12/27/2011: You know you’ve got a problem when the journalists at Business Week start using your industry as the new example of how money corrupts, instead of Bernie Madoff. Their review article covers Penn State and explains how the academic side can become dependent on football money, then get co-opted by their corruption. Not a problem at UO, where we subsidize sports to the tune of about $5 million a year. Say Jamie, where are those baseball loan docs? What about the 3% overhead? Still working on your spin? Most UO relevant line:
“If you have a large stadium, you feel the need to fill it,” Etchemendy said. “Somehow the priorities have gotten distorted, if the football or basketball coach ends up having more influence or power than that president.”
And so naturally that is the number one priority for UO’s AD Rob Mullens. Warsaw Sports Marketing professors Dennis Howard and Paul Swangard tested the waters, January in the RG:
… But the real lift would come from the expansion of the north side of Autzen Stadium. This is not a new idea. The original 2002 plan was to expand Autzen on both sides to increase capacity to 70,000 seats.
If Oregon finds donor support to underwrite the cost of capital expansion, as it did in 2002, all incremental revenue would flow directly to the athletic department coffers to the tune of $10 million to $15 million per year.
This perpetual revenue stream would be critical to the department’s ability to be financially self-sustaining.
He can’t balance his budget now, but really, if they could just spend another $100 million on this, then they’d be able to stop taking tuition money from the students, honest. Sorry, I don’t trust you. Show us the books and figure out how to cut your costs. Start with the free cars and baseball.
Swangard is NOT a professor.