A Most Important Topic

[PokeOLoco]

http://m.trib.com/sports/college/wy...5df4-8abe-047f5914f792.html?mobile_touch=true

Will the cheap conservative bastards in Wyoming allow this to fly? Or will they continue to bathe and admire their $1.8B in the state's Chase Manhattan account that pulls in $350M in interest? AND will it be spent in the correct fashion? And what fashion is that. In my opinion with our recruiting disadvantages we should have one of if not the largest recruiting budgets.

I suggest not reading the comments attached to the article, or you may want to smash your head into a car windshield.

 

[HR_Poke]

Based on the 8 comments to the article it won't be popular. Better to have all that money doing nothing but collecting interest than using it...

 

[djm19]

People are so narrow-minded.

"Dump money into a dismal sports program."

Say that to the Mens BB team, or our current Volleyball team.

People are clueless. You have to have and use money to make money.

 

[OrediggerPoke]

Honestly, I would tend to believe that the legislature would be more against dipping into the fund for athletics than at anytime in recent history due to the recent drastic reduction in mineral royalty and severance tax revenues. For the first time in awhile, Wyoming will actually face some difficult budget decisions.

 

[PokeOLoco]

^ True. I realize it's a hard sell usually, and even harder at this moment. You could also make the argument it's never been more necessary, but we'll see if Mead can make it happen if he chooses to.

 

[LanderPoke]

Mead is awesome.

 

[WyoBrandX]

Why not take a portion of the Wyoming Lotto money and use it? Take a small percentage for recruiting, a small percentage for facilities, a small portion for salaries.

I'd sure hope once the wins started piling in, and more money comes in from ad, tv, game revenues, that it would start to support itself. (Don't know here - don't have all the inputs/outputs)

 

[cali2wyo]

We can always legalize weed if we're running out of revenue streams...

 

[DVDA]

We can always legalize weed if we're running out of revenue streams...

I'm curious how much revenue that would bring in with such a small population.

 

[laxwyo]

You can't get anything legalized unless it's "for schools". I think when lotto first came up, it would have helped fun G&F but died

 

[ragtimejoe1]

I notice that some are criticizing the comments. Question: is it the fault of the people commenting for not seeing the vision and benefits of athletics at UW?

 

[cali2wyo]

We can always legalize weed if we're running out of revenue streams...

I'm curious how much revenue that would bring in with such a small population.

Certainly not as big as Colorado, sure. But Colorado has seen a lot of business in resort towns like Breckenridge from tourists as well. I'm sure we'd see that same affect in places like Jackson. And Evanston would become the place to be for Utah folks as it was before the drinking age changed.

 

[PokeOLoco]

You could say that about any revenue stream that can be affected by a state's population, including the lotto. The answer is: the amount of revenue people from Wyoming generate in other states when they travel and use legal marijuana, the amount of people in surrounding communities that would travel to Wyoming and use legal marijuana, and the amount of money the state spends enforcing current marijuana laws- the amount of money the state would spend setting up a regulatory infrastructure. I'm guessing the revenue would not be insignificant.

 

[OrediggerPoke]

Why not take a portion of the Wyoming Lotto money and use it? Take a small percentage for recruiting, a small percentage for facilities, a small portion for salaries.

I'd sure hope once the wins started piling in, and more money comes in from ad, tv, game revenues, that it would start to support itself. (Don't know here - don't have all the inputs/outputs)

That lotto money has a statutory purpose and this would require approved amendments to the statutory framework by the legislature; this would probably be a more difficult task than the 'rainy day fund.'

Additionally, WyoLotto has returned very little money and I believe just recently actually returned any profit. The overhead of the WyoLotto seems really high to me.

 

[laxwyo]

Why not take a portion of the Wyoming Lotto money and use it? Take a small percentage for recruiting, a small percentage for facilities, a small portion for salaries.

I'd sure hope once the wins started piling in, and more money comes in from ad, tv, game revenues, that it would start to support itself. (Don't know here - don't have all the inputs/outputs)

That lotto money has a statutory purpose and this would require approved amendments to the statutory framework by the legislature; this would probably be a more difficult task than the 'rainy day fund.'

Additionally, WyoLotto has returned very little money and I believe just recently actually returned any profit. The overhead of the WyoLotto seems really high to me.

I think that's only because they've been paying back the initial loans to start. Should start seeing better returns soon

 

[DVDA]

You could say that about any revenue stream that can be affected by a state's population, including the lotto. The answer is: the amount of revenue people from Wyoming generate in other states when they travel and use legal marijuana, the amount of people in surrounding communities that would travel to Wyoming and use legal marijuana, and the amount of money the state spends enforcing current marijuana laws- the amount of money the state would spend setting up a regulatory infrastructure. I'm guessing the revenue would not be insignificant.

I'm not trying to discount the idea. I am all for it and think it should have been done a long time ago. There is obviously money to be made there for the state, I'm just curious how much. It's too bad Wyoming didn't legalize it before Colorado to temporarily get that Denver market.

 

[FarmerPoke]

Great idea but put the funds into the men's basketball program since it's the only chance we have to be competitive on the big stage, national level. Enough is enough with the dumpster fire that is the football program.

 

[Cowduck]

:tickedoff:

We can always legalize weed if we're running out of revenue streams...

I'm curious how much revenue that would bring in with such a small population.

We'll have some data for you in Alaska in a year's time.

 

[WyoBrandX]

Sure - the wyolotto had some big loans to pay off, and the statutory issues with it probably make it tougher to get to than the rainy day fund, hell legalizing weed probably would be easier than going back through that.

I do have a bit of a problem with the state funding this. I don't mind the state helping out here and there. Subsidising things for a while is a good way to get the program going again.

However, let me speak out of both sides of my mouth. As much as we need more money into coaching salaries, when it comes down to it, coaching salaries are obscene these days. (NCAA really needs some salary caps or something).

Think about it - you pay a guy $1,000,000 a year, he will probably spend about $100k of it, invest the rest. Move on to a different job. If you pay 10 guys $100k, they will probably spend half of it, and safe the rest of it. Which is better? I'd argue that 10 guys making $100k a year is better than 1 guy making $1000k a year.

Recruiting, capex improvements, matching donations coming from the state doesn't bother me that much. In the end, it ends up beneficial to more than a few parties (from hotels on gamedays, to local restaurants, etc). That is why I'd like to see some salary increases come out of the lottery - or some other revenue stream (its just huge to be paying a few individuals that kind of money). I'm sure it is a bit demoralizing to some of the university employees to see that wage gap.

I donno - it is a tough problem to have. Much smarter people out there than me working on solving this (I hope).

 

[PokeOLoco]

You could say that about any revenue stream that can be affected by a state's population, including the lotto. The answer is: the amount of revenue people from Wyoming generate in other states when they travel and use legal marijuana, the amount of people in surrounding communities that would travel to Wyoming and use legal marijuana, and the amount of money the state spends enforcing current marijuana laws- the amount of money the state would spend setting up a regulatory infrastructure. I'm guessing the revenue would not be insignificant.

I'm not trying to discount the idea. I am all for it and think it should have been done a long time ago. There is obviously money to be made there for the state, I'm just curious how much. It's too bad Wyoming didn't legalize it before Colorado to temporarily get that Denver market.

:thumb: