Athletic Budget

[goodnews]

What sports do we potentially lose after just adding a few? I found a 2017 budget and nearly every team has a $500k budget. The following are far less:
Mens Golf $178k (which I thk has 6 endowed scholarships or more)
Women's Golf $220k
Mens Tennis $185k
Women's Tennis $220
Bowling $100k

[Double ET]

The $$$ we need to focus on is the coach salaries and travel expenses because these $$$ are going out of the university.
The scholarships’ $$$ go back into the university budget (plus the state subsidies). It really didn’t cost the university that much $$$.

This has been discussed with the university’s academic senate many times since the anti-athletic faculty always claimed that university could save all the scholarship $$$$ if certain sports were to be eliminated. However, the actual $$$ savings were much smaller than those claims.

As a matter of facts, the athletic spendings for the revenue generating sports for all the state universities in Ohio (except OSU) were analyzed (I was at those meetings), YSU was spending a lot less $$$ then other institutions. I remembered making a comment that I was surprised YSU even being competitive (for how much less we paid the coaches).

[dwj]

This may not be a popular opinion but maybe we should accept reality and and play at a level that we can afford to be competitive at. 

[goodnews]

I don't think they should cut anything from the Athletic Budget.  The department has a higher graduation rate then the rest of the school and that would be my defense.  These socialist organizations will burn the house down if they don't get their way.  Its time this BS stops and someone says NO.  Go somewhere else and make a living.

[Dmorton]

They are not going DII with all other sports at DI.

[Double ET]

So, if can’t reduce the budget, let enhance the revenue…… getting more butts (paying customers) in the seats, secure high payday with FBS team (s), donations from rich donors.
Like what we used to say in the private industries, you cannot save yourselves into prosperity and you can save into oblivion.

Run it like a business….starting with putting competitive products and promoting with a good marketing department. Currently, we are not doing well on both.

Go Penguins…

[Wick250]

Some DIII schools have literally stayed open by EXPANDING the athletic programs. They attract marginally talented (DIII) athletes who pay tuition for the privilege of playing the sport that they love.

What does that have to do with us?  Plenty. Outside of football and basketball, there are very few scholarships offered, even in DI.  For example:

Men: 11.7 scholarships for baseball
         12.6 for track/cross country
          9.9  for swimming 
          4.5  for golf and tennis

Women: 12 for softball
              18 for track/cross country
              12 for volleyball
              14 for swimming
              12 for lacrosse
              14 for soccer

Bottom line. The vast majority of our athletes in non-revenue sports are paying vast amounts of tuition and enhancing the body count for our student body.  A few examples:

We have 32 lacrosse players on the roster, sharing just 12 scholarships
We have 40 baseball players sharing less than 12 scholarships
We have 56 male track athletes for less than 13 scholarships
We have 59 female track athletes for 18 scholarships

Of course these facts mean nothing to critics. They can't accept the fact that sports are vastly more important to the university than their unpopular, soon to be extinguished "pet" courses.

[goodnews]

The status quo in the athletic department is to blame.  Although, I read an article where Rick Love indicated advertising dollars are back to pre-pandemic for Stambaugh Stadium.  If they have to cut a million dollars then each team takes less than a 10% hit. 

[guinpen]

So many questions and no way to get good answers. How is it possible that so many D2 schools have been able to move up and be successful while we stay stagnant? How is it possible that so many of our old peers in 1AA have been able to move up and have at least moderate success while we stay stagnant.

In each case money had to be a factor, yet they all were able to do it. Are we so different in how we fund sports, I just cannot believe that is the case.

I would be surprised if our Athletic dept has not done feasibility studies on moving up. Would that be public info?

So are we simply just happy to stay where we are or is our Athleitic Dept unable to figure it out?

I have no idea on how much more we would have to pay coaches to attract so called better quality staff but I would think that 10,000 more butts at football games and 5000 more at M/W basketball games would go a long way to foot the bill.

Just a frustrated but loyal fan.




 

[YSUGO]

The money isn’t there due to the state of Youngstown shrinking.  Companies are gone people have moved.  It will take years to get back the football attendance if it’s possible.  You diehards are stuck on being a football conference that doesn’t fit due to geography economics and fan base. Teams in our divison in football have less expenses smaller stadiums and are making the playoffs.  Being in the MVFC means sh** when you can’t compete.  It’s up to the AD to put us in a position for the athletes to be competitive to win.  We have a mediocre AD and the past 15 years we have been mediocre in most sports.  Starts at the top

[guinpen]

While listening to the game last Sat Hannon made the comment that Grand Forks had a population of 50 some thousand. I know that the State of Youngstown is shrinking but the Youngstown/Warren/New Castle/Sharon area certainly is larger then Grand Forks so at the very least we should have the population/money to compete where we are now.

[YSU1]

The Fighting Hawks dome only seats 13,500

[IAA Fan]

The money isn’t there due to the state of Youngstown shrinking.  Companies are gone people have moved.  It will take years to get back the football attendance if it’s possible.  You diehards are stuck on being a football conference that doesn’t fit due to geography economics and fan base. Teams in our divison in football have less expenses smaller stadiums and are making the playoffs.  Being in the MVFC means sh** when you can’t compete.  It’s up to the AD to put us in a position for the athletes to be competitive to win.  We have a mediocre AD and the past 15 years we have been mediocre in most sports.  Starts at the top

I cannot completely agree here Go. Before Strollo we had no title-IX. we had no men's swimming (anymore), women's swimming was diving only (with just a few individual event competitors), no Men's tennis, No Bowling, no LAX, No outdoor Track & Field. We had no Softball field, no soccer/LAX stadium, no real weight rooms, our stadium could not broadcast a night game outside of our conference or a local-only broadcast (which meant daytime post-season games), the baseball team competed at a city park and another Colt-league field, while softball did the same on a little-league field). On top of this I think there are 5 new academic buildings on campus (which usually do not come when your sports are expanding) and tremendous expansion in existing athletic structures (which includes 3 field replacements in Stambaugh), WATTS added, and more. This is not even the same school as it was when he came. There is a tremendous amount more to being an AD then hiring coaches. Yet we have not seen a poor coaching choice, despite not having the funds for competitive salaries. I just do not see the same things you see. This is not the old days where Tressel got anything he wanted. This is reality of sports in a conference, with a scholarship DI football program. We have so many things that will attract and keep recruits that we never even dreamed of before ....especially cla$$es and quarters.

[guinpen]

The money isn’t there due to the state of Youngstown shrinking.  Companies are gone people have moved.  It will take years to get back the football attendance if it’s possible.  You diehards are stuck on being a football conference that doesn’t fit due to geography economics and fan base. Teams in our divison in football have less expenses smaller stadiums and are making the playoffs.  Being in the MVFC means sh** when you can’t compete.  It’s up to the AD to put us in a position for the athletes to be competitive to win.  We have a mediocre AD and the past 15 years we have been mediocre in most sports.  Starts at the top

I for one have no interest in our current league, Was ok when it started as the Gateway but  with WK leaving and the addition of the newer schools things have changed. Not a matter of how good these schools are, they are just too far from us to generate interest. Not to mention the travel costs.

[Kandrase]

The problem is where do we go? We’re on an FCS island. The nearby programs are only limited scholarship programs.