BYU Athletic Department Profitability

[myboynoah]

This Desnews article states the following:

In 2009, football made a 53 percent profit and men's basketball made 8 percent. Everything else was in the red.

Even with the unprofitable sports, BYU Athletics still made $5.5 million in profit, according to data obtained from the U.S. Department of Education.

What does $5.5 million in profit mean? After all expenses they actually cleared $5.5 million? Is that a normal year? Is this normal for other universities' athletic departments? What do they do with that money? With the new ESPN contract can we expect them to clear an additional $5 million per year? Where do they plan to spend these profits?

For some reason I was under the impression that BYU Athletics was operating on a tight margin, and maybe even losing money.

[TripletDaddy]

A few years ago I was privy to a special tom holmoe meet and greet in Newport beach. Very few folks in attendance..mostly people from my stake. It was hosted by Sy Kimball, also from my old stake.

It was basically a long Q&A session in which he shared lots of good info. He went into some good specifics about profitability and shared statistics, some numbers, etc.

I did a very long write up of it on CB. I will try to find it tomorrow. Basically very few D1 programs operate in the black. BYU was one if them, at least at the time, and you are correct, they were not always in the black. The timing of this meeting coincided with BYU and Utah threaening the mtn with legal counsel in order to broker a better deal, so it is quite possible that BYU has operated in the red since then.

Top ute recently made a very poorly researched claim that Utah basketball made around 4MM of profit in 2010, when in fact the article he posted really made no such claim at all. However, if Utahs ratios mirror BYUs, and BYUs net revenue was 8% hoops related, that means that Utah netted 4 MM from hoops and upwards of 25MM from football. That is a great achievement, ESP given that Utah and BYU share the same TV contracts and Utah has less ticket revenue.

[myboynoah]

A few years ago I was privy to a special tom holmoe meet and greet in Newport beach. Very few folks in attendance..mostly people from my stake. It was hosted by Sy Kimball, also from my old stake.

It was basically a long Q&A session in which he shared lots of good info. He went into some good specifics about profitability and shared statistics, some numbers, etc.

I did a very long write up of it on CB. I will try to find it tomorrow. Basically very few D1 programs operate in the black. BYU was one if them, at least at the time, and you are correct, they were not always in the black. The timing of this meeting coincided with BYU and Utah threaening the mtn with legal counsel in order to broker a better deal, so it is quite possible that BYU has operated in the red since then.
Top ute recently made a very poorly researched claim that Utah basketball made around 4MM of profit in 2010, when in fact the article he posted really made no such claim at all. However, if Utahs ratios mirror BYUs, and BYUs net revenue was 8% hoops related, that means that Utah netted 4 MM from hoops and upwards of 25MM from football. That is a great achievement, ESP given that Utah and BYU share the same TV contracts and Utah has less ticket revenue.

I'll look forward to your readout if you can find it. Operating in the red the past few years would run counter to what the Desnews is reporting. Very much counter. Was 2009 some kind of crazy revenue year?

Utah's 25MM football bonanza explains why they are willing to take nothing from the PAC the first year. Sounds like they could have done that for even more years. Good job Utah, you stared down Larry Scott and won!

[TripletDaddy]

Here it is.

http://www.cougarboard.com/board/mes...tml?id=2969854

Part 2

http://www.cougarboard.com/board/mes...tml?id=3039069

[TripletDaddy]

Also, before I did my genuine write up, I came back from the meeting and offered this up as a fake

http://www.cougarboard.com/board/mes...tml?id=2969326

[scottie]

Here it is.

http://www.cougarboard.com/board/mes...tml?id=2969854

Part 2

http://www.cougarboard.com/board/mes...tml?id=3039069

3D, who is Sy Kimball?

[TripletDaddy]

3D, who is Sy Kimball?

He is BYUs #1 athletic donor. He often donates land, but sometimes cash. He basically funded the softball and baseball complex and provided the land that paid for most of the football practice facility and legacy center.

Professionally, he is a home builder and land developer in SoCal, specifically all over OC. Lives in the Newport beach stake, CdM ward. When my wife and I lived in Newport Coast for several years, we would see him and his wife all the time, we attended in the same building, the stake center next door to the Newport temple. He knows all the BYU fans and loves to talk BYU sports with everyone.

He even travels with the team whenever he wants, basically.

Very nice guy and good person to know if you need something from BYU athletics.

[myboynoah]

Here it is.

http://www.cougarboard.com/board/mes...tml?id=2969854

Part 2

http://www.cougarboard.com/board/mes...tml?id=3039069

Thanks 3D. Interesting. For example, this:

I asked Tom directly about the PK/Harmon articles that were flying around in the week before the UCLA game. Tom said that nobody at BYU had officialy spoken with the media to leak this rumor. He also said that BYU has definitely thought about it. However, he ranked it is the least likely because he noted the apparent impossibility of a TV deal to generate revenue. To me, this makes perfect sense, but i know many here on CB feel that BYU could get a lucrative TV deal from ESPN. I have no idea why anyone would think that. Why would ESPN want to broadcast 6 home games against UNLV, NM, Air Force, Wyoming, or Eastern Washington?

Anyway, for what it is worth, straight from the horse's mouth, going Indy is the least likely of an already extremely unlikley group of scenarios.

My how things have changed. ESPN is willing to pay BYU to broadcast games of seemingly even lesser interest.

[Jennerstein]

He is BYUs #1 athletic donor. He often donates land, but sometimes cash. He basically funded the softball and baseball complex and provided the land that paid for most of the football practice facility and legacy center.

Professionally, he is a home builder and land developer in SoCal, specifically all over OC. Lives in the Newport beach stake, CdM ward. When my wife and I lived in Newport Coast for several years, we would see him and his wife all the time, we attended in the same building, the stake center next door to the Newport temple. He knows all the BYU fans and loves to talk BYU sports with everyone.

He even travels with the team whenever he wants, basically.

Very nice guy and good person to know if you need something from BYU athletics.

After doing a bit of Googling, his face looks very familiar. I am sure I've seen him at the temple or something. Didn't know he had bookoo bucks and was such a BYU fan. Next time I see him I should be like "Hey, that ND vs BYU 2004 football highlight? Yah I did that."

Also, Holmoe is a really nice guy and I'm glad we have him as our AD. I love that he's a convert, has coached as a head coach, has played in the NFL, and is true blue. When he spoke at last year's BYU MS LA meeting I came away pretty impressed.

[pellegrino]

DDD,

After reading your write up, I'm convinced that BYU needs to follow the model of UNC and many other state schools that charge their students and activities fee between $40-$60 per semester. The majority of those funds go directly to the athletic department for them. In return, students are able to get into all athletic events with their ID card. Tickets to high demand sports such as football and basketball are distributed through an organized system that pretty much guarantees everyone who wants to will get into several games over the season. The die hard student fans get in nearly every time.

This would guarantee a base operating budget of millions every year (32K students x $40 a semester = 2.5 million annually).

[Indy Coug]

When my wife and I lived in Newport Coast for several years, we would see him and his wife all the time, we attended in the same building, the stake center next door to the Newport temple.

So I attended the same ward as you once?

[Surfah]

DDD,

After reading your write up, I'm convinced that BYU needs to follow the model of UNC and many other state schools that charge their students and activities fee between $40-$60 per semester. The majority of those funds go directly to the athletic department for them. In return, students are able to get into all athletic events with their ID card. Tickets to high demand sports such as football and basketball are distributed through an organized system that pretty much guarantees everyone who wants to will get into several games over the season. The die hard student fans get in nearly every time.

This would guarantee a base operating budget of millions every year (32K students x $40 a semester = 2.5 million annually).

I don't know why they don't do this already. I'd be interested to know how many students buy the all-sports passes.

[Surfah]

So I attended the same ward as you once?

To go from Newport Coast to Utah Valley.

[CJF]

DDD,

After reading your write up, I'm convinced that BYU needs to follow the model of UNC and many other state schools that charge their students and activities fee between $40-$60 per semester. The majority of those funds go directly to the athletic department for them. In return, students are able to get into all athletic events with their ID card. Tickets to high demand sports such as football and basketball are distributed through an organized system that pretty much guarantees everyone who wants to will get into several games over the season. The die hard student fans get in nearly every time.

This would guarantee a base operating budget of millions every year (32K students x $40 a semester = 2.5 million annually).

I think Michelle's head would explode.

[wuapinmon]

My school is D2. About 1/3 of our students are athletes, and athletics keep us in the black, solidly in the black. But, we're nobodies.