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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2009 > February > 04 > Entry
OSU athletics going red
Anybody who’s been following the discussion here about athletic scholarships (Scholarships: Good idea or bad?) but doesn’t always see the sports pages might be interested in the latest news out of Columbus. OSU is saying its athletic department will be in the red this year for the first time in four years.
An NCAA study last year concluded that schools like OSU— in that they are likely get a lot of bowl invitations —; are among the very, very few that typically make any money off sports
Here’s the Associated Press story on OSU:
COLUMBUS— The scarlet and gray will soon be in the red.
Ohio State Athletic Director Gene Smith confirmed Sunday, Feb. 1, that for the first time in his four-year tenure, the Buckeyes’ athletic department is expected to lose money during the fiscal year ending June 30.
Smith said he didn’t know how much the department would fall short of projections, but revenues are down between $300,000 and $500,000 this year for the winning men’s basketball team.
“Maybe a couple hundred thousand,” he said of the possible total losses. “But it’s hard to tell.”
As part of a financial plan set three years ago, the athletic department will raise ticket prices $1 per game in football and men’s basketball across the board, except for students, Smith said.
The school is also paring down costs by allowing only essential personnel to travel to road games and cutting other personal expenses for employees, he said.
Ohio State, which has an annual athletic budget of more than $110 million, typically banks the excess earned from ticket sales, concessions, radio and TV contracts and other revenue sources in its athletic reserve fund.
“We’re behind a little bit on revenue in basketball — single-game tickets, concessions, revenue,” Smith said. “Once the economy started to shift, somewhere in October, we started to say, ‘Hey, this is going to hit us, and it’s hit us in this sport in particular.’ So we’re not hitting the single-game goals that we hoped to achieve.”
Smith, who took over as athletic director in 2005, said Ohio State would not cut any of its 36 sports, which is the highest number of teams at any school in the nation.
After the $1 increase, a football ticket would cost $63 next fall. Men’s basketball tickets will go up to $27 per game for the 2009-10 season. Tickets will go up another dollar starting in the fall of 2010, Smith said.
The vast majority of Ohio State’s athletic revenue comes from football. Smith said the Buckeyes must play a minimum of seven home games to support all of the school’s sports teams.
As for cutting sports teams, “we’re not even thinking about that,” Smith said. “I don’t anticipate that during my tenure. -END
Here’s more at the Columbus Dispatch.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Post your comment | Categories: Higher Ed, Martin Gottlieb, Sports and recreation
Comments
By Mary
February 4, 2009 11:02 PM | Link to this
Apparently, there are no standard ways to account for college athletics. Even those who are in the black might really be in the red. I am sure there was money from the students at large, the university, or the state that has made athletics at OSU appear to be in the black even when it is not. I read about millions of tax dollars that were used for the Horseshoe refurbishment. At the least, the schools they play are probably in the red and help finance the 7 a year games in the Horseshoe Stadium. It would be interesting to know how much debt is still being carried on the Horseshoe refurbishment. It is easy to do creative accounting with all the money floating around. A New York Times article I read a few years ago pointed out one school carried the costs of washing the football uniforms (all the detergent and labor, etc) on that university’s books and not in the athletics department. It is not clear from any news article I read what athletics positions and functions are carried on the university side at OSU for students and tax payers to finance, but I would be surprised if there was not some significant amounts.By Mary
February 5, 2009 8:17 AM | Link to this
The New York Times Magazine article I referenced in the previous comment was dated December 22, 2002. The school mentioned was the University of South Florida in an article titled “How football can crush a college” and subtitled “Football is a sucker’s game”. Their president at the time was a former OSU administrator. Some excerpts “But as in most athletics department, the accounting makes no attempt to measure the true resources used. One day, I stood in a humid basement room and watched the laundry - muddy Bulls jerseys and pants, T-shirts, sweat socks, wrist- and headbands, jockstraps - from 105 football players being cleaned. Several colossal washers and dryers were being fed by three athletic-department employees. They perform this task early August through late Novemeber, six days a week, 10 hours a day. None of this -the salaries, the utility costs, the $8,000 a year just in laundry detergent - is charged against football. Nor is there any attempt to break out football’s share of such costs as sports medicine, academic tutoring, strength and conditoning, insurance, field upkeep or the rest of its share of the more than $5 million in general expenses of the athletic department not assigned to a specific sport. In the papers I was shown, I also could find no evidence that a $ 2 million fee to join Conference USA (which is not a B.C.S. conference) as a football-playing member in 2003 was accounted for in football’s expense ledger. The money was borrowed from the university’s endowment, and the athletic department is paying the interest.”By bobby
February 5, 2009 1:41 PM | Link to this
The 1999-2000 renovation of Ohio Stadium cost 194 million dollars. Eighty percent of the cost of renovation was funded by the sale of leases on the suites and club seats. The remaining twenty percentwas funded by donations and the sale of naming rights for portions of the stadium. No public or university money was spent in the renovation process….So, what is the issue? Non-profits, instituonal, Fed, State, and for profits are bleeding money.By Mary
February 5, 2009 2:00 PM | Link to this
bobby, I recall reading a Dayton Daily News article about the time of the refurbishment. I am fairly certain it mentioned millions of dollars in tax money kicked in by the state. It would be interesting to know if the cost of the leases for suites was tax deductible as a business expense and/or education contribution. I am fairly certain the donations were tax deductible, which means less tax revenues for things like education and infrastructure. Our tax code essentially subsidizes the sports industry with these types of deductions. It is an abuse of the non-profit status for education.By bobby
February 7, 2009 10:28 AM | Link to this
Mary, See Ohio Stadium…..Wikpedia