UConn athletic department deficit reached $42 million in 2019 with a decline in ticket sales and league revenue

[huskymedic]

Alternate access link here

 

[WrenchFan69]

Yikes

 

[Exit 4]

Time to end the "Other"....except Baseball.

 

[Adios]

Hockey coach squandered what should have been an easy sell. All because he can't be bothered to motivate his players.

That has to be amongst some of the dumbest crap I've ever seen in my life.

The AAC proved to be completely useless.

 

[Storrs South]

Says in the article in 2021 it will start getting better, which would make sense since that is when travel savings and increased TV revenue will be realized. I have updated the spreadsheet for the increase in donations and from an earlier critique changed it from an annualized calculation to a NPV analysis. UConn will come out ahead, it just won't be realized overnight.

It's very good reporting by HC and Putterman, but don't get too caught up in the headline.

Always open to comments and critiques on how to improve this.

 

[CL82]

"Student Aid" of $17.7M
(This is a phantom number largely generated by charging full out of state tuition for each athlete.)

CDRA "Rent" of $3.5M.
(This is one state entity paying another one. The high "rent" for the XL and the Rent masks the lack of profitability of the CDRA and inflates the cost of athletics at UConn.)

That's $21.2M of the $42M short fall.

I haven't looked at the most recent numbers but in the past UConn's "administrative overhead" was higher that the average P5 school that is a place I'd look for reductions.

Keep in mind as well that the school estimates that travel costs will drop by $2M next year.

UConn can get this to a more 1) reasonable number by changing the way they account for athlete tuition; and
2) changing our "rental agreement" with the CDRA to profit split rather than a fix fee. That's a pretty easy fix. Clean up administrative overhead and start winning and all of sudden we back in the black, or at least close.

 

[Irishfan]

Alternate access link here

How does the football team only generate $3.3 million In revenue? How much do the tickets cost?

 

[concerned143]

7 homes games do the math.
475,000 per game
maybe 30 x 15000 per game.

 

[Irishfan]

7 homes games do the math.
475,000 per game
maybe 30 x 15000 per game.

uconn’s average five year attendance for football is about 24,000. Even if it dropped to 20,000 for 2019, at 7 games, that would be an average ticket cost of less than $24. And that wouldn’t count any TV money, parking money, or money from any other source. It just seems unreasonable. I realize UConn has a good Women’s basketball program, but it seems difficult to believe that WBB could generate 35% more revenue than a FBS football team.

 

[Stinger92860]

Does revenue include donations for a specific sport? I’m not sure.

 

[AndOne]

Student fees are over $3,400/yr now. Good thing most students probably don't pay attention to it.

 

[huskymedic]

Student fees are over $3,400/yr now. Good thing most students probably don't pay attention to it.

Less than $500 of that number was directed to athletics last year.

 

[mike012]

When was the last time anyone paid to go to a football game...I remember one game where there were free tickets by the hundreds printed out and left to be picked up by whomever.

 

[Irishfan]

Does revenue include donations for a specific sport? I’m not sure.

yes

 

[Irishfan]

When was the last time anyone paid to go to a football game...I remember one game where there were free tickets by the hundreds printed out and left to be picked up by whomever.

well, if true, that would certainly answer the question of why the revenue numbers are so small.

 

[BlueDogs]

The only two areas they can increase revenue are men’s football and basketball. They aren’t generating another additional dime out of WBB by winning more. That's maximized. It’s amazing the generate what they do. WBB is a limited revenue market. As for the rest of the sports, you’ve got limited markets for revenue growth as well. I wish somebody would go talk to their economics department. If it was a business you’d hack out all sports other than sports with viable revenue generating potential. Of course, it isn’t and that’s the point. They generate good will and brand value that translates into quality applicant demand.

 

[hardcorehusky]

Baseball has started selling season tickets for the first time this year. Attendance increases are the key moving forward. That is another big reason for the conference move. Basketball will increase the key is football- gotta get back to 30k paid.

 

[ScottVib]

Considering how they compute expenses including scholarships, it's truly amazing that the two basketball teams with a combined maximum 26 scholarships eclipses the expenses of a football program being charged for 85.

Really shows the lack of investment in football outside of the minimum investment in scholarships.

 

[billybud]

Something seems wrong with those figures...that revenue adds up to only $16.6 million.

And we know the USA Today report, even after subtracting $30.5 million in school funds, has another $40 million.

 

[ScottVib]

The Marketing and licensing revenue isn't included in any of the sport breakdowns.

 

[the Q]

The Marketing and licensing revenue isn't included in any of the sport breakdowns.

yeah, that does make the numbers less accurate. Even if you argue that not all of it is allocated to Athletics, at least apportion a piece of it.
Between this and the accounting measures mentioned above, it seems the situation isn’t quite as bad as the headline shows.

 

[Nostical]

It seems the situation isn’t quite as bad as the headline shows.

It rarely is.

 

[JohnFSilver]

Says in the article in 2021 it will start getting better, which would make sense since that is when travel savings and increased TV revenue will be realized. I have updated the spreadsheet for the increase in donations and from an earlier critique changed it from an annualized calculation to a NPV analysis. UConn will come out ahead, it just won't be realized overnight.

It's very good reporting by HC and Putterman, but don't get too caught up in the headline.

Always open to comments and critiques on how to improve this.

Wow. Nice job. My big frustration with UConn is we never see the projections. We see the end result. I wish they were as transparent as public companies and I could look in the 10k or check out the investor deck.

How badly is AD missing on revenue targets? we should have guidance on their long-term strategy and targets .

just saying. Dropping a $42 mil bomb once A year doesn’t do anyone any good.

 

[JohnFSilver]

yeah, that does make the numbers less accurate. Even if you argue that not all of it is allocated to Athletics, at least apportion a piece of it.
Between this and the accounting measures mentioned above, it seems the situation isn’t quite as bad as the headline shows.

this is actually a big issue and is lost on a lot of people. The numbers are accurate at a high level, but breaking down to individual sport it starts to breakdown. When someone buys a UConn shirt, who owns that purchase? The brand does.

 

[gioff2323]

This article further points out the difference between accounting and reality. We "spent" millions in scholarships? Really? Do you really think a contributing factor to tuition and fees is to offset those "scholarships"? In other words, they didn't COST a dime. Account for them all day long, but because after you pass the economics departments and the theorists working there, you will hit the accounting dept., who will tell you, sure, that is a cost we can include.

Sorry, John, I love your daily and the way you contribute to the UConn sports experience, but this is really bad journalism by your peer - who simply throws a number out there without and rationale thought or question designed to get to the true story (kind of like saying the coach doesn't think kids are tough because they are playing fortnite). In fact, he seems hellbent on creating a negative narrative around UConn sports.

Let me know when the U President goes to the capitol and asks for the funds to bridge the 42MM gap