Monday, August 30, 2010

Budget Crisis and Alumni Players and CIC quotes. Oh My!


Pardon this somewhat scattered and random post. I have received a few new noteworthy items, but do not currently have the time to go into "in-depth" detail with each.

First, SCSU's budget crisis (and possibly cutting of the football program) was something I recently commented on. St. Cloud Times recently published an article talking more about the possiblilty of some athletic cutting. Here are my quick points:

  • SCSU athletic department is facing $500,000 deficit for next year.
  • Cutting will have to be made
  • Football cost the university $890,783 and brought in $67,161
  • Biggest loser financially for SCSU is women's hockey...cost $893,484 and brought in $7,100
  • In comparison, SCSU men's hockey costs $1,231,596 and brought in $1,334,774
  • Men's hockey is the only sport that makes money at SCSU (gain of $103,178)
  • Because of title 9, SCSU can not cut women's hockey.
  • "Fundamentally, we have to keep men's and women's hockey. Legally, it's not possible to drop women's hockey. After you look at that, football is the next big money sport. Then one option becomes eliminating football. If we don't eliminate football, what other options are there? That would be to cut eight minor sports — and that's not quite a satisfactory response."
Second, a couple notes on some SCSU alumn (thanks to CIC for these bits):
  • Former SCSU Husky (and Sioux Falls Stampede player) Joe Jensen has signed a professional contract for the 2010-2011 season with HC Pusteral of the Italian Serie A Professional League.
  • Former SCSU Husky Nate Raduns is hanging up the skates to attend graduate school at Vanderbilt University in Philadelphia
A couple of noteworthy quotes from CIC's twitter page:
  • "Concerning the loss of coach Rud. The upper classmen hate to see him go but understand the opportunity. They are focused on leading this team"
  • "The size and speed of this years SCSU men's squad has been ratcheted up. Cam Reid was in awe of some of the speed on this squad."
  • "Frosh forward Cam Reid (Nashville draft choice) is absolutely thrilled to be here. Competed against Mitch MacMillan in the BC league."
  • "I can't say enough about the quality of the student athletes Coach Motzko has recruited. Chatted with most of them at the Hockey Golf event."

5 comments:

  1. You know what would solve budget problems with women's hockey?

    People supporting it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. @ Runninwiththedogs- For sure! True Story: I went to four women's hockey games when I was a student at SCSU...I received four prizes (one at each game). I got a two hats, a t-shirt, and a gift card. That is how bare the seats were.

    I know averaging only one a game a year doesn't necessarily mean I was the best supporter; however, I went to far more women's hockey games then I went to basketball games (mens or womens).

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well, you also got in for free, too, I assume? But four is more than most!

    I am stunned at how little football makes compared to its cost, though. But I guess if you think about it: it seats 4198. Students have 3 sections, which is I don't know how many seats, but they don't pay. Let's say there are 798 student tickets. I don't know if that is even accurate, but whatever, it gives me a round number.

    That means 3400 paying customers if EVERY game sells out. Season tickets are $40 and single game tickets are $10 for 4 of the games at $15 for homecoming, kids are $5. So, let's say 800 are kids, 1300 are STHs and 1300 are single gamers. That means 52000 from STHs, 40000 from kids, and 71500 from single gamers. That's 163500. Obviously this doesn't take into account food sales and stuff but damn, that's a deficit that even in an outstanding year would require a professional eating competition in the stands to overcome. I don't know if there is playoff revenue-sharing or if the figures included ad sales or donors directly to the football team, but hm.

    It surprises me that women's hockey costs so much but I suppose there are much higher travel costs.

    ReplyDelete
  4. That's the biggest problem with scsu is hockey is god and everything else completely under the radar

    ReplyDelete
  5. @ Runninwiththedogs- Yeah...I did get in for free. I too am stunned by both the little money that football brings in and the high cost of women's hockey. However, with SCSU spending well over a million dollars on men's hockey, the school needs to find some female sport to spend a lot of money on as well (because of title 9). I am all for increased female participation in college athletics, but the numbers in this case are a little crazy.

    @ Anonymous- The "hockey is god" mentality at SCSU is both the source of great troubles (see our current budgetary issues) and the source of great pride and some of the best fans in college hockey. So I am not sure if that "hockey is god" mentality qualifies as a problem or a blessing.

    ReplyDelete

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