program in 1939 and left the Big Ten for other athletics in 1946. Can you imagine
a college president having the stones to do that today?

Like perhaps some others on this board, I am concerned about this while, at the
same time, acknowleging that I am part of the problem. Specifically, I am an
enthusiastic consumer of college sports entertainment, especially football and
women's basketball. Perhaps the system will evolve in the future, but at the
moment, it is what it is.

Sure, just a couple of years ago at Hofstra--which had a pretty strong tradition of supplying NFL players and being the summer home to the Jets.

I admit that you're on to something about the gradual trend of higher education as part of the entertainment industry. Doesn't mean we have to go gentle into that good night, however....

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

It seems inconsistent to say that he (or you) have no problem with Geno's salary, but be complaining about... Geno's salary.

Are coaches salaries high at the top of the profession? I guess so but as an institution it is certainly possible to choose not to compete at the highest level and, accordingly, pay our coaches at a different level. Your closing sentence concedes that you don't want to that. Neither do I.

FWIW, Geno's salary is offset by the SNY coach's show and, I believe, Geno's Legacy shows, for which he is not independently paid. Although, I haven't looked in a while, I believe that the WBB program runs in the black. It certainly did not before Geno arrived in Storrs.

Once that is conceded any argument against his salary is specious.

Its a fine distinction - compared to his peers, Geno deserves everything he gets or, arguably, more. In terms of the value (not all financial) that athletics is perceived to give a university, I would suggest that relatively few coaches of any sport are as valuable to their schools. But I do believe it is ok to argue that, for many schools, the amount they pay to their coaches is money that they probably could better spend elsewhere - but it is a difficult to tie up argument, since there are varying opinions as to how much benefit is derived from successful athletic programs, etc.

All coaches salaries are partially offset - I wish some RU fans understood that Nike offsets some of CVS's salary, or certainly did when it was at its peak. But I digress.

UConn WBB has not been in the black as of late, based on any numbers I've seen, which is not unusual for WBB as you know. For all that certain revenue numbers are probably great, I imagine the lack of conference payouts is a factor, but I don't know the details. There was a point where UConn was one of 3 programs reporting their WBB as profitable.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Why? Because UConn is a public institution doing business in a public marketplace. The role of the newspaper is to be a mirror, watchdog, and warden of the general public interest. The newspaper was doing its job, as it sees it.

I guess I should have said why NOW? Or with no info accompanying it. It is not like his pay has been a state secret. Some in this thread have gotten awful twitchy and about what I cannot imagine. I just thought people would find the structure interesting. I made no politic or social statement in putting it up. Holy cow. We need a game.

 

[Oldbones]

Well, first of all, I take issue with your invoking Marx.

"The secret to life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you got it made."..... Marx

 

[CL82]

Its a fine distinction - compared to his peers, Geno deserves everything he gets or, arguably, more. In terms of the value (not all financial) that athletics is perceived to give a university, I would suggest that relatively few coaches of any sport are as valuable to their schools. But I do believe it is ok to argue that, for many schools, the amount they pay to their coaches is money that they probably could better spend elsewhere - but it is a difficult to tie up argument, since there are varying opinions as to how much benefit is derived from successful athletic programs, etc.

All coaches salaries are partially offset - I wish some RU fans understood that Nike offsets some of CVS's salary, or certainly did when it was at its peak. But I digress.

UConn WBB has not been in the black as of late, based on any numbers I've seen, which is not unusual for WBB as you know. For all that certain revenue numbers are probably great, I imagine the lack of conference payouts is a factor, but I don't know the details. There was a point where UConn was one of 3 programs reporting their WBB as profitable.

It is absolutely fair for schools to question whether a coach brings value, but when we are talking about this school and this coach, the answer is a resounding yes.

 

[ed4ourgirls]

Sure, just a couple of years ago at Hofstra--which had a pretty strong tradition of supplying NFL players and being the summer home to the Jets. . .

As I understand it, Hofstra (and a couple of weeks previously, Northeastern) bailed on DI-AA football
for purely economic reasons. They were attracting fewer than 5000 fans to their games while spending
too much to support the program.

For President Hutchins at Chicago the issue was more in the nature of "what are we supposed to be
doing here".

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Help me out here... are athletic salaries at UConn paid by taxpayers and/or students? At my local Big Ten monolith they are not. If an athletics program operates at a surplus (in business, a profit), and if it raises it's own revenue, then can't it mostly pay what it pleases?

At Iowa, UConn alum Kirk Ferentz earns about 4.5 m annually (yikes!), but it does not drain the university coffers, as athletics at Iowa operates in the black, and has for years.

There are two separate issues to unravel. First, where do salary monies come from? And then, is it inappropriate (or immoral?) to pay a wage that seems out of step with other professionals in their respective fields?

Read Post #13, the state tells you where they come from.

 

[CBear01]

I cannot possibly think of any other single individual that brings more attention to the University of Connecticut and seemingly is a face of the institution. No one else comes close to the reach Auriemma has to everyone outside of our university looking in.

In fact, with the budget/endowment the school actually does have (and I don't know it nor will bother to look it up as I know it's a rediculous number) Geno isn't getting his fair share of the money the school uses for betterment.

Just look at the HUGE boost in enrollment over the last 2 decades. In the early championship years the amount of applicants literally doubled. To date, the university isn't doing half bad in enrollment...it continues to grow year after year....thanks Geno =D

 

[bags27]

I cannot possibly think of any other single individual that brings more attention to the University of Connecticut and seemingly is a face of the institution. No one else comes close to the reach Auriemma has to everyone outside of our university looking in.

In fact, with the budget/endowment the school actually does have (and I don't know it nor will bother to look it up as I know it's a rediculous number) Geno isn't getting his fair share of the money the school uses for betterment.

Just look at the HUGE boost in enrollment over the last 2 decades. In the early championship years the amount of applicants literally doubled. To date, the university isn't doing half bad in enrollment...it continues to grow year after year....thanks Geno =D

While we all here at BY agree with you, you'd be amazed at how many people have never heard of Geno or UConn WCBB. I'm sure that if UConn lucked at with a Nobel Prize winner, that person would become far, far, far more famous than Geno. And here is why we like him so much: because Geno would agree that the Prize winner's greater fame was deserved!

But even now, I know many people who know of people at UConn and yet who really don't know anything about Geno.

 

[bags27]

As I understand it, Hofstra (and a couple of weeks previously, Northeastern) bailed on DI-AA football
for purely economic reasons. They were attracting fewer than 5000 fans to their games while spending
too much to support the program.

For President Hutchins at Chicago the issue was more in the nature of "what are we supposed to be
doing here".

Right. Football was declining. But he still had the guts to pull the plug.

Of course, this all started with Frederick Jackson Turner (America's first "theoretical" American historian) who so strongly opposed football at his institution, the University of Wisconsin, that students burned him in effigy!

 

[BigBird]

I guess I should have said why NOW? Or with no info accompanying it. It is not like his pay has been a state secret. Some in this thread have gotten awful twitchy and about what I cannot imagine. I just thought people would find the structure interesting. I made no politic or social statement in putting it up. Holy cow. We need a game.

Yes, that's another matter. For the revised question, I couldn't even guess other than it's proximal to the end of football season, awash in coaching changes and discussions about those salary dollars. Maybe that?

 

[BigBird]

Read Post #13, the state tells you where they come from.

Thanks. Done.

 

[stamfordhusky]

Read Post #13, the state tells you where they come from.

But those are 2005 salaries - not very relevant to 2017.

 

[hjoerring]

Salaries are always, in the final analysis, arbitrary- until someone put forth an accepted offer. Thus making the latter a rough guideline. In pre-capitalist/merchant formations Mr. or Mrs. A exchange one commodity for another- milk for butter (C - C)- value is based on need. At the juncture where Mr. A demands butter and a pot of rice for his bottle of milk we have entered into some primitive form of valoriation/capitalism, where things take on additional values other than need. And therefore the possibility for accumulation. Having said this, I'm at a loss to see why capitalism has anything to do with the coach's salary. Nor do I accept the view mentioned in passing that a neurosurgeon (and other so equally situated) should make more. The logic of that might lead us to demand that unemployed Duke/harvard/ND students should be offered higher unemployment benefits because ........ While I have some issues with salaries, I think we must see them in broader light of valoriation. What have been the value for Uconn after the WBB and MBB programs got established. I'm sure some business students on this Board can calculate it. The rhetoric has always been there, but no one in the Conn legisl has been willing to provide the resources and monies that it would require to create the same value that would make Uconn equal to Yale. Geno and his group have given Uconn a visibility both nationally and internationally that no other entity within the University has matched. If we do not like this them our critique should be about the role of sports in fighting for students and even relevancy. For Europe, this assoc between sports and the Univ, as it exists in the States, is unfathomable.

 

[FanHam]

If you add up the revenue UCONN WCBB generates for the state through ticket sales, memorabilia sales, TV rights, dollars spent in Connecticut businesses by fans attending games, etc., etc., you'll find the total is, without being specific, several million dollars per year.

Prior to Geno's and CD's arrival the program was nothing but red ink for the university and, hence, the state.

If you add in the value of prestige and publicity for the university and the state created by UCONN WCBB's success and its scandal-free image, his annual worth to the state is many times his present income, and possibly eight figures. The value of presenting 100% positive role models for young girls everywhere alone is inestimable.

So please, shh, don't let Geno know he's grossly underpaid.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

If you add up the revenue UCONN WCBB generates for the state through ticket sales, memorabilia sales, TV rights, dollars spent in Connecticut businesses by fans attending games, etc., etc., you'll find the total is, without being specific, several million dollars per year.

Prior to Geno's and CD's arrival the program was nothing but red ink for the university and, hence, the state.

If you add in the value of prestige and publicity for the university and the state created by UCONN WCBB's success and its scandal-free image, his annual worth to the state is many times his present income, and possibly eight figures. The value of presenting 100% positive role models for young girls everywhere alone is inestimable.

So please, shh, don't let Geno know he's grossly underpaid.

Frankly, the current UConn is very much the University built by the success of the Husky women. Until "this" happened UConn was the step child of the Connecticut state budgetary process. And it has been money well spent as the educational value of a UConn degree has ballooned.