FAU will be dangerous

[Guest S.  Bien]

There is absolutely no way you've got a $2.8MM budget.  You're school has moved the football budget around.

The average football athlete costs a school over $50k a year to feed, house, clothes, books, tuition, and other ancillary benefits.  If you've got the legit 85 scholarship players that brings the total to approximately $4.25M just for scholarships.

The average school has a full coaching staff annual salary of just short of $1M.

The average school spends between $250k- $600k on recruiting.

The list goes on, and on, and on...but those student fees are not just for football, even if they get 75% (which they don't) of it that would barily cover the scholarship costs.

Those fees cannot be used just for football.  It's against Title IX laws so those fees are meant to prop up all sports if FIU is using it just for football then they've got another probationary violation.

[DawgPound]

FIU needs more time in I-AA to build a fan base before getting serious in I-A.  USF was able to do it because of location and the ability use such a nice stadium.  FIU and FAU are too close to the Miami market.

[Knight_Light]

Sorry to disappoint, but as long as the students are paying their athletic fee, which they have supported since the beginning of the football team, then we don't have a problem, the FIU football team could have 0 spectators and they would still be solvent.  However we do have a small base of 9,000 season ticket holders and we were able to fill up our on-campus stadium this past weekend in our win vs. FAMU.  The best part about it was that our student section was into it and had a great time.  Every year, that student section is growing and that's excatly what we need to keep this team on the field....and a new stadium!  Go Panthers!

 

I think FIU will have a shot at long-term success as they didn't make some of the same mistakes that FAU made (just like USF took advantage of some of UCF's mis-steps in the past).

FIU has been playing ON-CAMPUS since Day 1...which helps keep more students invovled...who will one day be Alumni...and hopefully ticket BUYING alumni...and the school didn't have immediate lofty goals of a 40,000 seat DOME Stadium and playing in the Big East after Year 2 like FAU.

Even playing on their temporary football stadium on campus (built around their track), FIU's attendance has been higher then FAU...and with their long-term goal of a 30,000-35,000 on-campus stadium...I think they have a very good shot at being successful, especially in the Sunbelt.

Go FIU! Beat FAU!

KL

[GarySJ]

Let's go through this calculation....per the Instutitutional website, follow link http://ope.ed.gov/athletics/Search.asp

While you're there, check the revenue/expense figures for all the Florida football schools. They're wildly inconsistent:

UF: $42M revenues, $12M expenses

FSU: $18M revenues, $9M expenses

UM: $23M revenues, $14M expenses

USF: $5.2M revenues, $5M expenses

UCF: $1.7M revenues, $5M expenses

FAU: $0.6M revenues, $1.8M expenses

FIU: $4.7M revenes, $2.8M expenses

Does anyone really think UF football had higher gross revenue than FSU and Miami combined? Or that FIU grossed three times as much as UCF? (This is for the 03-04 school year.)

It's clear to me that schools have some flexibility in categorizing their revenue for purposes of this report. And since it's a Title IX report, schools have to make it look like they're spending money equitably on football and on unprofitable women's sports. So I suspect a lot of revenue and expenses that really pertain to football have been creatively filed somewhere else.

For example, I suspect that donations required to buy football tickets are listed as "revenues not allocated by gender", even though they're pretty much generated by football. Ditto for expenses, such as athletic facilities which are football-driven, but which other teams at the school also use.

So I don't think this data tells us very much.

[bulls96go]

While you're there, check the revenue/expense figures for all the Florida football schools. They're wildly inconsistent:

UF: $42M revenues, $12M expenses

FSU: $18M revenues, $9M expenses

UM: $23M revenues, $14M expenses

USF: $5.2M revenues, $5M expenses

UCF: $1.7M revenues, $5M expenses

FAU: $0.6M revenues, $1.8M expenses

FIU: $4.7M revenes, $2.8M expenses

Does anyone really think UF football had higher gross revenue than FSU and Miami combined? Or that FIU grossed three times as much as UCF? (This is for the 03-04 school year.)

It's clear to me that schools have some flexibility in categorizing their revenue for purposes of this report. And since it's a Title IX report, schools have to make it look like they're spending money equitably on football and on unprofitable women's sports. So I suspect a lot of revenue and expenses that really pertain to football have been creatively filed somewhere else.

For example, I suspect that donations required to buy football tickets are listed as "revenues not allocated by gender", even though they're pretty much generated by football. Ditto for expenses, such as athletic facilities which are football-driven, but which other teams at the school also use.

So I don't think this data tells us very much.

it tells us FAU is in trouble

but UCF is in deep **** long term1

[Velcro]

FAU beat LA-LAF, right?  congrats to them.

I guess that hurts UCF's SOS

[Guest Knights]

it tells us FAU is in trouble

but UCF is in deep **** long term1

Nah...Our athletic budget is doing fine.   Went over $20 million dollars this year for our budget.  

[Joe]

UF football benefits GREATLY from their deal with Nike and Gatorade. Last year they were the top Revenue Athletic Department in the country, beating Michigan, Ohio State, and USC.

[GarySJ]

That may be, but the figures given were for football-specific revenue only. Corporate sponsor deals wouldn't fall into that category.

[Knight_Light]

That may be, but the figures given were for football-specific revenue only. Corporate sponsor deals wouldn't fall into that category.

The $$$ UF Football brings in is SICK!

Heck...just a few Bull Gators ALONE donate more $$$ then all the Boosters from UCF and USF Combined!! (Heck, maybe even throw in Miami too).

UF is OLD $$$$$...which means HUGE $$$$$.

Believe UF has several hundred Bull Gators (those that donate $10,000 plus)...plus others that donate Hundreds or Millions of $$$$ (many thru their Corporations using their name so they get all the benefits).

With 6.5 Home Games per year (annual game in Jax brings in almost $2 Million to UF per year)...at a rate of almost $4 Million plus per home game...then throw in all the extra donations, boosters, benefits, merchandise, SEC $$$$, TV Contract $$$$$, Bowl $$$$, etc....UCF Football is a HUGE Business...all by itself.

UF Boosters (this was even under ZOOK ending June '04) raised $28 Million ALONE!

In 1995...under Spurrier...they were "only" at $9 Million in donations.

KL