That's a front page headline in the Daily Star this morning...
Apparently, the school only has enough financial resources to stay solvent for another 3 months or so, since their senior financial executives projections were off by over $240 million for the year...
This has the faculty and staff at the school up in arms, after president Robbins addressed the matter, the other day, at the school...
What's interesting is that people are looking at the Wildcats Athletic Dept that has been a "drain" on the financial resources of the university...
More specifically, they (faculty and staff) took exception to the $55 million dollar "loan" the university made to the athletic dept at the height of the Covid pandemic and is not being paid back in a timely fashion, as Robbins acknowledged...
One research professor, who questioned the efficacy of the loan in the first place, stated "I'm worried about the (schools) priorities here: does the loan reflect a priority of athletics over faculty, staff, students and their programs..??"
The article goes on to point out that the school's athletic budget is roughly $100 million with about $40 million coming from the PAC, about $30 million coming from ticket sales (football and basketball) and the last $30 million coming from philanthropy and contracts, etc...
It goes on to point out that AU has 23 supported sports teams while the schools in the Big 12 average about 17 sports teams per program which means, as Robbins pointed out, the AU may have to cut some of its sports programs moving forward...
Robbins went on to say that "everything is on the table" including selling the athletic dept to an outside vendor so people who are qualified to run an athletic dept may turn it into a profit making endeavor...
However, before doing something like that he was more inclined to leasing land, like ASU does under president Crow, since AU has over a thousand acres through their UA's Experiment Station, land available for such an endeavor...
Robbin pointed out that "I think we could invest in doing ground leases and have a steady amount of income, forever, on that land"...
The article concludes by saying that Robbins has until 12-15-23 to submit a future "prosperity" plan to the ABOR...
We all know that for schools like ASU and dozens upon dozens of other schools, in similar financial situations, that what is now happening in college athletics is not sustainable...
The big irony for me is that there seems to be a stigma associated with allowing school athletic depts to use a for profit financial model, instead of a non-profit model, when college athletics is big, big business, where billions are made to profit all kinds of business organizations and institutions but pretend that they have purer motives represented by a non-profit model...
That's why, recently, I brought up the idea of having a Sun Devil Co-Op model, where people could "invest' in ASU athletics, where the "profits' are reinvested in the schools athletic dept, independent of the the ASU athletic dept, so that a large of amount of funds could lead to an endowed athletic dept at some future point...
That way an independent Sun Devil Co-Op could work within a partnership with ASU but not be governed by it, since the stock sold by the Co-Op could not be controlled by anyone other than its stockholders...
Non-profits can not issue stock while for profit entities can...
And, what would you rather be...an invested stock owner in Sun Devil athletics (with a say in the way things are run) or someone that gives to a charity like you do to the Salvation Army or whatever...
Anyway, it was a very interesting article that shows that our current model of supporting college athletics for most schools is not sustainable, IMHO...
Go Sun Devils!!!
Apparently, the school only has enough financial resources to stay solvent for another 3 months or so, since their senior financial executives projections were off by over $240 million for the year...
This has the faculty and staff at the school up in arms, after president Robbins addressed the matter, the other day, at the school...
What's interesting is that people are looking at the Wildcats Athletic Dept that has been a "drain" on the financial resources of the university...
More specifically, they (faculty and staff) took exception to the $55 million dollar "loan" the university made to the athletic dept at the height of the Covid pandemic and is not being paid back in a timely fashion, as Robbins acknowledged...
One research professor, who questioned the efficacy of the loan in the first place, stated "I'm worried about the (schools) priorities here: does the loan reflect a priority of athletics over faculty, staff, students and their programs..??"
The article goes on to point out that the school's athletic budget is roughly $100 million with about $40 million coming from the PAC, about $30 million coming from ticket sales (football and basketball) and the last $30 million coming from philanthropy and contracts, etc...
It goes on to point out that AU has 23 supported sports teams while the schools in the Big 12 average about 17 sports teams per program which means, as Robbins pointed out, the AU may have to cut some of its sports programs moving forward...
Robbins went on to say that "everything is on the table" including selling the athletic dept to an outside vendor so people who are qualified to run an athletic dept may turn it into a profit making endeavor...
However, before doing something like that he was more inclined to leasing land, like ASU does under president Crow, since AU has over a thousand acres through their UA's Experiment Station, land available for such an endeavor...
Robbin pointed out that "I think we could invest in doing ground leases and have a steady amount of income, forever, on that land"...
The article concludes by saying that Robbins has until 12-15-23 to submit a future "prosperity" plan to the ABOR...
We all know that for schools like ASU and dozens upon dozens of other schools, in similar financial situations, that what is now happening in college athletics is not sustainable...
The big irony for me is that there seems to be a stigma associated with allowing school athletic depts to use a for profit financial model, instead of a non-profit model, when college athletics is big, big business, where billions are made to profit all kinds of business organizations and institutions but pretend that they have purer motives represented by a non-profit model...
That's why, recently, I brought up the idea of having a Sun Devil Co-Op model, where people could "invest' in ASU athletics, where the "profits' are reinvested in the schools athletic dept, independent of the the ASU athletic dept, so that a large of amount of funds could lead to an endowed athletic dept at some future point...
That way an independent Sun Devil Co-Op could work within a partnership with ASU but not be governed by it, since the stock sold by the Co-Op could not be controlled by anyone other than its stockholders...
Non-profits can not issue stock while for profit entities can...
And, what would you rather be...an invested stock owner in Sun Devil athletics (with a say in the way things are run) or someone that gives to a charity like you do to the Salvation Army or whatever...
Anyway, it was a very interesting article that shows that our current model of supporting college athletics for most schools is not sustainable, IMHO...
Go Sun Devils!!!
