ZapPoke
Well-known member
I’d prefer men’s and women’s hockey over golf and tennis
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WBB
- Thread starter Vapoke
- Start date
OrediggerPoke
Well-known member
I assume most people would. Me too if money wasn’t a consideration.
Hockey likely makes the least sense unless the idea is to bankrupt the athletic department.
The idea with women’s wrestling is: (1) it’s the fastest growing HS sport; (2) the facilities already exist; (3) coaching staffs can be shared; and (4) it can at least generate some ticket revenue.
I think Men's hockey could prove financially doable, just very tough. Unfortunately, women's hockey given their required travel just wouldn't be. I do wonder though if Softball could be viable since UW and AFA are the only schools in the new MW to not have the sport. Travel wouldn't be awful in that case and you likely can sell tickets to it + a sport that gets decent media coverage in the spring would be huge for the school, rn I think it's just tennis and that's hard to sell for a lot of students wanting to watch sports this time of year.
OrediggerPoke
Well-known member
Schools are trying to decrease costs of non-football/basketball sports in this new 'revenue share' world not increase.
Internet research indicates the following average operating costs without NIL (and without capital expenditures figured in) for D1 sports: (1) Hockey $4-$6 million; (2) Softball $2-$3 million.
The University of North Dakota appears to report roughly an annual budget of $9 million for hockey. Not to mention a facility cost that would probably be $100-$200 million. I don't see how that is 'financially doable' at all to be honest.
That's very true, big thing I forgot was a facility for hockey which UW doesn't have. I will say NoDak spending that much on hockey isn't what UW could expect to, as if they landed in a conference it's likely that would be the CCHA with BGSU and they spend 4 million on revenue sports as a whole (defined by BG as football, MBB, and hockey), so UW would likely be spending around 2-3. BG also from my rough search generates ~400-500k before media rights (unclear how much they get from that). If a facility is built then I think men's hockey would sell and be able to sustain it's self, the issue would be finding the money to get a facility in place which UW doesn't have rn. Softball or baseball are probably the far cheaper options especially given Cowboy Field would probably need less than 1 mil in renovations to be D1 ready but it's hard to tell if the athletic department even has that money lying around. As you said though schools are trying to cut spending outside football and hoops so all of this is effectively speculation for fun but it's interesting to think about in my opinion. I will also say, women's wrestling is a slam dunk add and I'd love to see it brought in, that'd sell very well and be very fun to watch.
