(above) Mike Chambers of the Denver Post has an in-depth article about the finances over at the DU Athletic Departmentby Mike Chambers
Despite having one of the country's premier hockey programs, the University of Denver athletic department is operating on an annual budget deficit of more than $7 million. The massive shortfall is the result of the school's pledge to remain in NCAA Division I in all sports, as well as its effort to upgrade its struggling men's basketball program.
According to documents obtained by The Denver Post, the DU athletic program lost more than $22 million during a three-year period ending June 30, 2007, the deficits growing from $7.1 million to $7.8 million in the third year. DU is a private school and would not make its recent budgets available [read rest of article].
According to documents obtained by The Denver Post, the DU athletic program lost more than $22 million during a three-year period ending June 30, 2007, the deficits growing from $7.1 million to $7.8 million in the third year. DU is a private school and would not make its recent budgets available [read rest of article].
12 comments:
Some potential solutions.
Fire Coombe.
Lower Tuition.
Bring Back Boone.
Increase Alumni fundraising.
Start aggressively selling merchandise.
Give Gwozdecky lifetime contract.
Cut "non-performing" departments, staff at university.
You left out one, make DG Director of Alumni relations
That would be "Director of Alumni Relations Sponsored by Bud Light"
A detail that I find paRTicularly interesting: Killer Miller,who is directly responsable for our outstanding recruiting team is paid much less than his counterpart assistant basketball coach.Just a small gem but I think it speaks volumes about where peg Doppes head is.
Or you could get Coors to sponser the Unversities athletic department. :)
DU does have a $500 Million fundraising campaign underway.
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2010/10/28/university-of-denver-sets-goal-of-half.html?surround=etf&ana=e_article
Some Readers need some perspective....
1) 95-99% of D-I colleges "lose money" on sports. So do college symphonies and theatre depts who also sell tickets. That's okay, becuase they add value for everyone on campus. DU is doing just fine. If D-I colleges had to 'make' money, we'd only have basketball and football. Hockey at DU makes a couple of million, but it could never pay for all the other sports. DU can't go back to DII unless everything goes back to DU II, and they need a minimum number of sports to stay D-I.
2) "Losing" seven million on sports is tiny fraction of DU's $800+ million budget.
3) College hockey is a small sport on the national scene and it's coaches make less than D-I hoops coaches do.
4) One NCAA tounrey appearance in men's hoops is worth more to the school in revenue and exposure than winning the NCAA hockey tourney.
5) If we paid coaches by pure performance, the skiiing coach would be the highest paid coach at the school.
Lots of schools "lose" $7-10 Million but all have money losing football programs. DU doesn't have the expense of football, so these numbers jump out at you.
The "word on the street" is that there are 2 higher up's in DU's Athletic Dept that want DU to become a "basketball college". They don't care at all about the hockey program or what the students/alum want.
Am I crazy for wondering why the basketball coach receives more pay that Gwoz? Wouldn't be surprised if this is the last year for Coach G here at DU with all the changes...more $ for basketball, more salaries to those in basketball, and changes with the teams playing in WCHA.
FYI too..... how many people show up currently to basketball games versus hockey games? They're paying coaches total salaries of $600,000 for basketball when 45 people show up to a game?
Just because basketball on average has a much higher profile doesn't mean that DU has to follow the trend with salary- I would understand Swami's argument if the attendance and revenue numbers were swapped.
we are gouing into our third generation of trsdition for our hockey program. Grandfathers can be seen with their grandkids at the games. Swamis financial analysis completly misses the poiont. you can't put a price on our tradition versus ZERO tradition and fan interest in basketball. In two years we will lose Gwaz because og Doppes infatuation with SEC basketball . Then you will see the star prospects like Catle, Zucker.et all going elseware. What a disaster. n
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