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 2:39 PM ^
November 28th, 2012 at 5:41 PM ^
Actually, that one of those thoughts I would rather forget... permanently
November 28th, 2012 at 2:40 PM ^
Someone please insert beating of a dead horse gif asap...
November 28th, 2012 at 3:11 PM ^
Wow, I'd rather be in Bolivia than Deadhorse right now. It's supposed to be below zero continuously for the next week
November 28th, 2012 at 3:26 PM ^
Bolivia, MGoBlog is definitely a lot warmer:
November 28th, 2012 at 3:29 PM ^
By January that is going to look like an ideal vacation destination, not a threat, for us Upper Midwesterners.
November 28th, 2012 at 3:37 PM ^
I'm actually going to Bolivia this January or Febuary, as a matter of fact. If I were better at the CRex art of hilarious storytelling I'd turn that into a multi-part saga, but alas, I'm not.
November 28th, 2012 at 3:40 PM ^
Good luck man. I've Bolivia has some nice areas and some sketchy ones. Just don't get drunk and mess with the gangs/cartels.
I'm not that funny, I just do lots of dumb stuff to make funny things happen.
November 28th, 2012 at 3:50 PM ^
Yep. Was planning to do couchsurfing down there but there's hardly anybody down there who participates, sadly.
Incidentally, I'd be curious to know how many MGoCouchsurfers there are. Not thread worthy, especially during the season, but I think there's some untapped potential in that.
November 28th, 2012 at 6:20 PM ^
What's couchsurfing precious, eh?
November 28th, 2012 at 6:49 PM ^
Basically you can find people to stay with (for free) while traveling, and you can host people in your home when they're traveling. It's one big hospitality network. I've couchsurfed a few times and had an absolute blast; it really enriches your experience of a place when you have someone to stay with and show you around.
November 28th, 2012 at 8:36 PM ^
Also suggest helpx.net. It's a work exchange program throughout the world, mostly in Europe. Used it the summer of 2011 and stayed on a farm in Ireland. It was a blast. Worked from 9:30-4 with a 45 minute tea break and 1.5 hour lunch mixed in there. Real laid back and went to a local 400 year old pub a couple nights a week. Greatest month of my life.
November 29th, 2012 at 2:12 PM ^
Thanks. I think I'm getting too old for that, but I would've been up for it ten years ago.
November 28th, 2012 at 3:36 PM ^
It's not so bad
November 28th, 2012 at 7:00 PM ^
Believe me, I'd rather be anywhere other than Deadhorse, AK anyday. I call it home two weeks a month for work. No joke!
Someone has to save the Polar bears!
/s
November 28th, 2012 at 7:33 PM ^
Is it just constantly pitch-black up there at this time of year, or does the sun's glow peak over the horizon?
November 28th, 2012 at 9:52 PM ^
Winter solstace is in about a month. There is a glow on the horizon like you suggest, but the sun doesn't rise above the horizon for something like 45 days.
November 28th, 2012 at 10:06 PM ^
What a godforsaken place. I wonder if even MSU's intercontinental ballistic recruiting extends that far. Welcome to the board by the way!
November 28th, 2012 at 11:30 PM ^
November 29th, 2012 at 7:32 PM ^
I once picked up Barrow AK on the radio (just your typical walkman) at night from Michigan. It had some really weird music playing.
/CSB
Also, how the heck does a school district of 4000 people find money to fly their football team hundreds of miles to play their games?
November 29th, 2012 at 3:17 PM ^
It's not all bad. These cute li'l guys live there.
November 28th, 2012 at 10:22 PM ^
How the heck do you survive that without weekly Michigan Football?
November 28th, 2012 at 11:17 PM ^
November 29th, 2012 at 12:32 PM ^
Watch out for the vampires.
November 28th, 2012 at 2:41 PM ^
They better bring a bunch of TV sets with them to the conference. The fact is, their fans aren't happy about leaving the ACC, and Big Ten fans aren't particularly happy about them joining our conference. They'll have to prove a lot of people wrong.
November 28th, 2012 at 3:05 PM ^
November 28th, 2012 at 3:09 PM ^
it's not fact... just heavy consensus.
November 28th, 2012 at 3:07 PM ^
Once Jim "Sugar Daddy" Delaney starts sending their moribund athletic department big, fat checks from the B1G piggy bank.
November 28th, 2012 at 2:42 PM ^
And then?
November 28th, 2012 at 3:01 PM ^
3 orders of white rice...3 orders of wonton soup...oh, and some fortune cookies.
November 28th, 2012 at 3:06 PM ^
then?!?
November 28th, 2012 at 3:13 PM ^
well done.
November 28th, 2012 at 4:13 PM ^
That's cause that's the only good one.
November 28th, 2012 at 5:40 PM ^
ZOLTAN!!!!
November 28th, 2012 at 3:14 PM ^
NO AND THEN!!!
November 28th, 2012 at 3:39 PM ^
November 28th, 2012 at 2:42 PM ^
Maybe I'm missing something but I really don't care if they are broke. Their financial situation makes no difference because they're about to get a huge boost in revenue and it will sort itself out.
Now the fact that their team sucks, they have no tradition and I have no interest in seeing them play is a different story.
November 28th, 2012 at 3:23 PM ^
If they never manage to fully crawl out from under their mountain of debt, even with B1G network revenue, they're never going to manage to build a program the rest of us care about. They'll end up being an away game that basically feels like the regular season version of the pizza bowl. Plus what nice things they have now will continue to slide downhill or be cut. I'd also imagine it reduces the odds they ever will capture a TV market for us if they're some debt ridden program with crap facilities.
For that matter if they do manage to crawl out, but it takes them a decade, that provides a window where some other program can exploit to take control of the markets we brought Maryland in to gain.
November 28th, 2012 at 2:43 PM ^
When in doubt - blame Randy Edsall.
November 28th, 2012 at 2:57 PM ^
And here i thought...people would want to watch a LB/5th string QB start for their football team! That's gotta be fun to watch.
November 28th, 2012 at 2:59 PM ^
but I feel the OP Title should end in "Y'all!"
November 28th, 2012 at 3:09 PM ^
I'm from the wrong side of the Mason-Dixon line for that.
November 28th, 2012 at 3:00 PM ^
Did they spend all their money on the 2000 different versions of football uniforms their team has?
November 28th, 2012 at 3:07 PM ^
In case the OP is not aware of the fact, and as pointed out by DB in the 60 Minutes piece of a week and a half ago, only a couple of dozen athletic departments run in the black.
November 28th, 2012 at 3:10 PM ^
If that even. Depending on how they run their numbers.
November 28th, 2012 at 3:13 PM ^
However, prior to our most recent additions, all of the B1G programs were in the Top 50 for revenue. Where there are a limited number that make money or manage break even, B1G schools tended to make those categories. Even Northwestern managed to balance its budget (56 million in revenue, 56 million in expenses).
November 28th, 2012 at 3:26 PM ^
based on those links
reveune:
| Maryland | $57,765,018.00 | ACC |
expense:
| Maryland | $57,501,307.00 | ACC |
maryland is up $263,711 so they seem to be making a profit but obviously not enough to eat into that debt significantly
November 28th, 2012 at 3:34 PM ^
Lorne highlights one issue below (the 2.5 million in naming rights going away, although one can assume they'll get a new naming rights deal, just for less). The other issue is they managed to get into the black via cuts. Cutting your way to profitability isn't really the ideal way to build a B1G caliber athletic department. 263k can vanish pretty quickly depending on exactly what kind of debt and interest rates you have. For that matter, holding at this level of profitabilty means it takes over a decade to pay off a 5 million dollar ACC exit fee (with interest determining the exact length).
November 28th, 2012 at 3:12 PM ^
Just read the article, Debbie Yow is just about the worst athletic director to exist (sorry dave brandon haters he doesn't come close) and ran the department straight into the ground. How she still gets jobs is beyond me. Also every coach at md hated her to the point where gary williams when called and asked about working with yow during nc states baskeball coach search told people to not work for her and a report was written recently that based off her reputation there are high school football coaches who would turn down the nc state football job that just opened up.