Stadium, redux... yet again...

[Jim Johnson]

This was posted on another thread, but since we are (once again) talking about an on-campus stadium... I thought we could use yet anouther thread on this subject.

$20 million isn't going to do $hit.

The minimum cost you would be looking at is $100 million.

The debt service on an $80 million 30-year loan at 5% would be in excess of $425,000 per month.  At 3% it would be in excess of $330,00 per month.

You've got to have some serious concession and ticket revenue to cover that kind of nugget.  Altough I think we are being raped by the Glazers, our current rent is reasonable in comparison.

I think you are right, Omni -- we are a long ways from looking at our own stadium... but here are some facts to consider:

$425,000 per month x 12 months = $5,100,000 per year in debt service

Assume a 50,000 seat stadium (U Conn built one about that size for $90 million)

50,000 tickets x 6 home games = 300,000 football tickets

300,000 football tickets per year x $30 per game (estimated average for arguments' sake) = $9 million per year

300,000 football patrons per year x $5 per game in concessions (estimated average for arguments' sake) = $1,500,000 per year

So, from tickets and concessions only we get $10,500,000 per year - more than double what the cost of the debt service would be.

Add naming rights ($1 million per year MINIMUM) and it is possible to cover the cost of the debt service and operations of a stadium.  (Figure that operations would be about the same as the $80,000 per game we pay to the Glazers - or about $500,000 per year).  This also doesn't include the annual donations, advertising, or parking fees (which could go to the overall athletic budget).

Finally, there are other sources of revenue that can be used to finance part of the stadium -- the Capital Improvement Trust Fund is used to build non-academic buildings and Public Education Capital Outlay funds are used to build academic buildings.  The renovations to Doak Campbell Stadium at FSU included money from these sources of funds because the renovations added space for non-athletic reasons.  Also, students at FSU and UF actually PAY a small amount for their tickets to home games -- many of them re-sell the tickets for a tidy profit -- so we would have to factor what students pay, if anything, into the revenue from ticket sales in the math above.

So, as you can see... when USF can sell 50,000 tickets to EVERY game, then USF can afford to build an on-campus stadium.  Until then, RayJay is home.

[Guest guest]

50,000?  Try it with something like 30,000 instead.

Let's say we average 30,000 in attendance (I am assuming we get out of our funk) and we have 5.5 home games a year (6 one year and 5 another because there I don't see us keeping the 6 home games every year - besides best to consider conservative estimates anyway).  Of the 30,000 let's just say that 5,000 are students so no ticket revenue from them.  Let's also say that another 5000 are discount tickets so we'll just average tickets sold per game is 23,000 (that is cash paying customers).

Ticket prices are $25 per ticket so that gets you:

23,000 * 25 * 5.5 = $3,162,500 per year.

I would say that $5 per person in concessions is probably a good guess so that gets you:

23,000 * 5 * 5.5 = $632,500

Add in parking for 10,000 cars at say $8 per vehicle and that gets you:

10,000 * 8 * 5.5 = $440,000

Add it all up and you get:   $4,235,000 a year.

Now, we may get more than that but I think that would be about a bare minimum we could realistically expect.  Of course if we continue to nose dive then those numbers will be a lot worse.

I wouldn't build a 50,000 seat stadium but something smaller, like 35,000 seats with options to add on later when we start consistently sellling out the 35,000 seat stadium.  If it costs $100 million to build a 50,000 seat stadium I imagine we could build a 35,000 seat stadium for about $75 million.

Still, we are a loooooooooonnnnngggggg way from thinking about building a stadium.

[Cubanbull]

I believe that the state help pay for most of the cost at UCONN, that wont happen here.

[bull2saintleo]

i can see a 30-35 thousand seat stadium eventually

[Guest S.  Bien]

We've put over 36k in RayJay twice in two years.   Give me a couple of bowl games, and BE teams visiting on a regular basis I could easily see us putting 40k in a stadium without much effort.

Using those assumptions I think you want to start big, and build 50k.  UL is already trying to expand their 48k stadium to 65k.  Build a 50k, and in five years if we continue to improve I would expect 40k to be the average, and a sellout on big games.  That's predicated on us having some reasonable success over that five year span.   Honestly it could be sooner if we get it going on the field.  When you get UCF once every other year, throw in WVU, Syracuse, Pitt, UL, and another big 1-A team I just don't see how we wouldn't average over 35k a game, if not close to 40k.

[Bishop of Bulltown]

This may be a little off topic, but speaking of UCF... any idea if they will open the upper deck for that game next year, it's garaunteed to be sold out i think and the Glazers would be stupid not to capitalize on it.

[Omniscientbull]

Jim - While I agree....don't forget 10,000 seats will be for students and you won't be collecting any ticket revenue from them.  So 40,000 is the max you should be thinking of.

Don't forget all of the costs involved in operating and up keeping a stadium.  Quite expensive.

Look at our current situation.  Assume we currently sell 23,000 tickets per game at $22 each (I know some tickets are more expensive and some are less) for 6 home games.  That is revenue of approximately $3 million per year.  Out of that we pay $85,000 per game for a net profit of approximately $2.5 million.  This net profit goes back in to the athletic budget to cover part of our annual $20 million budget.

As you can see we still make some money but it is minimal.  Concession and parking is gravy and is what is killing us in our current arragement.

The big risk on the campus stadium is that you HAVE to sell out.  With the Glazer stadium we are only exposed from a cost perspective to a small rent and not the whole debt service.

I'd love to see it happen.  I agreee....it will be a long ways away.  10 years if we are lucky.

[RHBullsFan]

i can see a 30-35 thousand seat stadium eventually

I hope we would never waste our time with something that small. I think some schools like NCState have that seating capacity (or close to) at their basketball arenas.

[Apis Bull]

I hope we would never waste our time with something that small. I think some schools like NCState have that seating capacity (or close to) at their basketball arenas.

You can start out with something like that with plans already in place for expansion.

A 60,000 seat stadium can be designe to be built in phases.

[bulls87]

Where would you put the stadium, would it go where the soccer stadium is not or place it on the property that is on Fowler near the Sun Dome entrance?