ESPN: Financial toll of coronavirus could cost college football at least $4 billion
Interesting article on ESPN this morning about the financial impact of COVID-19 on college athletics. Specifically, not having a season would cost the Power-5 programs a combined $4 billion in revenue, which could severely alter college sports in the future.
"Dr. Patrick Rishe, director of the sports business program at Washington University in St. Louis, believes the upcoming football season will be played -- even if it's during the spring -- because of 'astronomical financial implications' for athletic departments if it is canceled."
The news every day from AD's and decision makers seems to be optimistic that there will be some sort of college football season this year. I'm definitely feeling better about it than I was, even a week or two ago. Fingers crossed!
But yeah, it’s all a Democrat hoax, right?
Or...rather than spinning this into yet another we vs. Dem...MAYBE it's showing the economic impact on what could occur if this pandemic continues to affect our national scope. Are people sick? at an alarming rate. Are some measures too far? Nobody knows...not even the CDC...they've waffled back and forth now on the spread/touch issues. The article spells out the financial impact of no football. CMU and many other colleges are dropping OTHER programs because of the current hardships...right, wrong, or hoax...if football doesn't happen the college landscape will be forever changed.
The bottom line, college sports, particularly football has a heavy financial impact on the college stage. Michigan is probably one of the biggest factors with the money we generate from ticket sales and merchandising. We are one of the few athletic departments which is fully self-sufficient. As far as I am concerned if college football doesn't happen and the entire NCAA collapses, so be it. I'm at a point I'm tired of watching the same six teams dominate. The principle of college athletics is long dead and gone.
It is a fact the college football is a big cash cow. Not only for each college and university but all the TV contracts as well.
Look at how much this COVID has already cost; College BB tournys were cancelled including the Big Dance ($Billions). They used to say; money talks; well, this virus nixed that argument.
Absolutely and to me that's the message in the article. We've reached a point where football IS the identity of many colleges. We can crack all the Online State University jokes we want. They have some excellent academic programs beyond the football program but that global awareness is often tied directly to the sports marketing, merchandising, and identity. No football may be in the best health interests I'm not even arguing that. Financially it may have lasting damaging effects on fringe programs and Goliath's alike
If college athletics has become such a critical part of university operations that their absence causes existential crises for educational institutions - maybe it's time we (as a society) reevaluate the role of sports in colleges. Personally, I love the game of football and grew up watching UM play... but it had nothing to do with my choice to attend there is not what I truly valued about my experience there (and is not the charter purpose of the school).
believe it or not, I 100% agree on this take CRG...I didn't choose Michigan due to athletics. It was the best University in the state, and without a doubt much of my interest was based on football growing up, watching Anthony Carter etc...it had to influence but I didn't consider athletics in my application choices.
My son attends a smaller college in Michigan who just added football to their athletics. A huge part of that was marketing and drawing alumni donations to the university. Right, wrong, or different, it's part of their model today. Look at all the hype and social media our football program generates. Should it revert to a time where the main focus was academics? Absolutely... yet most here are so focused on NIL and money to players etc...the thought of STUDENT athlete takes a back seat to winning football games on this very blog...
What a truly random, terrible political take.
don't be so hard on yourself...you really didn't make a statement at all...just some random post.
You're right. Some random 'Trump sucks' post deserved a long-winded takedown. Good work? Weirdo lol
Hey buddy, thanks, have a great day, be safe, wash those hands. Appreciate the token effort.
Will be interesting to see how much of that is salvageable, even with a season. For example, ticket sales make up a fair portion of that. Would these games be open to full capacity seating? What happens when an outbreak hits one team? This will impact revenue too.
anyway, I’m guessing major shortfalls will happen even with a full season and the college athletics landscape will change drastically because of it.
Agreed. I think the stat in the article said $1.2 bil of that is ticket sales, so yea even if stadiums are allowed to be half full, there will still be huge impacts. That being said, the impact of no season at all, would be much more drastic.
Ah good, trying to put pressure on thousands of amateur athletes to risk their health because universities have built extremely bloated budgets off of their labor. You know what would save billions back? Not paying coaches and administrators millions of dollars as a way to claim you don't make money every year.
This could and should be applied to every industry in the US. Work for a large hospital system. Docs, nurses, ancillary staff all taking huge financial hits. You know who's not? The CEO, the executive directors and all the VPs (of which there are many). Total and complete bullshit.
Yes the EVILS of CAPITALISM!!! Apparently you don't pay attention to the financial press as many have taken huge in not complete reductions in pay, here is just a smattering....
You read that article, correct? Because it doesn't really strengthened your argument that CEOs are making huge sacrifices. Some choice pieces:
Some CEOs have responded to this crisis by taking a pay cut. So far, it’s almost entirely centered around the airline industry, which has seen many CEOs either take complete pay cuts or a percentage.
To be clear, these pay cuts are hitting their base salary, which is often a very small percentage of their overall compensation. For example, Delta CEO Ed Bastian’s base salary is $891,667, according to the latest proxy statement from the company. That’s 6% of his $14.9 million total compensation package — which is based on stock awards, option awards, and other types of compensation that aren’t connected to the company’s stock price.
Most of the CEOs did that; they dropped their salary but say nothing about additional compensation. Which is a nice gesture but not taking half of your $900k salary (since it's June) likely isn't going to be as traumatic for him as the various financial burdens his employees are dealing with due to forced salary cuts and/or furloughs. Also, someone who has been averaging millions of dollars of compensation a year probably has a slightly larger nest egg to fall back on than a nurse. I have no problem with CEOs being paid what the market deems they deserve, but you're not going to gin up much sympathy from people if you point out they're voluntarily giving up some small portion of their compensation while cutting the pay for thousands of employees.
Yes I did read the article and am not trying to evoke any sympathy, just replying to another comment that may not be factual as they are also doing their part. Also keep in mind that the article I linked is by no means a comprehensive look at all the CEOs for companies in the S&P 500 or Dow Jones 30, as many others - like in the Autos - have taken huge pay cuts and this was the quickest one I could find.
You are right the salary is often a small percentage of their compensation, for their additional compensation, one large bucket is often in the form of stock options, SARs, etc. and with markets being down YTD, that has not helped them in that category of their compensation and actually been hurt for their prior stock awards that they are still holding on to from prior year's awards, and another large bucket are current year performance bonuses tied to profitability and other non-financial metrics, which have also taken a hit for most.
My point was not to start a discussion about CEOs are over paid / make too much, etc. that is another discussion, but the fact is that they will have reduced pay for this year.
Yeah, the capitalism argument is bullshit. Do hospitals need CEOs? Absolutely.
The problem is the 5 layers of worthless MBAs working as 'management'. Capitalism is supposed to do away with that.
Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!
You are sooooo right as running a hospital is soooooo easy given all the insurance payers and issues, federal regulations, legal liability.
Almost as simple as running a fucking lemonade stand when we were kids!!!
As a physician, I am very middle of the road politically, and I am all about capitalism. I am well aware that some highly paid CEOs and administrators are taking paycuts (mind you, these are hugely advertised and marketed). My personal productivity has been down nearly 75% over the last 8 weeks - which means patients are not being seen for conditions which could have dramatic implications on their health. I have watched our nurses have their hours cut until they are furloughed. Our registration team and other ancillary staff has been cut to the degree that we cannot field calls or triage appropriately.
All of this comes in the setting of the "admin" saying they will continue to take care of their "employees", while not one single dollar of their income has been affected. And that income is not insignificant. The article you site is nice, but 10% of 5mil ain't that big of a pay-cut...sorry. In my income bracket, I am going to be just fine. But, there is no way you can tell me that a nurse making 22/hour who relies on that money to feed their kids, who is now working less than half of their normal hours shouldn't be a bit pissed off that the administration can't offer at least an olive branch of a small paycut. Sorry, I am a bit salty about this one.
EDIT: probably should have saved my original comment for the OT post on administrative costs in health care lol!
You're making a great point. In capitalism, the workers are desperately needed. We can fight about the salary another day. But the point is, the problem isn't capitalism OR socialism.
The problem is the middle management staff who game a rigged system. I honestly believe both political parties could agree on that.
Can't just spit horseshit on an a public forum and hope to now get called out for it.
I can't speak for across the nation but I know at least 4 of the major hospital systems in Michigan all of the executives took pay cuts of 10-25%. Some even went down to the director level pay cuts.
Very few nurses have been furloughed, any RN with any sort of cardiology or RT training has been retained and, good or bad, is probably making more money due to increases usage.
The doctors will be fine financially... come on. Most that were impacted are seeing half time usage, so their 600k/year salary dropping down to 300k/year, boohoo.
Yes most hospitals furloughed ancillary staff where services were shutdown, but also a good portion of those people have been able to transition to other roles if they wanted to throughout their system, otherwise they're getting pretty good unemployment comparative to their wages. And many of these services are coming back online and people getting their jobs back as days go bye.
I consider myself a "Democratic socialist", yes boo me Trump supporters idc, but can't just spit out "capitalism bad!" with bad examples.
Yeah, because football was a completely safe sport before the virus came around.
If I'm a healthy young person, I'd much rather get the virus than a concussion or a broken leg.
Not so fast. I’d probably take the leg. Still way too little known about long term impact of contracting Covid. Agree on the brain injury tough.
ak47...these collegiate athletes are at the LOWEST health risk from this virus. That doesn't mean they won't catch this virus. In fact, some will. Please know that some will be symptom free while others would have mild symptoms. Risking their health? Not on a large scale as you indicate. (trying to disagree in a nice way)
Why do people use this argument and not get that these young men already risk a hell of a lot (life long injuries for some) for the Universities, Admin, NCAA admin, TV networks, concessions, nearby restaurants and bars, etc. to reap direct financial gain. Why should they be expected to take on yet another poorly understood health risk....PLUS
They dont live in a fishbowl..they have older coaches around them, older teachers in classes, they have family members, grandparents etc So what are you going to tell them..quarantine before you go home or have family visit?...PLUS
There have been incidents of young men in this age group and demographic (disproportionately impacting black and brown men in the US and here in the UK) actually dying from this virus...and all it would take is ONE, just ONE to even become really sick to freak out the whole team and their families and that of anyone they recently played, their classmates, their teachers,their dorm mates...just ONE.
Spring... so May in Michigan? All kidding aside, can any of you imagine February/March football played at the Big House? Minnesota? Wisconsin?
Would be a disaster of epic proportions? But, I'd still prefer it to no football at all.
having a son who plays college baseball in Michigan...yes I'd rather it was football. We sat at a game in Indiana in late February/early March...it was football weather. Bring Bama to Ann Arbor in February...that might level the field a little :)
It's interesting to see how completely reliant college athletics seem to have gotten on football revenue's to keep the house of cards from collapsing. The costs rising as fast as the revenue climbs mean any significant dip in revenue sends the whole industry into panic mode. I'd love to see a comparison of some AD budgets from 1980 or 1990 compared to 2020
I'm a union skeptic, particularly after having been an unfortunate member of the SEIU for three years some time back, but it seems to me that if there is this much riding on college football, the players have a fair amount of leverage to extract more reasonable compensation packages in a non-pandemic year.
Imagine: late August, 2021. The pandemic is finally in the past. The nation looks forward to the first full, normal season of football in two years. The preview magazines are on the newstands, the preseason highlights are edited, and production staff at ESPN start loading up the trucks to get ready for College Gameday.
Your phone does that "DUH-duh-DUH" jingle you hear when there's an ESPN alert. You lazily pull it out of your pocket. "Probably telling me what MgoBlog told me a week ago, that Dylan is starting at QB this year," you think. You activate the screen. The words stare back at you.
"Power 5 college football players go on strike, refuse to play unless granted compensation."
The NCAA would melt like an ice cream cone in the hot sun.
Don't worry, Warde will jack up ticket prices soon enough to compensate. Bring on the $350 endzone seats to watch Michigan vs Texas!
Econ 101: price is a function of supply=demand. If demand is low, Warde cannot raise the price. We are in the bind of how people can attend football and then how many are WILLING to go. Many of the posters on this web site have very mixed opinions on this. Whether we agree or disagree with their views on this whole virus issue.
U of M football tickets prices will only go up when our program becomes as dominate as the Buckeyes have become. We'd need a 200,000 capacity stadium to achieve that kind of demand. I'd love to see it but won't hold my breath.
Maybe this is what finally gets athletic departments to trim stuff they don't need and bring prices back to being affordable? A guy can dream.
Prices are already affordable for the vast majority of sports. It's just football and basketball have a lot of people who want to attend so they charge higher rates. Cutting women's tennis is not going to reduce the demand for football and not going to affect the ticket price.
You mean men's tennis...women's sports will be spared to balance football scholarships
The demand for football is already going down, check ticket prices the day of a Michigan game for a cupcake, you'll be lucky to get $40 a ticket. People are going to start getting pissed and realize season tickets are not worth it. Pair that with not being able to go or choosing not to go due to health reasons and those people may decide to stay home for good. It's going to get sparse in there this year especially with the bad home schedule.
I agree, though it's selective. A game vs Army I couldn't give my tickets away to active duty Army troops...OSU it's still a hot ticket. The powder puffs, it's better to watch it on the 60 inch plasma screen...step in and step out...the divide is growing for sale of convenience. Hard core fans love the atmosphere but there is a reducing price point.
That means theyre not really affordable. And going to a baseball game (one of 81 in that stadium) with your family in decent seats is hardly an affordable endeavor these days.
No kidding...a man can dream. So much fluff and multi million dollar contracts it's out of control
Maybe the programs should have built up endowments and rainy day funds, instead of the most lavish facilities that people could think up.
Except a bunch of ADs sitting on literally hundreds of millions of dollars would end up being cause for public outcry and they'd have to fork it over to someone else, so what do they do? They spend it as fast as they make it to effectively hide how much money they make. I forget where I saw the chart, but I think Michigan basically tries to break even every year so even as revenues have skyrocketed, expenses have skyrocketed at almost the same rate. This method of hiding profits is a great way to end up in a deep hole if your revenues drop suddenly
I feel so bad for all of these organizations who've been steadily increasing profits for a decade-plus, even multiple decades...only to be reeeeeling from this pandemic. Poor people whatever will they do*
*Sucks for the student athletes, of course. And poor management in college sports is and will lead to negative changes that affect said athletes.
Do people honestly feel safe when going out in public? I'm a more or less perfectly healthy person in my late 30s and I second guess every decision I make at a grocery store when I am out. Have I unconsciously rubbed my eyes, did I scratch my neck, etc. It's just a really unpleasant experience for me and then I get home and decontaminate like I've entered from an alien land.
I more badly than anything want to be back in the big house with the rest of you malcontents. I just don't know that I would feel comfortable doing it until there is a vaccine. It's not the same experience for me if you can't high five strangers or drink from flask of someone you haven't seen since freshman econ.
oof. Is Jim Delaney's pension gonna be okay?
oof. Is Jim Delaney's pension gonna be okay?
The only good football news at this point is any news that leads me to believe that:
1. We are bridging the recruiting gap with OSU, and/or
2. Our coaches have figured out how to stop the Ryan Day offense with the players they have.
Nothing else qualifies as good news. It's either neutral news or bad news.
Let's all pretend to shed tears over a gazillion-dollar industry that temporarily lost a few billion. Something tells me it will recover.
Poor damn rich people.