MACHIAVELLI
Chairman/C.E.O.
Friday, September 12, 2003
Guarantees more costly
Gators pay more to play patsies
By Michael DiRocco
Times-Union sports writer
GAINESVILLE -- The check will be in the mail sometime in January.
When the envelope from Florida's University Athletic Association arrives at the Florida A&M campus, Rattlers Athletics Director J. R. E. Lee III will tear it open like a kid expecting a birthday card from Grandma.
UF fans celebrate a touchdown against San Jose State in the season opener. San Jose State was paid $525,000 to play the Gators
-- Special
Inside the envelope will be a $400,000 check, FAMU's guaranteed payday for coming to Florida Field tomorrow and helping the Gators get over Miami and prepare for Tennessee.
That amount is significantly more than the checks UF AD Jeremy Foley used to write in the early 1990s. Back then he paid $200,000-$250,000 to schedule such non-conference patsies as Furman, Arkansas State and Southwestern Louisiana. To get those teams to come to Gainesville now, though, is costing sometimes more than double what it did a decade ago.
The Gators paid San Jose State $525,000 to open the 2003 season at Florida Field. Next year Middle Tennessee State will get $500,000.
It's not just at Florida that guaranteed payouts have increased. Tennessee paid Fresno State $750,000 to play at Neyland Stadium on Aug. 30. Georgia is paying Alabama-Birmingham $500,000 for a game this season. LSU shelled out $450,000 to The Citadel last season, and The Citadel is getting $450,000 to play at Auburn next season.
Ten years ago, those numbers were $200,000-$400,000 less.
"That's the cost of doing business," Foley said.
Supply and demand
There may not be anything that can be done to curb the rising cost, which has increased for several reasons. The obvious is inflation. Things cost more now than they did in 1993.
There's also hungrier athletic budgets. Schools need to play a certain number of home games for budgetary reasons, which usually leaves several games open once the conference schedule and rivalry games are determined. Since schools are competing for spots in the BCS, they'll try to schedule smaller Division I schools they know are overmatched and they should be able to beat.
Finding schools with matching open dates, though, is sometimes hard to do, and those schools are often being courted by other big schools with similar open dates. Then you get Economics 101 -- supply and demand.
"I'm calling, Tennessee is calling, Georgia is calling," Foley said.
It may sound like an auction, with the highest bidder landing the game, but it doesn't really work that way, said Louisiana-Monroe AD Bruce Hanks, whose school lost 49-7 at LSU on Aug. 30 and plays at Ole Miss tomorrow. Hanks doesn't get an offer from Tennessee and then solicits Georgia for a better one. The going rate for games is $350,000-$400,000, Hanks said, unless there are special circumstances, like a cross-country flight.
Smaller schools have the advantage in the negotiations, though. They're the ones being courted, and they can choose their suitor. And if several big schools are trying to fill the same date, they might offer a little more money.
There's several factors in how Hanks and athletics directors at the smaller schools choose which game they'll play: payout, expenses, the distance fans have to travel, and television exposure.
"Closer is better," Hanks said. "One [reason] is expenses, but a bigger reason is for our fans. They tend to have more familiarity with schools closest to us, and we want our fans to be able to travel to away games. That's what causes us to like to play schools in Mississippi."
Hanks said he might accept a payout that's significantly less from one school if he felt that game made more sense for his school. Louisiana Tech AD Jim Oakes didn't really want to play Florida State in 1999, but went anyway because the game was televised on ESPN2.
"We would not have done that had it not been televised," Oakes said.
Oakes wanted his school to get some television exposure, which is one of the benefits the schools get for playing these games. In addition to padding athletic budgets, it helps in recruiting and gives the program national exposure.
"Your team and recruits like the idea of taking on the bigger names, the more established programs," Hanks said. "It allows your team the opportunity to measure its progress against the top programs in the country."
Money means the most
The money, though, is the main reason the smaller schools play the games. FAMU, for example, will have $350,000 to deposit into its athletic budget after roughly $50,000 in travel expenses are deducted. That's a big help to a program that must raise up to $2 million to help fund its jump from Division I-AA to I-A.
The farther the trip, the higher the expenses, which is why San Jose State got $525,000 to come to UF and lose 65-3. Flying cross-country, lodging and meals cost roughly $200,000-$225,000, leaving the Spartans with roughly $300,000-$325,000. Fresno State, which lost 24-6 on Aug.30, cleared $400,000-$450,000 for its trip to Knoxville, AD Scott Johnson told a Tennessee newspaper.
But don't worry about UF's or UT's budget. The Ben Hill Griffin Stadium expansion project -- which expands seating capacity to 90,000, including 3,000 luxury seats in the Champions Club and 62 private suites -- will bring in an additional $7 million annually in booster contributions. Tennessee makes more than $2 million per home game at 104,079-seat Neyland Stadium.
The checks are in no danger of bouncing.
Staff writer Michael DiRocco can be reached at (904) 359-4500 or via e-mail at mdiroccojacksonville.com.
Guarantees more costly
Gators pay more to play patsies
By Michael DiRocco
Times-Union sports writer
GAINESVILLE -- The check will be in the mail sometime in January.
When the envelope from Florida's University Athletic Association arrives at the Florida A&M campus, Rattlers Athletics Director J. R. E. Lee III will tear it open like a kid expecting a birthday card from Grandma.
UF fans celebrate a touchdown against San Jose State in the season opener. San Jose State was paid $525,000 to play the Gators
-- Special
Inside the envelope will be a $400,000 check, FAMU's guaranteed payday for coming to Florida Field tomorrow and helping the Gators get over Miami and prepare for Tennessee.
That amount is significantly more than the checks UF AD Jeremy Foley used to write in the early 1990s. Back then he paid $200,000-$250,000 to schedule such non-conference patsies as Furman, Arkansas State and Southwestern Louisiana. To get those teams to come to Gainesville now, though, is costing sometimes more than double what it did a decade ago.
The Gators paid San Jose State $525,000 to open the 2003 season at Florida Field. Next year Middle Tennessee State will get $500,000.
It's not just at Florida that guaranteed payouts have increased. Tennessee paid Fresno State $750,000 to play at Neyland Stadium on Aug. 30. Georgia is paying Alabama-Birmingham $500,000 for a game this season. LSU shelled out $450,000 to The Citadel last season, and The Citadel is getting $450,000 to play at Auburn next season.
Ten years ago, those numbers were $200,000-$400,000 less.
"That's the cost of doing business," Foley said.
Supply and demand
There may not be anything that can be done to curb the rising cost, which has increased for several reasons. The obvious is inflation. Things cost more now than they did in 1993.
There's also hungrier athletic budgets. Schools need to play a certain number of home games for budgetary reasons, which usually leaves several games open once the conference schedule and rivalry games are determined. Since schools are competing for spots in the BCS, they'll try to schedule smaller Division I schools they know are overmatched and they should be able to beat.
Finding schools with matching open dates, though, is sometimes hard to do, and those schools are often being courted by other big schools with similar open dates. Then you get Economics 101 -- supply and demand.
"I'm calling, Tennessee is calling, Georgia is calling," Foley said.
It may sound like an auction, with the highest bidder landing the game, but it doesn't really work that way, said Louisiana-Monroe AD Bruce Hanks, whose school lost 49-7 at LSU on Aug. 30 and plays at Ole Miss tomorrow. Hanks doesn't get an offer from Tennessee and then solicits Georgia for a better one. The going rate for games is $350,000-$400,000, Hanks said, unless there are special circumstances, like a cross-country flight.
Smaller schools have the advantage in the negotiations, though. They're the ones being courted, and they can choose their suitor. And if several big schools are trying to fill the same date, they might offer a little more money.
There's several factors in how Hanks and athletics directors at the smaller schools choose which game they'll play: payout, expenses, the distance fans have to travel, and television exposure.
"Closer is better," Hanks said. "One [reason] is expenses, but a bigger reason is for our fans. They tend to have more familiarity with schools closest to us, and we want our fans to be able to travel to away games. That's what causes us to like to play schools in Mississippi."
Hanks said he might accept a payout that's significantly less from one school if he felt that game made more sense for his school. Louisiana Tech AD Jim Oakes didn't really want to play Florida State in 1999, but went anyway because the game was televised on ESPN2.
"We would not have done that had it not been televised," Oakes said.
Oakes wanted his school to get some television exposure, which is one of the benefits the schools get for playing these games. In addition to padding athletic budgets, it helps in recruiting and gives the program national exposure.
"Your team and recruits like the idea of taking on the bigger names, the more established programs," Hanks said. "It allows your team the opportunity to measure its progress against the top programs in the country."
Money means the most
The money, though, is the main reason the smaller schools play the games. FAMU, for example, will have $350,000 to deposit into its athletic budget after roughly $50,000 in travel expenses are deducted. That's a big help to a program that must raise up to $2 million to help fund its jump from Division I-AA to I-A.
The farther the trip, the higher the expenses, which is why San Jose State got $525,000 to come to UF and lose 65-3. Flying cross-country, lodging and meals cost roughly $200,000-$225,000, leaving the Spartans with roughly $300,000-$325,000. Fresno State, which lost 24-6 on Aug.30, cleared $400,000-$450,000 for its trip to Knoxville, AD Scott Johnson told a Tennessee newspaper.
But don't worry about UF's or UT's budget. The Ben Hill Griffin Stadium expansion project -- which expands seating capacity to 90,000, including 3,000 luxury seats in the Champions Club and 62 private suites -- will bring in an additional $7 million annually in booster contributions. Tennessee makes more than $2 million per home game at 104,079-seat Neyland Stadium.
The checks are in no danger of bouncing.
Staff writer Michael DiRocco can be reached at (904) 359-4500 or via e-mail at mdiroccojacksonville.com.