Football Only Facility

[Gowebb11 9,315]

9 hours ago, GwillMac6 said:

Honestly that just screams of making a excuse to keep putting it off EVEN LONGER. Which is absolutely the wrong decision. 

Again, I want one and soon. But these are universities, not publicly traded corporations. Schools spending hundreds of millions of dollars on football is not a great business model and can't be sustained. I think that's all Leath was saying. 

[gman87 398]

1 hour ago, Gowebb11 said:

Again, I want one and soon. But these are universities, not publicly traded corporations. Schools spending hundreds of millions of dollars on football is not a great business model and can't be sustained. I think that's all Leath was saying. 

I'm not that up on the economics of it but I'm pretty sure football brings in 100MM per year.

[keesler 5,924]

Auburn can continue to stay status quo if they choose.  But the 24/7 conspiracy theories our fans spew about other programs "cheating" every freaking time we lose out on top shelf recruits will ring hollow when the other programs choose to blow out their facilites for the newest, grandest, most innovative products on the market.  The constant whining about other teams pulling the best talent in the nation year after year does nothing positive for Auburn. 

Auburn's TOP priority should be to pony up the mega $$ and level the playing field by offering equal facilities to the top programs in the country. 

[AlaskanFAN 1,666]

2 hours ago, gman87 said:

I'm not that up on the economics of it but I'm pretty sure football brings in 100MM per year.

Yeah, but how much of that 100 million goes to pay for those none $$ producing sports? 

[lionheartkc 6,150]

3 hours ago, gman87 said:

I'm not that up on the economics of it but I'm pretty sure football brings in 100MM per year.

Revenue, sure... nearly $200MM if you are Texas A&M, but they also spend almost all of that. Auburn brought in $140MM in 2015-16 and spent all but $16MM of that. Most schools spend around 90% of what they bring in.

[keesler 5,924]

5 minutes ago, lionheartkc said:

Revenue, sure... nearly $200MM if you are Texas A&M, but they also spend almost all of that. Auburn brought in $140MM in 2015-16 and spent all but $16MM of that. Most schools spend around 90% of what they bring in.

AND they still find a way to build new facilities, upgrade dated/ancient stadiums, add super sized ammenities for their student-athletes, boost their strength/conditioning/physical therapy programs for the players, and improve the game-day experience for their fans. 

AU has chosen to piece-mill their projects in the recent past (Jacobs.)  AU has turned over a new leaf, new Prez, new AD, I hope the days of dribbling out little building projects are over.  Spend the $$ and BLOW this thing out of the water.....MAKE A STATEMENT!

 

[Gowebb11 9,315]

3 hours ago, gman87 said:

I'm not that up on the economics of it but I'm pretty sure football brings in 100MM per year.

I’m not an economist either, but its pretty complicated. Let me begin with this analogy: ESPN signed CFB up for billions of dollars. Suddenly cable customers began cutting the chord, subsequently taking huge chunks of ESPN revenue that was supposed to pay for those TV rights. That put a huge dent in their financial outlook 5-10 years down the road. Just an example. For CFB, this years AU-LSU game in Death Valley was 70% full for a big SEC West game. Increasingly fans are staying home or leaving early to watch on TV or get to the tailgate early. Thats a huge loss of revenue and that trend may be here to stay. Yes, CFB generates huge dollars, for an increasingly smaller number of teams. While AU, Bama, Texas, Oklahoma, etc... rake in huge revenue, the mid majors like Southern Miss, Louisiana Tech, etc...struggle to operate at a profit. They certainly cant spend tens of millions of dollars on water slides and bowling alleys for football players, and then update them every 10 years. Once again, I’m all for AU having the nicest facilities and I believer relative to our competition, we are behind. But I’m speaking to Dr. Leath’s point, which is this is not a sustainable arms race for anyone long term. And he’s not alone among University Presidents thinking that way. 

[Gowebb11 9,315]

26 minutes ago, keesler said:

AND they still find a way to build new facilities, upgrade dated/ancient stadiums, add super sized ammenities for their student-athletes, boost their strength/conditioning/physical therapy programs for the players, and improve the game-day experience for their fans. 

AU has chosen to piece-mill their projects in the recent past (Jacobs.)  AU has turned over a new leaf, new Prez, new AD, I hope the days of dribbling out little building projects are over.  Spend the $$ and BLOW this thing out of the water.....MAKE A STATEMENT!

 

I agree with our previous AD’s approach being too piece meal. But regarding the AU/TAMU comparison, AU has an endowment of over 600 million. A&M has an endowment of over 10 Billion. Huge difference in the ability to fundraise. 

[lionheartkc 6,150]

1 minute ago, Gowebb11 said:

I’m not an economist either, but its pretty complicated. Let me begin with this analogy: ESPN signed CFB up for billions of dollars. Suddenly cable customers began cutting the chord, subsequently taking huge chunks of ESPN revenue that was supposed to pay for those TV rights. That put a huge dent in their financial outlook 5-10 years down the road. Just an example. For CFB, this years AU-LSU game in Death Valley was 70% full for a big SEC West game. Increasingly fans are staying home or leaving early to watch on TV or get to the tailgate early. Thats a huge loss of revenue and that trend may be here to stay. Yes, CFB generates huge dollars, for an increasingly smaller number of teams. While AU, Bama, Texas, Oklahoma, etc... rake in huge revenue, the mid majors like Southern Miss, Louisiana Tech, etc...struggle to operate at a profit. They certainly cant spend tens of millions of dollars on water slides and bowling alleys for football players, and then update them every 10 years. Once again, I’m all for AU having the nicest facilities and I believer relative to our competition, we are behind. But I’m speaking to Dr. Leath’s point, which is this is not a sustainable arms race for anyone long term. And he’s not alone among University Presidents thinking that way. 

Good points.  At some point the bubble is going to burst and the outrageous amounts of money spent on coaches and other niceties are going to have to be cut back dramatically. Sporting events, concerts, and theme parks have spent the past 10 or so years testing to see just how far they can stretch the entertainment going public's willingness to shell out big bucks, with little push back. One day, people are going to reach their limit and all of these things are going to struggle to survive when people just stop showing up. 

[lionheartkc 6,150]

3 minutes ago, Gowebb11 said:

I agree with our previous AD’s approach being too piece meal. But regarding the AU/TAMU comparison, AU has an endowment of over 600 million. A&M has an endowment of over 10 Billion. Huge difference in the ability to fundraise. 

yea... A&M is the wrong school to compare anyone too.  They are so far on the top of the heap that no one is going to catch up.

[keesler 5,924]

Just curious, what are the endowments of the "Big 6" SEC schools?  UT/UF/UAT/AU/UGA/LSU

A quick google search shows:

UF  (2016)  $3 billion

LSU (2017) $616mm

UGA (2014?)  $1 billion

AU (2016) $646mm

UA (2015)  $1.2 billion

UT (2017) $1 billion

Some of this info is really old, I'm sure more recent numbers are available than 2014 & 2015.

[doc4aday 1,887]

The bottom line is that we need to do what we have to do to remain a premiere elite program. If having a football only facility is a huge missing piece of the puzzle to keep us at this level, then we have to find a way or make a way to get this done. I do not want Auburn to fall behind to where we become a mid level SEC program and not a top 4 or 5 program. I do think this will get done within the next 3 years, or we are in trouble of falling behind to a level none of us want to be at.  We should never fall behind CLEMSON as was stated a few posts ago.  We should be in contention season in and out for the SEC West and overall championship.  In order to do this, we have to run with the big dogs in this league.

I have tried to find which SEC schools have a "Football only facility" and cannot seem to find this. If any of you know which schools in the SEC have this facility, please post this. I think a lot of us would really like to know this. As always, this will be much appreciated!

 

I

[doc4aday 1,887]

This might help folks... looks like we hit the $1 billion mark for 2016.

 

ww.auburn.edu/administration/business-finance/pdf/f-rpt16.pdf

1.  

Jan 24, 2017 - Auburn University, surpassed its ambitious $1 billion goal in 2016 — more than 16 months ahead of schedule ... An audit involves performing procedures to obtain audit evidence about the amounts and disclosures in the .... AUF holds endowments and distributes earnings from thoseendowments to the ...

[lionheartkc 6,150]

3 minutes ago, doc4aday said:

This might help folks... looks like we hit the $1 billion mark for 2016.

 

ww.auburn.edu/administration/business-finance/pdf/f-rpt16.pdf

1.  

Jan 24, 2017 - Auburn University, surpassed its ambitious $1 billion goal in 2016 — more than 16 months ahead of schedule ... An audit involves performing procedures to obtain audit evidence about the amounts and disclosures in the .... AUF holds endowments and distributes earnings from thoseendowments to the ...

I'm pretty sure a total of none of that goes to the athletic program.

[doc4aday 1,887]

1 minute ago, lionheartkc said:

I'm pretty sure a total of none of that goes to the athletic program.

If this is the wrong amount, I apologize. I did see as Keesler  stated, an amount of $646,000,000.  It seemed to indicate we hit this mark, but hey, I do not know all of the economic ins and outs of the university. If $646,000,000 the correct total, I have no problem being wrong.

[doc4aday 1,887]

4 hours ago, lionheartkc said:

yea... A&M is the wrong school to compare anyone too.  They are so far on the top of the heap that no one is going to catch up.

It is funny in that TAMU has so much $$$$$$$ they have missed the mark sorely by being at or near the top as a football powerhouse in the SEC or Big 12 as far as that goes. I am curious if Jimbo is going to be the messiah TAMU has been looking for since forever. If Auburn had the money they had, we would make bammer look like little sisters of the poor!

[lionheartkc 6,150]

Just now, doc4aday said:

If this is the wrong amount, I apologize. I did see as Keesler  stated, an amount of $646,000,000.  It seemed to indicate we hit this mark, but hey, I do not know all of the economic ins and outs of the university. If $646,000,000 the correct total, I have no problem being wrong.

What you are taking about is the fund raising campaign that Auburn started for the general fund where they had the $1 billion goal (AUF - Auburn University Foundation). What Keesler is talking about is the money that the athletic program has in their endowment (TUF - Tigers Unlimited Foundation). 

[doc4aday 1,887]

4 minutes ago, lionheartkc said:

What you are taking about is the fund raising campaign that Auburn started for the general fund where they had the $1 billion goal (AUF - Auburn University Foundation). What Keesler is talking about is the money that the athletic program has in their endowment (TUF - Tigers Unlimited Foundation). 

Got it! Learned something new today about Auburn.  I would guess that in the not too distant future, we will close in on the $1 billion mark.

[lionheartkc 6,150]

1 minute ago, doc4aday said:

Got it! Learned something new today about Auburn.  I would guess that in the not too distant future, we will close in on the $1 billion mark.

It all depends on what gets spent.

[AuMarine 1,372]

On 1/22/2018 at 11:13 AM, lionheartkc said:

Good points.  At some point the bubble is going to burst and the outrageous amounts of money spent on coaches and other niceties are going to have to be cut back dramatically. Sporting events, concerts, and theme parks have spent the past 10 or so years testing to see just how far they can stretch the entertainment going public's willingness to shell out big bucks, with little push back. One day, people are going to reach their limit and all of these things are going to struggle to survive when people just stop showing up. 

I agree with this and I think we are seeing this more and more in sports in general. It is at a point now, that sports (in general) are pricing themselves out of the market for regular folks like me. The cost to take a family of 4 to an NFL game is outrageous and not affordable for most people. The cost to take a family of 4 to a college football game (I am talking about the low level games ) is also bordering on being not affordable Not to mention if you wanted to take a family of four to lets' say the Auburn vs bama game.. that is not affordable ..So many people are becoming like me.. Sit at home and watch it on my nice big crystal clear TV screen rather than spend the time, effort and money. 

[lionheartkc 6,150]

5 minutes ago, AuMarine said:

nice big crystal clear TV screen

That didn't cost much more than what it would cost to go to one game with a family of 4.

[AuMarine 1,372]

13 minutes ago, lionheartkc said:

That didn't cost much more than what it would cost to go to one game with a family of 4.

And I will keep the TV for many years. 

[80Tiger 899]

On 1/22/2018 at 10:13 AM, lionheartkc said:

Good points.  At some point the bubble is going to burst and the outrageous amounts of money spent on coaches and other niceties are going to have to be cut back dramatically. Sporting events, concerts, and theme parks have spent the past 10 or so years testing to see just how far they can stretch the entertainment going public's willingness to shell out big bucks, with little push back. One day, people are going to reach their limit and all of these things are going to struggle to survive when people just stop showing up. 

I think the concussion issue will be one of the larger driving issues of football eventually maybe even going away. The NFL at some point in time will be gutted by the amount of money they end up paying. It will then trickle down to other levels of football and then manufactures of equipment. Asbestos settlements having been going on for years and concussions will do the same thing to football and manufacturers. Not saying it is wrong on right, but what I think will happen and probably not in my lifetime. I enjoyed playing football as kid and in high school. My kids did to, but I have reached the point where I don't think I would like my grandchildren to play. I also believe you see that sentiment growing more and more. It may be 50 years or more but the stadium may be used more for soccer at some point.

[WarDamnEagleWDE 12,737]

Going to need north of a 1/2 billion just to get out of the middle of the pack in the SEC alone. But a lot of upgrades and building is coming. 

[Linayus 676]

I just want them to hurry up and do something with the old Arena. I'm not sure what all it's used for now (outside of the Robotics competition and maybe a few offices) but it's an eyesore compared to most of the rest of campus and that parking lot is terrible.

Also they won't want to move the football only facility too far away from the current location since it's close to the student-athlete dorms and the current practice facilities. Tearing down the old Arena and redoing that whole area would make a lot of sense.