1/19/2010: I gotta get off this athletics kick, at the end of the day I don’t give a shit – let’s just play the game. But meanwhile, USA Today reports some numbers: in 2007-08 UO’s AD brought in $56,623,901 and spent $56,259,942, for a slight profit. These numbers look pretty comprehensive – everything from the State Lottery loot that goes to fund scholarships for athletes, to Kilkenny’s gifts.
For 2008-2009, the athletic budget grew by about $5 million, and Rachel Bachman in the Oregonian reports that they lost a bit more than $1 million. Belotti funded that by borrowing from next year’s football ticket sales. Apparently this is the first time they’ve had to do that. What does the future hold? (Big Rose Bowl cash, in the short run, I hope!) I’m no economist, but keep in mind that athletic departments have the same asymmetric profit model as Wall Street hedge funds. In the good years they take a big chunk of the gross as salary. In the bad years they skip town leaving the academic side holding an empty bag.
Transparency and regulation are the usual solutions. We hope Lariviere has more on the ball than that Greenspan fellow.
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