Maryland's Athletic Department is Broke
Via this SI Article. I know this has been mentioned before, specifically with the sports cutting Maryland is doing, but this article provides a compact time line of the Terps woes. In 2011 they ran a 7.8 million dollars into the red. The author does throw out some claim that by 2020 Maryland could have a revenue stream exceeding 100 million per year thanks to them joining the B1G, but the reality is we just brought in a school that needed a loan from the state to pay its football coach. Urgh.
November 28th, 2012 at 3:22 PM ^
This. She is the worst. The absolute worst. Nobody likes working for her. She ran off a football coach after a 9 win season and replaced him with Randy Edsall. James Franklin, who was the coach-in-waiting, got the hell out of Dodge too. DB haters, this is what you could have instead. Take your pick.
November 28th, 2012 at 3:34 PM ^
and let them know that Bill Martin is available!!!
(Bill Martin actually was a great AD in terms of bringing in revenue, just not bringing in coaches)
November 28th, 2012 at 6:34 PM ^
Beilein?
November 28th, 2012 at 3:12 PM ^
The Washington Post did a piece last year on some of the financial misadventures of Terrapin athletics - (LINK)
Some of the more intriguing tidbits, in my opinion:
- The SI article touches on this, of course - the athletic depatment has been getting $2.5 million per year as part of its agreement with Comcast for naming rights to the basketball arena, and the payments stop in 2016, just in time for Maryland's debt service payments to go up by another million or so. It has been using the Comcast money just to make those payments.
- projections of ticket sales at Byrd stadium have been missed by around $500,000 per year in 2009 and 2010.
Further, in the Baltimore Sun's reports on the subject, we find that in 2006, football operating profit was $3.5 million. In 2011, it was $1.8 million. Basketball revenue over that same period fell from $6.5 million to $4.8 million.
There are other sources which report that the total debt for the department is now over $80 million as well. Non-revenue sports at Maryland lost $13 million in 2011, and $64 million over the previous five years.
November 28th, 2012 at 3:19 PM ^
If the 80 million in debt thing is true, there are decent odds that Maryland is over 100 million in debt by the time their ACC exit fee is worked out. Maryland managing to push the exit fee down to 20 million (from the 50+ the ACC demands) would do it. I hope that the B1G guys who looked over Maryland's books are better at finding bad debt than Maryland's guys are at hiding it. It would suck if they snuck a debt bomb into the conference.
Maybe we should have just added Greece, same fiscal setup but a larger TV market after all*.
*and Erik_in_Dayton beats me to the punch below
November 28th, 2012 at 3:13 PM ^
Welcome aboard Terps.
November 28th, 2012 at 3:14 PM ^
I figure this might be like when the EU added Greece. That worked out well for everyone, right?
November 28th, 2012 at 3:57 PM ^
November 28th, 2012 at 4:09 PM ^
Lemon rice soup #bliss
November 28th, 2012 at 11:40 PM ^
Greece makes other EU countries feel good about themselves.
November 28th, 2012 at 3:21 PM ^
Also, this is good investing. If the fundamentals are there -- flagship state school, good academics, big market(s), good athletics (certainly some question there) -- but there is a short term need for cash, it is a good time to buy. Of course founding institutions are unlikely to leave conferences that are doing well if they don't need to.
Everyone in the ACC would trade Louisville for MD without blinking. Nobody in the B1G would take the 'Ville over MD.
November 28th, 2012 at 3:52 PM ^
I don't agree that the ACC would rather have Louisville than Maryland. This was just a move made out of desperation/necessity.
Louisville offers nothing outside of football and basketball. Maryland is a national power in several non-revenue sports.
I think Louisville's success in football and basketball are tenuous at best. They lucked out with both Petrino and Strong. Strong is gone when the next high-profile job opens up. Then, most likely another long stretch of mediocrity. Basketball will probably always be second fiddle to UK. Fortunately, it looks like Petino stays for a while and they'll have continued success, but then?
Maryland has a much greater educated, monied population base. Read: larger, more influential fan base.
November 28th, 2012 at 3:57 PM ^
My original post was badly worded. I meant that the ACC would much rather have MD than Louisville -- that they would trade out the 'Ville (who they added) to get back MD (who they lost) without blinking (for many of the reasons you write) -- and that this is evidence that MD is a good asset despite the debt. Sorry for the confusion.
November 28th, 2012 at 3:36 PM ^
we get Maryland, and ACC gets Louisville.....Is it just me, or would Louisville have been the better option for the B1G?
November 28th, 2012 at 3:40 PM ^
Its just you
November 28th, 2012 at 5:40 PM ^
Academics, CIC, etc. etc. etc.
Ivory-tower provosts and various academic types would faint on letting in both Nebraska ANd Louisville
November 28th, 2012 at 10:04 PM ^
this isnt news
November 29th, 2012 at 12:23 AM ^
I specifically like the people who want to comment about how "this isn't news" or "this is redundant", etc. when those comments have already been posted, and they themselves are being redundant.
Not being an ass, I just have a thing for irony. Delicious.