Originally Posted by SlyCy 
During Mac's infamous resignation press conference Pollard stated that
ISU athletics needed the football program to be successful to benefit other athletic programs. (or something close to that)
I'm assuming he means benefits financially. Can someone explain how this works? I can understand that football brings in a lot of money but I would also think it spends a lot of money.
Is this a viable business model to rely on a succesful football program? I thought Pollard said he wanted the basketball program to be the main sport at
ISU?
The money football brings in far outweighs what it spends. Men's basketball is profitable, but not as good as football. Women's BB is around the breakeven point. Every other sport is in the red. Football, and to a lesser extent, basketball pay for everything. More ticket money, more donor money, it all starts with football. There aren't luxury boxes (yet?) for basketball, those are major money makers. Iowa sells their luxury boxes for almost twice as much as
ISU does. If we have a successful football program, you can sell more tickets at a higher cost and sell the luxury boxes for more. There just isn't as much room for growth financially in mens basketball.
