Long time listener....

[Calbysdad]

Hi everyone! Greetings from NH! I've been following this site for ages; well, at least few years. It's great for recruiting news and I love the info on the girls already committed.

Anyway, what got me to finally post was a local radio show talking about the profitability of the women's program. I remember reading articles a couple years back that stated the women's program brought in $10.4 million with a profit of $3.8 million in 2011. Here's the article:

http://articles.courant.com/2011-12...1215_1_fbs-football-programs-eada-fiesta-bowl


Then I googled and found a a Forbes article from 2014 that says the team lost $1.2 million. Here's that article:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeoza...hlights-conundrum-of-paying-college-athletes/

THe link for the data in that article doesn't work (at least for me). Anybody know what the real story is? These local yahoos were less than intelligent and I wish I had the supporting data to call them out...

Well, game is on!

 

[cockhrnleghrn]

I'd be shocked if any women's programs make money. The TV money is a fraction of what it is for men's basketball and attendance + ticket prices are also usually less.

 

[j66kicker]

I'd be shocked if any women's programs make money. The TV money is a fraction of what it is for men's basketball and attendance + ticket prices are also usually less.

So last year's WBB revenues were only $5.9 mil, vs $10+ mil a few years ago - that's the dif - not filling up Gampel & XL.

 

[Calbysdad]

So last year's WBB revenues were only $5.9 mil, vs $10+ mil a few years ago - that's the dif - not filling up Gampel & XL.

Just don't know where the data was gathered. I went to two games this year, one at Gampel and one at XL...both seemed full.

 

[uconnfan68]

I'd be shocked if any women's programs make money. The TV money is a fraction of what it is for men's basketball and attendance + ticket prices are also usually less.

Well, we were quite profitable for more than a few years, but I have zero information about lately.

 

[UcMiami]

Think the numbers are probably not accurate in either case - and attendance decline is not accounting for $4M - ticket prices aren't that high, though they are likely tops in the country.

As for the actual numbers - the internal accounting of athletic programs is notoriously unfathomable - the overhead of the athletic department is huge from salaries for administration to facilities maintenance to janitorial and security services to ... And how that all gets allocated to teams within the department is endlessly variable. Add in the non-specific revenues, and the intangible revenues accruing to athletic success and it is a nightmare.

Uconn has in the past shown a profit for women's basketball in some years and a loss in other years but how real either number is I doubt anyone really knows. The WBB team certainly has very high annual direct revenues compared to most schools in D1. And the intangible value to the university is probably the highest of any D1 school.

And just as an example - I believe a very high percentage of the funding for the new mens/womens basketball practice facility was specifically from the women's team. That is a university capital improvement but probably is not seen as 'income' for the team.

 

[Calbysdad]

Think the numbers are probably not accurate in either case - and attendance decline is not accounting for $4M - ticket prices aren't that high, though they are likely tops in the country.

As for the actual numbers - the internal accounting of athletic programs is notoriously unfathomable - the overhead of the athletic department is huge from salaries for administration to facilities maintenance to janitorial and security services to ... And how that all gets allocated to teams within the department is endlessly variable. Add in the non-specific revenues, and the intangible revenues accruing to athletic success and it is a nightmare.

Uconn has in the past shown a profit for women's basketball in some years and a loss in other years but how real either number is I doubt anyone really knows. The WBB team certainly has very high annual direct revenues compared to most schools in D1. And the intangible value to the university is probably the highest of any D1 school.

And just as an example - I believe a very high percentage of the funding for the new mens/womens basketball practice facility was specifically from the women's team. That is a university capital improvement but probably is not seen as 'income' for the team.

Interesting, thank you!

 

[HuskyNan]

I don't know how much UConn pays IMG or how much is allocated to the women's team. I also don't know how big a chunk the Civic Center and Bridgeport take from the profits. It used to cost UConn $250,000 (IIRC) per game to play at the Civic Center so if ticket sales are down and the per-game cost has increased, that could be part of the loss there.

Geno's salary has also gone up quite a bit and I imagine CD's has as well.

 

[Joobie]

And just as an example - I believe a very high percentage of the funding for the new mens/womens basketball practice facility was specifically from the women's team. That is a university capital improvement but probably is not seen as 'income' for the team.

The funding for the new practice facility came primarily from the Werth family (hence the name) who made a sizeable donation. It also wouldn't surprise me to hear that some of it also came from Jim Calhoun & some of our NBA players. In any case, the funding came from private donations & not from the specific teams (or even the Athletics department).

 

[UcMiami]

And just as an example - I believe a very high percentage of the funding for the new mens/womens basketball practice facility was specifically from the women's team. That is a university capital improvement but probably is not seen as 'income' for the team.

The funding for the new practice facility came primarily from the Werth family (hence the name) who made a sizeable donation. It also wouldn't surprise me to hear that some of it also came from Jim Calhoun & some of our NBA players. In any case, the funding came from private donations & not from the specific teams (or even the Athletics department).

But I believe the Welch's themselves said it was in relation to the women's team or instigated by Geno in some way - they obviously donated to the University with specific destination of the AD for use for the basketball programs. If I have that wrong, I apologize but I am pretty sure I read something to that effect when the donation was first publicized.

And if I do have that wrong, it is more the 'class' of revenue that I am referring to - donations to the university for use on athletics are very definitely an income stream each year, and how those get accounted for within the various universities athletic departments and assigned out by sport is variable.

 

[hussybulldog]

If they cut Geno's salary, then they will not lose money!