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I occasionally read Business of College Sports by Kristi Dosh. While she could have a stronger grasp on accounting rules, she isn't bad and takes a good look at stuff like budgets, revenues, and tv deals for college sports.
Below is a link for today's article about Michigan's Facilities Expenses over the last ~10 years. It's an cool inside-look, if only for the table with expenses and donations per line item.
Interesting. Nice inside look at the numbers. I like how she incorporated gift dollars. $2.5M for a golf practice facility though? Seems like a lot. Does anyone know anything more about this and what it entails?
It is amazing what 8 football games can pay for.
State of Michigan
For state of Michigan taxpayers-A partial income tax credit can be claimed for donations to the University of Michigan (and other qualifying Michigan public institutions-see instructions for Line 20 of MI-1040). The amount of the credit is the smaller of 50% of the contribution or $100 ($200 for a joint return). Credits are a direct reduction of your tax liability.
Federal Income Taxes
If you are itemizing deductions, you may deduct contributions to the University of Michigan (and also other qualifying charities) using Schedule A to form 1040. These reductions reduce your taxable income and thereby reduce your tax liability by the amount of your donation multiplied by your marginal tax rate.
You got my interest nonetheless.
Haha got a laugh from me
Trues... Upgrade the facilities? I thought we gave up on Harbaugh and his gold plated toilet.
When are alumni going to start stepping up their support of the basketball program? The basketball practice facility is supported by only $2 million in donations, but the wrestling practice facility got $3.4 million in donations and "soccer phase 2" $1.5 million.
While I'm surprised there isn't a higher amount listed for basketball donations, I get why the smaller-profile sports may be appealing for alums. Give a bunch of money, and that becomes your program. I don't mean that in a dirty, "uh-oh here comes the NCAA" kind of way. I mean a big donor to wrestling will be a beloved godfather to those athetes & coaches, in a way that might not happen in a bigger revenue sport like Basketball, where more people are clamoring for attention and access. It's appealing to give to a sport that needs it, and where your gift has an immediate visible impact.
You can't tell me that Don Shepherd didn't automatically gain a dozen adoring, devoted honorary granddaughters to his family when he wrote the check for gymnastics.
When I win the lottery, look out women's rowing: your hoped-for practice facility will become a reality. I give that money to football, I'll be lucky to get a coupla bricks on the plaza.
I believe a big chunk of the wrestling donations came from one guy, so it might be slightly deceptive. I'm not sure they can count on that level of giving all the time. But yeah, basketball support (attendance included) has been lacking for awhile.
This sounds like a title the freep would use.
I will say this, Dave Brandon is doing a good job thus far making facility upgrades a priority.
Out of curiosity, I followed Kristi's link (http://businessofcollegesports.com/2011/06/16/self-sustaining-athletic-d...) to a list of self-sustaining Division I Athletic Departments, and I'm pleased to see that 8 out of the 22 ADs (>36% of total) are Big Ten schools. This means that two thirds (I'm including Nebraska, should I be including Nebraska?) of the Big Ten's Athletic Departments turn out a profit.
That's quite impressive compared to other conferences.
Number of self-sustaining ADs in other conferences:
SEC - 5
Big XII - 5
PAC-10 - 2
Big East - 1
ACC - 1
I notice that there aren't any private schools on that list. Did private universities not report this information? I've got to believe that ND and USC, to name two, are profitable.
Soccer support facility
New pool for water polo
Indoor rowing tank
New track facilities, both indoor and outdoor
Lacrosse facilities, indoor and outdoor and support
Upgrades to weight training facilities and medical training for a lot of the sports
Maybe some administration building changes?
DB says he wants to close in the south end of the football stadium during his tenure.
I assume they want to solve some of their parking issues too.
Anything I'm missing?
I'm curious to know what amount of money it would take to be "done". If I could write a $200m check, could Michigan be done building for ten years (assuming spending at a reasonable rate, as in no $226m renovation to the softball field and no new hockey arena)? Based on your list I think it's a good question.
I find the $2.5 million allocation for the golf facility interesting too.
I’ll probably get negged for telling this TRUE story (I really don’t understand this “flamebait” stuff. No one loves Michigan more than I do and I am never trying to provoke anything negative.) However, don’t underestimate the likelihood that the regents and the athletic administrators play at those facilities and that may have had an influence in those decisions. (Please note my use of the word “may.”)
As a very young Victors Club member in the early 80s I was at one of the meetings and Freider said he wanted to invite some recruits to the Notre Dame football game. However, he was having a hard time getting tickets. So the next day, wanting to help, I called the man in charge of the Victors Club at that time (not going to say his name), and told him I would donate two of my tickets for that purpose. He said that was fine.
Well, at the game I noticed a couple of older guys sitting in the seats. I asked them where they got the tickets. One said “my friend [the man I had called to arrange to donate the seats to] got them for me.” After some querying I find he ran the golf course.
So, I am not sure my donation helped the athletic department recruit, or got someone a better tee time. It was no big deal because I would have just given those seats to friends or customers anyway. The moral is that, if you are going to donate, make it money and send it through the proper channels. Another moral is that some of the administrators use the golf facilities and that appears to be import to them.
Ah, such is life.
