Let's Look at the Numbers
The University of Chicago is one of the great educational institutions in the nation. In the late 1930’s under Chicago’s football stadium the first nuclear reactor was built. The university is renowned for producing some of the greatest economist in the latest fifty years such as Milton Friedman (an M.A. in 1933 from the University of Chicago and Paul Snowden Russell Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Chicago from 1946 to 1976). Yet to the average man on the street as they do not have a big time football team playing each Saturday in the fall the University of Chicago is not the equal of Notre Dame or University of Michigan.
Big time college sports are among the most effective promotional tools available. A televised game is a three hour advertisement with the name of the product announced to the audience repeatedly. This infomercial for the two universities involved has the impact of cementing relations with existing fans and alumni with the benefit of also hitting potential applicants which is easily seen by the flood that Virginia Tech received after Michael Vick put them on the map.
Bobby Petrino's recent contract for $2.5 million per year for the next ten years with the University of Louisville when seen in the light of the manager of a significant part of the university’s marketing program maybe a bargain. The job of football head coach is one that involves being a teacher, operations manager, personal manager, and spokesperson. Failure in any one of those areas and the Mayflower truck may be parked in front of your house.
Louisville has a very well know and profitable men’s basketball program generating $18,523,619 in gross revenue netting $13,108,283. The football team generated $11,036,267 in gross revenue netting $2,048,120. With entry into the Big East and therefore the BCS the football team has tremendous upside with the revenue from basketball giving them the freedom to make this move. Further, Louisville is currently ranked #37 ahead of Arizona and Kansas State and close behind Maryland in football revenue with considerable upside.
This deal make sense when you look at the dollars.
Big time college sports are among the most effective promotional tools available. A televised game is a three hour advertisement with the name of the product announced to the audience repeatedly. This infomercial for the two universities involved has the impact of cementing relations with existing fans and alumni with the benefit of also hitting potential applicants which is easily seen by the flood that Virginia Tech received after Michael Vick put them on the map.
Bobby Petrino's recent contract for $2.5 million per year for the next ten years with the University of Louisville when seen in the light of the manager of a significant part of the university’s marketing program maybe a bargain. The job of football head coach is one that involves being a teacher, operations manager, personal manager, and spokesperson. Failure in any one of those areas and the Mayflower truck may be parked in front of your house.
Louisville has a very well know and profitable men’s basketball program generating $18,523,619 in gross revenue netting $13,108,283. The football team generated $11,036,267 in gross revenue netting $2,048,120. With entry into the Big East and therefore the BCS the football team has tremendous upside with the revenue from basketball giving them the freedom to make this move. Further, Louisville is currently ranked #37 ahead of Arizona and Kansas State and close behind Maryland in football revenue with considerable upside.
This deal make sense when you look at the dollars.
posted by Brian McCormack at 3:45 PM
1 Comments:
Unfortunately, very little in your second paragraph is backed up by real-world experience. And the numbers in the third are a little suspect. For more information, check out this report from the Knight Commission.
Post a Comment
<< Home