Build Rick George a Statue (was #fireRickGeorge)

[DeNiro]

Best comment: hockey is easy to add, will cost the same as basketball. That's hilarious considering the amount of equipment and the fact that it is more scholarships.

Second funniest: it will be a huge revenue driver. I would love some D1 hockey at CU (First Bank Center in Broomfield), but other than Altitude, I can't tell you the last time I saw a college hockey game on TV.

 

[Go Buffs]

Mods, please make this bingbong2’s avatar.

 

[Burrito]

Mods, please make this bingbong2’s avatar.

View attachment 49576

One of these is better, but i couldn't decide

 

[hokiehead]

Best comment: hockey is easy to add, will cost the same as basketball. That's hilarious considering the amount of equipment and the fact that it is more scholarships.

Second funniest: it will be a huge revenue driver. I would love some D1 hockey at CU (First Bank Center in Broomfield), but other than Altitude, I can't tell you the last time I saw a college hockey game on TV.

I'm skeptical, but actually curious, if any college generates a profit from hockey.

 

[Not Sure]

I'm skeptical, but actually curious, if any college generates a profit from hockey.

DU generates a lot of revenue from hockey. It’s a private school so they won’t release those financials to verify, but believe me, that’s a money maker for them.

DU also has something like six national championships and is currently ranked #5 in the country in hockey. CU doesn’t have any of that and wouldn’t ever have it. DU also owns its own arena and wouldn’t have to spend money to rent one. The economics work for DU. They wouldn’t at CU.

 

[SINKRATZ]

DU generates a lot of revenue from hockey. It’s a private school so they won’t release those financials to verify, but believe me, that’s a money maker for them.

DU also has something like six national championships and is currently ranked #5 in the country in hockey. CU doesn’t have any of that and wouldn’t ever have it. DU also owns its own arena and wouldn’t have to spend money to rent one. The economics work for DU. They wouldn’t at CU.

People are delusional about the level of fan support CU would generate for these added sports. Multiple posters tried to argue last year that CU would draw 5,000-10,000 per game if we added mens lacrosse (the current lax powerhouse programs average about 3-4k).

 

[Bliff Cranch]

So am I correct in determining the main reason CU does not have similar numbers of varsity sports compared to its peer institutions is because CU forces the AD to operate as a stand-alone P&L entity and therefore cannot afford to fund more non-revenue generating teams?

 

[hokiehead]

DU generates a lot of revenue from hockey. It’s a private school so they won’t release those financials to verify, but believe me, that’s a money maker for them.

DU also has something like six national championships and is currently ranked #5 in the country in hockey. CU doesn’t have any of that and wouldn’t ever have it. DU also owns its own arena and wouldn’t have to spend money to rent one. The economics work for DU. They wouldn’t at CU.

figured you'd have some insight and was hoping you'd jump in.

your comments are valid, but revenue doesn't correlate to profit. this site (unclear of their credibility) says DU hockey is breaking even.

back to whether it could be feasible at CU, DU averages about 4500 attendance per home game. That's about 70% of what CU men's hoops draws. At CU, it's hard to imagine hockey would be even 50% as popular as men's basketball.

 

[Not Sure]

So am I correct in determining the main reason CU does not have similar numbers of varsity sports compared to its peer institutions is because CU forces the AD to operate as a stand-alone P&L entity and therefore cannot afford to fund more non-revenue generating teams?

The main reason is because back in 1980, CU dropped several varsity sports including baseball, wrestling and swimming. Since then, the economic realities plus Title IX constraints have prevented them from bringing back the sports that were lost. That said, CU has introduced womens volleyball, lacrosse and soccer in the intervening years. We probably aren’t that far removed from the total number of sports that we had prior to 1980. The sports that have been brought in have been low cost, womens sports. Hockey, for the sake of this current discussion, is neither low cost nor a womens sport.

 

[Bliff Cranch]

The main reason is because back in 1980, CU dropped several varsity sports including baseball, wrestling and swimming. Since then, the economic realities plus Title IX constraints have prevented them from bringing back the sports that were lost. That said, CU has introduced womens volleyball, lacrosse and soccer in the intervening years. We probably aren’t that far removed from the total number of sports that we had prior to 1980. The sports that have been brought in have been low cost, womens sports. Hockey, for the sake of this current discussion, is neither low cost nor a womens sport.

I get that. But why were varsity sports dropped back in the day? Was it because CU faced some unique external hardship or was the bloodletting self inflicted (i.e. AD has to fund itself)?

 

[Not Sure]

figured you'd have some insight and was hoping you'd jump in.

your comments are valid, but revenue doesn't correlate to profit. this site (unclear of their credibility) says DU hockey is breaking even.

back to whether it could be feasible at CU, DU averages about 4500 attendance per home game. That's about 70% of what CU men's hoops draws. At CU, it's hard to imagine hockey would be even 50% as popular as men's basketball.

Look a little more closely at that site. It says the entire department runs at break even. There’s only one sport they offer that generates much revenue at all, and that’s Hockey. So even though they say hockey “breaks even”, it’s more likely that hockey turns a tidy profit while supporting stuff like gymnastics, skiing, soccer and lacrosse. Again, private school and they don’t have to disclose their finances at all, so anything we get is what they choose to tell us. It sounds a lot better when you say hockey breaks even, but it doesn’t pass the smell test when they also say womens gymnastics breaks even.

 

[Not Sure]

I get that. But why were varsity sports dropped back in the day? Was it because CU faced some unique external hardship or was the bloodletting self inflicted (i.e. AD has to fund itself)?

Serious budgetary problems that were exaggerated by an extremely poor “investment” in a football coach that cost a lot and didn’t win anything (Chuck Fairbanks).

 

[goalline]

Also, due to title IX, if you added hockey, you would need an equivalent number of womens scholarships added. Not sure what sport(s) would even begin to make sense. Swimming is an option, but CU lacks a proper facility (which incidentally DU does have a decent pool).

 

[hokiehead]

Also, due to title IX, if you added hockey, you would need an equivalent number of womens scholarships added. Not sure what sport(s) would even begin to make sense. Swimming is an option, but CU lacks a proper facility (which incidentally DU does have a decent pool).

in the case you're describing, adding women's hockey on top of the men's would probably be the most economically feasible.

 

[Not Sure]

It might sound odd, but probably the least expensive sport to add would be womens Gymnastics. No new facilities required. Minimal number of scholarships needed. Not a really high level of performance expectations. Plenty of kids who participate in the sport who might be willing to live in Boulder for four years. Already 8 other schools in the conference who have it, so scheduling wouldn’t be difficult.

 

[Darth Snow]

It might sound odd, but probably the least expensive sport to add would be womens Gymnastics. No new facilities required. Minimal number of scholarships needed. Not a really high level of performance expectations. Plenty of kids who participate in the sport who might be willing to live in Boulder for four years. Already 8 other schools in the conference who have it, so scheduling wouldn’t be difficult.

the arms race in facilities is everywhere.

Gymnastics Facilities

PHOTO GALLERY | PRACTICE FACILITY | LOCKER ROOM History When the University of Arkansas made the decision to welcome gymnastics in 2001, the entire Athletic Department underwent a change.

arkansasrazorbacks.com

Gymnastics Training Facility — LSU Gymnastics

www.lsugym.com

 

[skibum]

Serious budgetary problems caused by the pandemic are being exaggerated by an extremely poor “investment” in a football coach that costs a lot and isn't winning anything.

Edited. It struck me how easily your sentence could be rewritten to the present tense.

 

[Not Sure]

the arms race in facilities is everywhere.

Gymnastics Facilities

PHOTO GALLERY | PRACTICE FACILITY | LOCKER ROOM History When the University of Arkansas made the decision to welcome gymnastics in 2001, the entire Athletic Department underwent a change.

arkansasrazorbacks.com

Gymnastics Training Facility — LSU Gymnastics

www.lsugym.com

Sure. It wouldn’t cost nothing, but all the stuff in that picture probably costs less than $1MM. Compared to the up front cost of hockey or swimming, gymnastics is a reasonably inexpensive option if they want to go down that road.

 

[LesGrossman]

The building permits, administrational overhead and insurance in that picture alone are greater than CU can afford

 

[SINKRATZ]

the arms race in facilities is everywhere.

Gymnastics Facilities

PHOTO GALLERY | PRACTICE FACILITY | LOCKER ROOM History When the University of Arkansas made the decision to welcome gymnastics in 2001, the entire Athletic Department underwent a change.

arkansasrazorbacks.com

Gymnastics Training Facility — LSU Gymnastics

www.lsugym.com

Do you know how many times I’ve been to a kids birthday party at places that look just like that? Add a bar for parents, a couple rooms you can hose down for pizza parties and rent that f**ker out in the off-season. Easy peasy.

 

[Highlander]

the arms race in facilities is everywhere.

Gymnastics Facilities

PHOTO GALLERY | PRACTICE FACILITY | LOCKER ROOM History When the University of Arkansas made the decision to welcome gymnastics in 2001, the entire Athletic Department underwent a change.

arkansasrazorbacks.com

Gymnastics Training Facility — LSU Gymnastics

www.lsugym.com

A CU alum college buddy believes "CU sucks because they don't have a world class softball team and facilities like Oregon does".

That is a serious WTF for me, but his daughter took an athletic scholly to Oregon to play softball and he was pissed she couldn't stay local and play at that level in the sport. Whatever.

 

[manhattanbuff]

the arms race in facilities is everywhere.

Gymnastics Facilities

PHOTO GALLERY | PRACTICE FACILITY | LOCKER ROOM History When the University of Arkansas made the decision to welcome gymnastics in 2001, the entire Athletic Department underwent a change.

arkansasrazorbacks.com

Gymnastics Training Facility — LSU Gymnastics

www.lsugym.com

This school’s non sport facilities were already up the creek pre-pandemic. It’s much worse now…

LSU in disrepair, hundreds of millions needed to fix facilities

LSU estimates there is currently $600 million in damage and disrepair, nearly 70 percent of buildings on campus are more than 25-years-old, and Facility Services hasn't received consistent deferred-maintenance funding from the legislature since 2008.

www.wbrz.com

 

[GoBuffs08]

https://www.uscho.com/stats/attendance/division-i-men/2019-2020/

Attendance for college hockey 2019-2020. DU #7 at 98% of capacity with an average attendance of 5904. ASU on the list at #50. Nothing about hockey attendance in college says we are making money. Unless you have huge donors, or can sell advertising at big dollars at best you hope to break even.

Digging back through ASU a CBS article announcing everything said they received $32 million in donations from a pool of donors to make it happen. Years ago I thought Bohn had said that CU would need $50 million in donations to add baseball.

But sure bigbang, RG just needs to turn over the couch in his office and add up all the change. When he is done, maybe run down to Phil's office and see if they can find enough for baseball.

 

[ZandiBuff]

Can we get back to firing RG?

If you all want hockey, he sure isn't bringing it here

 

[patebuff]

Look a little more closely at that site. It says the entire department runs at break even. There’s only one sport they offer that generates much revenue at all, and that’s Hockey. So even though they say hockey “breaks even”, it’s more likely that hockey turns a tidy profit while supporting stuff like gymnastics, skiing, soccer and lacrosse. Again, private school and they don’t have to disclose their finances at all, so anything we get is what they choose to tell us. It sounds a lot better when you say hockey breaks even, but it doesn’t pass the smell test when they also say womens gymnastics breaks even.

I have no doubt that DU's women's gymnastics team breaks even. It is constantly a highly ranked team and draws very well in attendance. It's basically the only college program in the state (Air Force used to have one but not sure if they still do).

 

[Bread]

Length is even a bigger problem: an NCAA regulation basketball court is 94' x 50'. A hockey rink? 200' x 85'.

I mean they do say "as nearly as possible" in the rulebook for the ice sheet, so there is some room for deviation, but it's a big difference.

That's what she said.

 

[wsp4820]

That's what she said.

What if the ice sheet has a really gentle roll that gets more pronounced in the third period?

 

[bigbang2]

https://www.uscho.com/stats/attendance/division-i-men/2019-2020/

Attendance for college hockey 2019-2020. DU #7 at 98% of capacity with an average attendance of 5904. ASU on the list at #50. Nothing about hockey attendance in college says we are making money. Unless you have huge donors, or can sell advertising at big dollars at best you hope to break even.

Digging back through ASU a CBS article announcing everything said they received $32 million in donations from a pool of donors to make it happen. Years ago I thought Bohn had said that CU would need $50 million in donations to add baseball.

But sure bigbang, RG just needs to turn over the couch in his office and add up all the change. When he is done, maybe run down to Phil's office and see if they can find enough for baseball.

I will never agree with the crazyness on this site. I used Ice Hokey and Gynamstics as an example of two possible sports additions. BTW nothing in your post says we can't make money from hockey. RG will run the numbers. CU can make money from the addition of new sports. If the school deploy the right strategy. Firing a coach after 1 and a half year in charge with a payoff of about 14 million is crazy. Predicting the record of a team in January while the program is still adding players is strange. Calling some one a troll just because they present facts about how a coach has the best record since Gary Barnett is also strange. Well I guess I am a troll.

 

[Bliff Cranch]

I will never agree with the crazyness on this site. I used Ice Hokey and Gynamstics as an example of two possible sports additions. BTW nothing in your post says we can't make money from hockey. RG will run the numbers. CU can make money from the addition of new sports. If the school deploy the right strategy. Firing a coach after 1 and a half year in charge with a payoff of about 14 million is crazy. Predicting the record of a team in January while the program is still adding players is strange. Calling some one a troll just because they present facts about how a coach has the best record since Gary Barnett is also strange. Well I guess I am a troll.

Nearly everyone on this platform is resigned to the fact that KD will be the coach for the next two seasons. Many don’t like it but very few think it’s feasible to fire him right now. Why? Because the department can’t afford to. And why is that? Because the department and CU Boulder leadership are awful at administrating an effective athletic strategy that generates enough fan and donor interest. It’s been that way for decades now and most aren’t optimistic about that changing anytime soon.

 

[Da Lama]

May need to renovate Coors to allow it to do this. Put in some more comfortable seats. That some thing Rick Geroge should explore.

I thought you had been warned to stop being so fvcking stupid. Go stand in the corner.