Colorado Sports bankrupt due to lack of fan interest
Well, that isn't quite the way the headline reads in the Daily Camera out of Boulder, Colorado but for all practical purposes that is what has happened to the University of Colorado.
The Colorado athletic department has had to request an $8 million loan from the University to cover budget expenses. The University also agreed to forgive some existing debts owed by the athletic department. In the business world, that would be considered bankruptcy. The Buffs are being squeezed on both the revenue and cost sides of the equation.
On the revenue side, the Colorado football team is not selling enough tickets. At most Division 1 schools, the football program is the moneymaker that pays for much of the rest of the athletic department sports. It's kind of surprising that Colorado has such trouble getting fans to come to the football games but that attendance problem is not new. It just has gotten a little bit worse. In addition to poor ticket sales, the previous Athletic Director over estimated the results from fund raising campaigns. Of course with poor ticket sales it can hardly be expected that fans would be contributing much in the way of donations.
On the cost side, there are the big buy-out costs for firing former football coach Gary Barnett and the hiring costs for new coach Hawkins. Then too there are legal costs to be paid from the various lawsuits spawned by the controversy that erupted under Gary Barnett. Cleaning up the mess doesn't come cheaply.
The Colorado athletic department can expect some more serious cost cutting unless the fans suddenly come back and start buying tickets and donations - an unlikely scenario at this point unless the new football coach has a stellar inaugural season. Otherwise there will be cost cutting pain felt across the board like the recent elimination of the Tennis team. The university administration will not continue to bail out the athletic department.
The Colorado situation just emphasizes the fragile nature of athletic department budgets and how important fan support and donations are in this time of ever rising costs. Nebraska has had its own recent decline in donations which has put a damper on any new construction projects after the latest stadium expansion is completed. Thankfully, though, ticket sale continue to be strong and there is no pending "bankruptcy". All the new seats in the stadium expansion were easily sold very quickly and there still is a rather long waiting list for any other season tickets that might become available.
Click here to read the article in the Daily Camera (note: a free registration is required to view the article).
Go Big Red,
RedCap
The Colorado athletic department has had to request an $8 million loan from the University to cover budget expenses. The University also agreed to forgive some existing debts owed by the athletic department. In the business world, that would be considered bankruptcy. The Buffs are being squeezed on both the revenue and cost sides of the equation.
On the revenue side, the Colorado football team is not selling enough tickets. At most Division 1 schools, the football program is the moneymaker that pays for much of the rest of the athletic department sports. It's kind of surprising that Colorado has such trouble getting fans to come to the football games but that attendance problem is not new. It just has gotten a little bit worse. In addition to poor ticket sales, the previous Athletic Director over estimated the results from fund raising campaigns. Of course with poor ticket sales it can hardly be expected that fans would be contributing much in the way of donations.
On the cost side, there are the big buy-out costs for firing former football coach Gary Barnett and the hiring costs for new coach Hawkins. Then too there are legal costs to be paid from the various lawsuits spawned by the controversy that erupted under Gary Barnett. Cleaning up the mess doesn't come cheaply.
The Colorado athletic department can expect some more serious cost cutting unless the fans suddenly come back and start buying tickets and donations - an unlikely scenario at this point unless the new football coach has a stellar inaugural season. Otherwise there will be cost cutting pain felt across the board like the recent elimination of the Tennis team. The university administration will not continue to bail out the athletic department.
The Colorado situation just emphasizes the fragile nature of athletic department budgets and how important fan support and donations are in this time of ever rising costs. Nebraska has had its own recent decline in donations which has put a damper on any new construction projects after the latest stadium expansion is completed. Thankfully, though, ticket sale continue to be strong and there is no pending "bankruptcy". All the new seats in the stadium expansion were easily sold very quickly and there still is a rather long waiting list for any other season tickets that might become available.
Click here to read the article in the Daily Camera (note: a free registration is required to view the article).
Go Big Red,
RedCap
posted by RedCap at 7:45 AM
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