Gazette Article

[koolhandlick]

The Gazette printed the first of their five part series on the state of the Iowa men's basketball program in today's paper. It started off by mentioning the empty seats at Carver and the loss of revenue in recent years. After that it was mostly just A. D. Barta being given a chance to HE - HAW around and repeat the same thinga he has said in the past. "I'm not at all happy with where we are right now competiitively, not at all happy with where we are in attendance and just the feel of the all-round program. But that being said my support for coach Lickliter hasn't wavered." It went on to say that five years ago the program generated $10.61 million and more than $4 million in ticket sales. Overall revenue since has decreased by nearly $900,000 and ticket sales have plummeted by more than $1.35 million. Nine years ago Iowa averaged a sellout of 15,500 fans. This year average attendance based on ticket sales is 9,464. Nearly 1,300 fewer than a previous low set two years ago. An average of 5,021 people are attending games meaning only 53 percent of people who buy tickets use them. Next came Alford-Pierce comments followed by assistant athletic director Rick Klatt saying that he didn't know if there would be empty seats if we had the fifth ranked team in the country. " Everybody wants it to happen fast but there's also some reality there. There's a learning curve that takes place."

 

[busabus114]

I read the article - not exactly groundbreaking stuff. Its the same things weve been talking about all year long. Gotta fill paper space i guess

 

[JonDMiller]

Kansas basketball brought in close to $16 mil in revene the year they won the national title two years ago. Iowa's athletics budget is in the upper 80mil range. Basketball is a drop in the bucket. But unfortunately it was treated as a drop in the bucket for too long from a facilities standpoint.

Alford said Iowa was a football school. Well, so is nearly every BCS conf school. He did find the place where that is not the case

 

[nilkin]

I read the article - not exactly groundbreaking stuff. Its the same things weve been talking about all year long. Gotta fill paper space i guess

Agree with your assessment of this reporting.

The Gazette could have just as easily copied/pasted a couple of old message board threads.

As you say, "Gotta fill paper space".

 

[1MoreHawkeyeInTX]

Iowa men?s basketball program at all-time lows|GazetteOnline.com

For those that want a link to the article. Kool summarized it well... no great shakes. Really not much point in publishing this one. . . YAWN...

Jon - I don't know the answer, but what's the margin on each of the sports. Revenue is only one side of the equation. I'm sure football is more profitable right now, but I'd have to believe that the expense side of football (more coaches, more players, more equipment, etc.) is substantially higher than basketball. It is possible that the profit of the basketball operation could approach football depending on the expense side. Maybe not, but comparing only revenues isn't a complete comparison. Regardless, if you're paying a guy $1.3 million to run an $11 million (5 years ago) business... he can't shrink the revenue line like he has and not feel heat... regardless how well the other divisions are doing.

 

[FreddyBrown]

It's a five part series, so the purpose of the first installment may have simply to establish a baseline. Based on the amount of substance in the first installment, though, it might have been better to condense the series a little.

 

[OO44]

Kansas basketball brought in close to $16 mil in revene the year they won the national title two years ago. Iowa's athletics budget is in the upper 80mil range. Basketball is a drop in the bucket. But unfortunately it was treated as a drop in the bucket for too long from a facilities standpoint.

Alford said Iowa was a football school. Well, so is nearly every BCS conf school. He did find the place where that is not the case

Iowa took care of the non revenue sports before basketball. How effing dumb is that?

 

[HeneryHawk]

To go to Allen Field House and to compare it to Carver, one wonders where anyone could possibly ever assail Carver as a facility.