Post by aggie2039 on Apr 9, 2020 18:53:15 GMT -5
GREENSBORO — The money stuff — or more precisely, the lack-of-money stuff — doesn’t keep N.C. A&T athletics director Earl Hilton awake at night. The financial hit the Aggies will take from the coronavirus pandemic can be managed, Hilton says. Even so, Hilton does worry.
“The scariest time for me always is the summer,” he says. “And that’s simply because I don’t have the same pulse, the same sense, on the welfare of my student-athletes than during the regular year. And this virus has really extended summer to five months. That’s two extra months that I don’t know how those kids are doing. I know it sounds silly, but I wonder. Are they eating right? Are they getting enough sleep? Are they safe?”
The COVID-19 outbreak has already clobbered the sports world, cutting short the college basketball season, causing cancellation of all NCAA spring sports and killing the cash cow that is March Madness.
“Let’s call it what it is: It is the moneymaker,” Hilton says. “That tournament is how the NCAA is funded.”
Revenue lost
With buckets of broadcast money from the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, the NCAA expected to distribute about $600 million to its members.Instead, that distribution will be $225 million. The details are still a work in progress, and several proposals are on the table regarding how to split the money. But everyone will feel the $375 million shortfall in one way or another.
“Some of the proposals allocate the pain in a way that protects the lower-resource institutions,” Hilton says, “where the Power Five schools take a bigger hit from the dollars perspective but still small from a percentage perspective. There are other proposals where everyone loses the same amount (of money).”
Bottom line?
“We are projecting at A&T somewhere between a $200,000 and $400,000 hit, depending on which model finally emerges,” Hilton says. “It’s not insignificant, but it’s also not debilitating. For a one-year thing, it’s not going to cripple us.”
Revenue vs. Expenses
In the 2017-18 school year, the most recent in the Knight Foundation’s College Athletics Financial Information database, A&T had total athletics expenses of $13.85 million and total revenues of $14.42 million.
That’s pretty good considering an alarming trend: According to a revenue and expenses report on NCAA.org, “expenses outpaced generated revenues at every Football Championship Subdivision institution” in the nation (124 schools) from 2017 to 2018.
And on top of that, now come the coronavirus shutdowns.
What if the shutdown lingers into next football season? If A&T loses home games off its schedule or revenue-generating “guarantee games” on the road, that also dents the budget.
“It really depends on the home game,” Hilton says. “If we lose Homecoming? That’s a big, big hit. If we lose a game with much less fan interest, it’s significantly different. There’s a big swing in revenue simply depending on the game.”
Gate receipts for A&T’s Greatest Homecoming On Earth game are right around $600,000, Hilton says, while a home game of less interest against an overmatched opponent could be worth $40,000.
“That’s a gross number, too,” Hilton says. “So if we had to cancel a lesser-attended game, we’d net that out against expenses we wouldn’t have. The pain would be even less. But Homecoming or a rivalry game? That would hurt us.”
Revenue models
But in an interesting role reversal, A&T’s revenue model, often a weakness when compared to Power Five schools, could be a strength in these odd times.
It’s not just that the Aggies are used to coping, operating with less money in an average year. It’s where the money comes from.
The Knight Foundation report shows 57 percent ($8.27 million) of A&T’s athletics budget came from student fees. The same year at N.C. State, 8 percent ($6.68 million) of the Wolfpack’s $87.98 million budget came from student fees. In Chapel Hill, student fees accounted for 7 percent ($7.53 million) of North Carolina’s $104.57 million budget.
“We expect enrollment to stay steady,” Hilton says, “and we’re predominantly funded by student fees. … It is a weird reversal. Some of the big schools do have a larger concern than schools that have budgeted with less for a very long time.”
Article on COVID
“The scariest time for me always is the summer,” he says. “And that’s simply because I don’t have the same pulse, the same sense, on the welfare of my student-athletes than during the regular year. And this virus has really extended summer to five months. That’s two extra months that I don’t know how those kids are doing. I know it sounds silly, but I wonder. Are they eating right? Are they getting enough sleep? Are they safe?”
The COVID-19 outbreak has already clobbered the sports world, cutting short the college basketball season, causing cancellation of all NCAA spring sports and killing the cash cow that is March Madness.
“Let’s call it what it is: It is the moneymaker,” Hilton says. “That tournament is how the NCAA is funded.”
Revenue lost
With buckets of broadcast money from the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, the NCAA expected to distribute about $600 million to its members.Instead, that distribution will be $225 million. The details are still a work in progress, and several proposals are on the table regarding how to split the money. But everyone will feel the $375 million shortfall in one way or another.
“Some of the proposals allocate the pain in a way that protects the lower-resource institutions,” Hilton says, “where the Power Five schools take a bigger hit from the dollars perspective but still small from a percentage perspective. There are other proposals where everyone loses the same amount (of money).”
Bottom line?
“We are projecting at A&T somewhere between a $200,000 and $400,000 hit, depending on which model finally emerges,” Hilton says. “It’s not insignificant, but it’s also not debilitating. For a one-year thing, it’s not going to cripple us.”
Revenue vs. Expenses
In the 2017-18 school year, the most recent in the Knight Foundation’s College Athletics Financial Information database, A&T had total athletics expenses of $13.85 million and total revenues of $14.42 million.
That’s pretty good considering an alarming trend: According to a revenue and expenses report on NCAA.org, “expenses outpaced generated revenues at every Football Championship Subdivision institution” in the nation (124 schools) from 2017 to 2018.
And on top of that, now come the coronavirus shutdowns.
What if the shutdown lingers into next football season? If A&T loses home games off its schedule or revenue-generating “guarantee games” on the road, that also dents the budget.
“It really depends on the home game,” Hilton says. “If we lose Homecoming? That’s a big, big hit. If we lose a game with much less fan interest, it’s significantly different. There’s a big swing in revenue simply depending on the game.”
Gate receipts for A&T’s Greatest Homecoming On Earth game are right around $600,000, Hilton says, while a home game of less interest against an overmatched opponent could be worth $40,000.
“That’s a gross number, too,” Hilton says. “So if we had to cancel a lesser-attended game, we’d net that out against expenses we wouldn’t have. The pain would be even less. But Homecoming or a rivalry game? That would hurt us.”
Revenue models
But in an interesting role reversal, A&T’s revenue model, often a weakness when compared to Power Five schools, could be a strength in these odd times.
It’s not just that the Aggies are used to coping, operating with less money in an average year. It’s where the money comes from.
The Knight Foundation report shows 57 percent ($8.27 million) of A&T’s athletics budget came from student fees. The same year at N.C. State, 8 percent ($6.68 million) of the Wolfpack’s $87.98 million budget came from student fees. In Chapel Hill, student fees accounted for 7 percent ($7.53 million) of North Carolina’s $104.57 million budget.
“We expect enrollment to stay steady,” Hilton says, “and we’re predominantly funded by student fees. … It is a weird reversal. Some of the big schools do have a larger concern than schools that have budgeted with less for a very long time.”
Article on COVID