Student fee to possibly fund on-campus football stadium

[chapelbull]

9 hours ago, Ricky the Bull said:

I imagine that student fees exist for all sorts of things that students wouldn't support, if given the choice.  That said, there should be clear ROI for this to be approved.

One of the benefits of being in a school with selective enrollment is that applicants will pay what they need to pay to go here.

Yep, all kinds of fees in the tuition.  Not just athletics

[Gismo]

Many will be financed by student loans. Not a fan. 

[370Bull]

I think this is a great idea except that we should charge a "football season pass" fee to only those who want to go to the football games. Many other programs in the country charge students an extra fee for tickets to football games (pretty much season tix but for students). USF gives every student free tickets to ALL athletic events including football which is a huge privilege that unfortunately goes unused in many cases. I think specifically charging our football diehard students this fee will not only bring in some extra revenue to the department but it will also encourage them to attend the games.

[chapelbull]

36 minutes ago, Gismo said:

Many will be financed by student loans. Not a fan. 

a drop in the student loan bucket

[BDYZR]

When applying to University of South Florida, it's important to note the application deadline is March 15. The application fee at University of South Florida is $30. Scores for either the ACT or SAT test are due Jan. 15. It is more selective, with an acceptance rate of 47 percent.

Want to go to USF? Here are the costs(2017 numbers);

TUITION AND EXPENSES
Cost of Attendance    In-state: $21,410   Out-of-state: $32,324
Tuition and Fees         In-state:   $6,410   Out-of-state: $17,324
Room and Board                           $9,700
Books and Supplies                      $1,200
Other Expenses                             $4,100

 Questions?   Please sign here. 

[CousinRicky]

57 minutes ago, 370Bull said:

I think this is a great idea except that we should charge a "football season pass" fee to only those who want to go to the football games. Many other programs in the country charge students an extra fee for tickets to football games (pretty much season tix but for students). USF gives every student free tickets to ALL athletic events including football which is a huge privilege that unfortunately goes unused in many cases. I think specifically charging our football diehard students this fee will not only bring in some extra revenue to the department but it will also encourage them to attend the games.

If I am reading this correctly, you think if they dropped student fees for athletics and then only charged those that wanted to attend games a separate fee that our revenue would go up?   If that is what you are saying I would disagree.  But maybe I'm not quite getting it.

Students at Michigan WANT to go to the games.  And I have no idea if there are student fees there but you can get away with charging them. At USF I don't think that would work. We don't get much student interest and some of those going are probably only going because it is included with their student fees and would not pay to go.

[NewEnglandBull]

50 minutes ago, BDYZR said:

When applying to University of South Florida, it's important to note the application deadline is March 15. The application fee at University of South Florida is $30. Scores for either the ACT or SAT test are due Jan. 15. It is more selective, with an acceptance rate of 47 percent.

Want to go to USF? Here are the costs(2017 numbers);

TUITION AND EXPENSES
Cost of Attendance    In-state: $21,410   Out-of-state: $32,324
Tuition and Fees         In-state:   $6,410   Out-of-state: $17,324
Room and Board                           $9,700
Books and Supplies                      $1,200
Other Expenses                             $4,100

 Questions?   Please sign here. 

My daughter has USF as #1 school (I had nothing to do with this ). I can tell you USF is one the best bargain schools in the nation for out of state tuition. Thus, I personally don’t mind giving a little help toward stadium cost based on the $40 to $80 that has been suggested. But I know that is just me and others may have an issue. 

[Bull Dozer]

18 minutes ago, Bourbon Bull said:

If I am reading this correctly, you think if they dropped student fees for athletics and then only charged those that wanted to attend games a separate fee that our revenue would go up?   If that is what you are saying I would disagree.  But maybe I'm not quite getting it.

Students at Michigan WANT to go to the games.  And I have no idea if there are student fees there but you can get away with charging them. At USF I don't think that would work. We don't get much student interest and some of those going are probably only going because it is included with their student fees and would not pay to go.

 

This.   

The reason schools like Michigan, Florida etc all charge the student season ticket fee is there is more demand than supply.  This is why UF at least, has lotteries for their game tickets and even with the fees you aren't guaranteed to have a ticket to every game.   We don't have this kind of demand for student tickets.  We did maybe in like 2007-2008 but those days are long gone.   We can maybe look at something like this if we ever get back to our student ticket demand out pacing the supply again but right now it would be a foolish move.  

Edited March 30, 2018 by Bull Dozer

[NewEnglandBull]

12 minutes ago, Bourbon Bull said:

If I am reading this correctly, you think if they dropped student fees for athletics and then only charged those that wanted to attend games a separate fee that our revenue would go up?   If that is what you are saying I would disagree.  But maybe I'm not quite getting it.

Students at Michigan WANT to go to the games.  And I have no idea if there are student fees there but you can get away with charging them. At USF I don't think that would work. We don't get much student interest and some of those going are probably only going because it is included with their student fees and would not pay to go.

This! Our student fan base is lethargic. Sometimes good but usually bad. The culture on campus must change first and Judy and Mark have done a terrible job in this area. There is no coordination within the institution to get students to the game and get them interested. This has been the biggest failure of the university. I am happy our academic quality continues to get better and better but it would be nice to get students AND the community at games.  

[bullsbucsfan426]

22 hours ago, thatBULL said:

I want an OCS as much as anyone, but I always find it interesting when someone says “The fee would go away, but the stadium would stay.”  

Does anyone believe we would give up revenue that is basically accepted once the bonds are paid?  

We need to have a true fundraising effort for a stadium.  If that’s successful and students feel they want to pitch in (more than then large % they already do today) then maybe that’s ok.

Yes, yes we would, just as the Marshall Center fee eventually went away. I paid that fee. I saw it on my tuition statements for a few years-then not long after it got built, by the time I graduated, it had stopped. 

If this fee is per semester, you're talking at the low end $6M per year, to possibly as much as $14M-$15M per year (could be over $20M if USF charges for summer semester too). That's not chump change, and assuming we build the $200M stadium that Harlan put out in his proposals, the interest cost (just estimating at 4% per year), would be $8M. You better have some extra funding in place. USF is struggling to raise funds here. The CITF could pay out $15M when the time comes, but it can only be used once (can't be used for debt service, just for initial construction). USF needs to find $50M in donations, then you add the $15M in CITF money, then perhaps the other $135M can be debt serviced. 

Here is why it's possible it won't go through-the only way that fee is getting approved is through a ballot measure in the student body elections. The soonest SG can do that is the midterm elections in the fall, and it STILL has to pass. Even if you only have 5-8k students voting, it's going to take a lot work-and for whatever reason, USF hasn't gotten enough Greek buyin on football if they're still doing rush in the fall on home game-days.