Michigan athletic department $240M in debt

[HuskyPete]

Even with an average attendance number of 110,468 fans last season (tops in all of college football), a large and deep pocketed alumni base, the athletic department still must be careful with how it manages it debt, especially with more and more people cutting out cable. The grass is not so green$$$ on the other side.

Michigan athletic department $240M in debt

 

[Seaa Blue]

We're not unique, and we've got a positive cash flow. Guess we generate clicks.

Previously discussed at
Unraveling of college football

 

[pj]

If the debt service is 5% per year, that's $12 mn per year -- very affordable given their $40 mn plus media revenue, not to mention ticket sales.

 

[MattMang23]

#FireWarde

 

[Fishy]

The grass isn't so green?

Their grass is a shade of green that doesn't exist in our world. They can't even describe their green in terms that we would understand. It's like the color of God's lawn.

 

[upstater]

If the debt service is 5% per year, that's $12 mn per year -- very affordable given their $40 mn plus media revenue, not to mention ticket sales.

I looked into this a while back. Their debt service is $17m a year, but the academic side pays most of it. They used to pay a lot more.

And by the way, this debt is owned by the academic side, not the athletic side.

 

[Seaa Blue]

I looked into this a while back. Their debt service is $17m a year, but the academic side pays most of it. They used to pay a lot more.

And by the way, this debt is owned by the academic side, not the athletic side.

Michigan's current budgeted debt service is $6,480,000. Although I tend to believe that accounting in the form of public reporting is often done in a way to place the best food forward, I'm not sure "to what end" in this case. The Regents that voted on the matter are surely smart enough to understand the concept of liabilities, and I'm sure there are standards in the way that these figures are expected to be presented. I find it hard to believe that Michigan is understating it's debt servicing by 50% without further details (or speculation for that matter).

And while the academic side may be writing the checks, the financing used to build the luxury boxes his generating quite a bit of revenue (they sold out the first year). So there is a nice new revenue stream there to help pay down the debt.

 

[upstater]

Michigan's current budgeted debt service is $6,480,000. Although I tend to believe that accounting in the form of public reporting is often done in a way to place the best food forward, I'm not sure "to what end" in this case. The Regents that voted on the matter are surely smart enough to understand the concept of liabilities, and I'm sure there are standards in the way that these figures are expected to be presented. I find it hard to believe that Michigan is understating it's debt servicing by 50% without further details (or speculation for that matter).

And while the academic side may be writing the checks, the financing used to build the luxury boxes his generating quite a bit of revenue (they sold out the first year). So there is a nice new revenue stream there to help pay down the debt.

You're looking at the athletic budget and how much the athletic side is forwarding to the academic side for the debt on facilities. The actual debt service number is in the school's budget for these facilities, and it is $17m.

You can't service that much debt with $6.8m a year.