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President Leath on SEZ and conference realignment
- Thread starter ISUagger
- Start date
In my opinion, which is similar to yours, fans will continue to show up as long as there is hope of being a consistent 8 or 9 win team. Granted, part of this hope is due to our ability to get to bowl games, but even when Chizik and Rhoads came into bad programs, there was still record breaking attendance.
Basically, IMO, at the point when fans don't think the program has any chance to get better, unless we are winning 8+ games per year, that is when attendance will suffer
There is some truth to this, but I think the amount of people you would lose with a standard 6 win Rhoads coached team is less than a person would think. Rhoads has added such excitement to the program that people are going to keep following it. Plus Rhoads has proved he can accomplish things that we wouldn't have dreamed of 5 years ago. Many fans aren't going to want to miss out on the next Oklahoma State or TCU or Texas wins.
Still believe the press box expansion is/should be first on the list. Would be much easier to finance and assuming the football team continues to improve and win, big donors would be more inclined to buy boxes than endzone seats.
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DistrictCyclone
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Do you think those schools make more money when they have winning seasons, or when they have losing seasons? Ceteris paribus, more wins = more money.
I would say those schools have pretty large budgets no matter how many wins. Hasn't Texas been #1 in the country for almost forever, even during and after their bad seasons? I also see Tennessee is still #8 in the country and they are going on 3 or 4 consecutive losing seasons.
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DistrictCyclone
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Maybe I'm not explaining myself clearly...
Don't compare schools to each other; that's a pointless exercise. A losing Texas still makes more money than a winning Iowa State, just as a losing Iowa State still makes more money than a winning Valley High School. It's apples-to-oranges.
Instead, just focus on one school. In any given year, do you think a school makes more money if they win a lot of games, or lose a lot of games?
Well, obviously winning more will make you more money.
But, ok wait, what were we arguing about again?
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DistrictCyclone
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Ha, good question :smile:
I see the President's point; if they're going to be paying for the SEZ, they want to ensure that they have the revenue base to support it, which is influenced by our propensity to win. I'm sure they've crunched the numbers on this and probably revisit them often, and just want to make sure it's a financially sound decision (can't blame them for that). The fact that Leath seems knowledgable on the issue indicates that it's a priority or at least something he pays attention to, which is good news for fans who want to see the SEZ happen.
That's true.
But, I think our fan base excitement is at an all time high right now. With the attendance records being broken the last couple of seasons, I think IF we had the money to bowl it in now, we would. (even with 6-7 win seasons) We obviously don't have the money because of the other projects that have been done, but let's just say we weren't in debt, do you think the SEZ would be getting done?
I can see your side of the argument, but what I'm trying to say is its more of a financial issue right now, not necessarily about how many wins our football has.
If we have finance the entire construction project, additional ticket sales will not cover the interest expense on the debt. So we would not be losing out on millions, we would be losing millions. For it to be done right, a large portion of it needs to be financed from donations, so that debt service burden doesn't cripple the athletic department. Just to get some round numbers to deal with, 5000 additional season tickets at say $200, generates $1M per year. If you could borrow 5% money, you could cover the interest for a $20M construction project. I think the plan was double or triple that, maybe more. I don't know what the real numbers would be, but you get a general idea why you just can't do it based on attendance.
You also don't want to get over extended to the point you can't fire, hire or retain coaches.
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Nobody really believes that the University President would disclose truly useful information regarding significant capital investment projects that are dependent upon major private donations to a bunch of frat brothers, do they? Just conducting a quick survey...
