SnowyRange
Well-known member
http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/uw-athletics-match-could-lead-to-budget-fight-in-wyoming/article_f8950f5c-69e7-5ee1-b0b6-d6ce75d0d67c.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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CST article on the politics of the athletics match
- Thread starter SnowyRange
- Start date
ragtimejoe1
Well-known member
Looks like match will be pulled.
You know how you tell them? Hey, we went to the Fiesta Bowl which returned 10 million to the general University fund thereby offsetting our cuts. Not only that, the advertising boosted enrollment by x% so that we have more funding for academic endeavors.
I banged the drum for a long time now about Burman and the AD responding to this with a well thought out response with real economic impacts of UW athletics.
Life (and the AD job) is easy when the State is flush with cash. Now what?
You know how you tell them? Hey, we went to the Fiesta Bowl which returned 10 million to the general University fund thereby offsetting our cuts. Not only that, the advertising boosted enrollment by x% so that we have more funding for academic endeavors.
I banged the drum for a long time now about Burman and the AD responding to this with a well thought out response with real economic impacts of UW athletics.
Life (and the AD job) is easy when the State is flush with cash. Now what?
SnowyRange
Well-known member
Not to undermine your general point, because I agree, but the Fiesta bowl might net more like $1.5-2mm, not $10mm.
WestWYOPoke
Well-known member
SnowyRange said:
Directly, in bowl payout yes. But what about increased donations, merchandise sales, advertising money, the unknown value of free marketing and essentially free recruiting. It might not add up to $10 million, but the value of it is a lot more than the $1.5 million of actual cash they would get for being in the game.
SnowyRange
Well-known member
Oh, definitely there are other solid benefits that are hard to quantify. I just meant the cash from the bowl itself.
It sometimes surprises me how little net cash a school gets from a bowl...and the Fiesta Bowl is a big one. I read some long analysis of the oodles of smaller bowls, and it looked like a good number of them were actually net cash losses to the schools going.
LanderPoke
Well-known member
The lack of forward thinking makes me sick. I bet some of those rainy day funds could be put to good use diversifying Wyoming's economy so these bust cycles don't kick our ass so hard.Wyovanian said:
Wyokie said:
Denver to Fort Collins is the easiest stretch to drive.. lol. Hit me up when you cruise downtown Los Angeles at rush hour.
ragtimejoe1
Well-known member
I understand the above perspectives, but I say control what you can control. Do we blame the people for not understanding or does the University/AD bear the brunt of the criticism? IMO, it is the latter. If you don't get your message out there, how can you blame people for not understanding your message?
You do things like this:
http://boisestatepublicradio.org/post/how-winning-football-games-can-impact-academics-boise-state" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Then you follow up with an economic impact (to UW, Laramie, County, and State) study.
You create a vision of excellence, how we are going there, and how it benefits UW and all of Wyoming. You stomp out all notions that UW is destined for failure regardless. You stomp out every single whisper of "throwing" money away on athletics.
Instead, you reframe the debate about how much to invest in athletics and where the optimum return is.
Too long has the message from within our own University been: "Poor me. Things are so hard at WYO. Recruiting kids that want to be in Laramie takes extra money. We have so many challenges that we need more state money. etc. etc.". It is not hard to see how that very message can morph into what we are seeing now from legislature and others in the state: "WYO will never compete anyway. WYO will never get athletes to compete. WYO should just drop down where they can be more competitive. etc. etc.".
I get the "blame the people" thing, but UW and the AD damn sure haven't helped themselves in this regard either.
You do things like this:
http://boisestatepublicradio.org/post/how-winning-football-games-can-impact-academics-boise-state" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Then you follow up with an economic impact (to UW, Laramie, County, and State) study.
You create a vision of excellence, how we are going there, and how it benefits UW and all of Wyoming. You stomp out all notions that UW is destined for failure regardless. You stomp out every single whisper of "throwing" money away on athletics.
Instead, you reframe the debate about how much to invest in athletics and where the optimum return is.
Too long has the message from within our own University been: "Poor me. Things are so hard at WYO. Recruiting kids that want to be in Laramie takes extra money. We have so many challenges that we need more state money. etc. etc.". It is not hard to see how that very message can morph into what we are seeing now from legislature and others in the state: "WYO will never compete anyway. WYO will never get athletes to compete. WYO should just drop down where they can be more competitive. etc. etc.".
I get the "blame the people" thing, but UW and the AD damn sure haven't helped themselves in this regard either.
I agree RTJ. They should be saying - winning in athletics - even if you don't like it - does more good for the university in both the short term and long term - and allows them to increase their budget on their own - while giving the university great publicity.
Its nothing more than a temporary shot in the arm to get them rolling.
Its nothing more than a temporary shot in the arm to get them rolling.
McPeachy
Well-known member
ragtimejoe1 said:
Well put.
Agree with your last sentence emphatically.
So now that the writing is on the wall (with funding being threatened), our trusted athletic department shows their true work ethic (for all to clearly see) by being reactionary instead of what they should have been doing all along - being fucking proactive.
:evil:
WestWYOPoke
Well-known member
Oh come on. It's not like anyone could have predicted that something could happen and that the AD should get ahead of this...oh wait...I did (along with others)...19+ days ago!!!
http://www.wyonation.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=13873
http://www.wyonation.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=13873
WyoBrandX said:
The whole problem with this entire discussion from the Pokes' perspective is that this is not about how much the university and athletic department needs the money and how much good it can do if the teams return to national provenance. The real debate is whether this is more important than all of the other places in the state that the money can be used if it is not earmarked for CJC matching donations.
The other issue is that, by all estimates I have seen, this dry spell is likely going to last several years. Unless UW has boosters that will suddenly have money (that comes from someplace other than oil, gas, and coal) to throw at sports on par with SEC schools, U.W. athletics will continue to look to State coffers for funding, even as they shrink. If you think this year is hard, my guess is that next time around the Athletic Department will have to argue that it is still more important than even more obviously critical state functions that were spared this year.
Even sports fans like myself have a hard time believing that UW Athletics is among the highest legislative priorities state when every dollar counts so much and entire programs are on the chopping block around the state.
ragtimejoe1
Well-known member
WyoExpat said:
If the assumption is that every State dollar in is just spent (i.e. wasted) on athletics, then, your position is hard to argue with.
This is where Burman is dropping the ball. He needs to outline how it is an investment with a return on that investment. In other words, spending on athletics saves the University and the State money because athletics generates revenue. Football, even in miserable times, has turned a profit. Men's bball is at least break even.
Certainly it can be argued that because we have football, we have to have a larger athletic department which costs more money. Ask the State if their wish is to cut many non-revenue sports? You can't on one hand criticize football for consuming resources from other sports and in the same breath argue that because of football we have to have the other sports. Football and men's BBall are more than self sufficient financially.
Thus, any argument surrounding AD budgets must be targeting non-revenue sports. If you use the logic that we have to offer more sports because of football, then logically, eliminating football means a decrease in net revenue. Therefor, to have any positive effects on budget if football were cut would mean cutting other non-revenue sports.
If I'm Burman, I pull football's and men's bball revenue and to put back into those programs; any budget cuts are directed towards non-revenue sports. I take the heat and hope like hell they return dividends in the long-term.
As a long-time follower (but not member) of these message boards, I finally decided to join to add my 2 cents to this discussion. I was born/raised in Wyoming and am a proud graduate of UW, where I got a heck of an education. Like many others, lack of career opportunities in my field led me elsewhere (New York, and now Chicago). I haven't actually been (physically) back to Wyo since '85, before my parents moved east, but I still follow my 'Boys religiously. THE WYOMING COWBOYS remain my connection to the university, the state, and the mindset. Without the sports teams to root for, it would be very easy to just forget Wyoming even exists, except as maybe a pleasant distant memory. I'm sure there are a lot of UW grads scattered across the country who probably feel the same way. So I never can understand the reluctance of the state legislature there to invest - yes, invest - in things that can tie all of us residents and expats alike together, over all of the long years. I'm not a sports-crazed person - rarely follow pro sports of any kind - and am actually in education and the arts. But I see the HUGE importance of UW sports in the long view, and think that the typical short-sighted, tragically tight-fisted, parochial attitude of many (thank God, not all) of Wyoming's "ruling class" to be just plain stupid. It's a big country, and because of Wyoming's small population and location, it's really, really easy for the state to be completely ignored. Why make it even worse? I have planned a fairly decent gift to UW as part of my estate, but why is that? As I said before, I haven't been back to Wyo since '85, so why should I even feel any connection to the university and state at this point? UW football and basketball are what keep me still connected. Ya gotta' get (and keep) your brand out there!!!
