Just in case anyone needs the umpteenth reason to be disgusted NU won't spend a dime on basketball facilities, TG reports B10 schools will be collecting $40 million annually by 2018.
Wow!! Significantly more $$$ coming to B10 schools
- Thread starter Sec.112
- Start date
NU built a practice facility within WR which is two courts bc they use the actual game floor in addition to the identical floor next door. This facility gets upgraded every year. NU built new lockerooms and new offices within the existing WR structure. NU significantly upgraded the facility with the video boards.
Now, there is a strong argument that the lockerrooms are still deficient. But, to say NU has not upgraded from where they were 5-7 years ago is not true.
Football is leaving Central Street in 2 years. I anticipate that hoops will get some love at that point.
As sure as the earth is flat, this is all faked and ain't ever happening.
Let me attempt to provide a short response to the incredibly low bar set in your answer.
I never said anything close to "NU has not upgraded from where they were 5-7 years ago."
NU's spending on basketball more than laughably speaks for itself, even compared to the most mediocre B10 spending.
I'll just try to leave it at that.
Now if NU and it's X million dollar endowment would turn over all the money to the athletic department.
Makes sense to me. The $7 Billion endowment ought to be enough to attract Nick Saban and Mike Krzyzewski, and Geno Auriemma as well.
Just in case anyone needs the umpteenth reason to be disgusted NU won't spend a dime on basketball facilities, TG reports B10 schools will be collecting $40 million annually by 2018.. That was your statement. How do you equate not spending a dime on facilities and then saying that you did not say they haven't done upgrades?
NU still loses money on athletics so the extra from BTN means they don't need as much from general funds.
So we're going to take my statement about not spending a dime literally? Fine, have a good time with that. I hope the debate club judges give you strong points.
I'm really trying to bite my tongue on some of the silliness of these responses, but even NU's stats to the Department of Education say they break even - to the single dollar ... every year. (No books cooked there!!) And that's with the phony baloney "expense" of $16M last year in scholarships as well as no measurement for fundraising.
Well, I really don't care to jump into the funding arguments, but why would you have the expectation that people wouldn't take you literally when you say the school "won't spend a dime" on basketball facilities? Obviously, they have spent a great deal more than a dime on basketball facilities. If your literal meaning is that they don't spend ENOUGH on basketball facilities, write it that way.
a) Thank you for addressing your own question. "Obviously, they have spent a great deal more than a dime on basketball facilities."
b) There is a second statement that has been conveniently ignored: "NU's spending on basketball more than laughably speaks for itself, even compared to the most mediocre B10 spending."
If you're going to get into stupid details, at least address ALL the details.
OK, let's forget any of the content - the increase in BTN revenue, NU compared to other B10 schools or the insertion of the NU athletics balance sheet.
Next topic: where did I use commas improperly?
It's always nice to see the old NU mindset re-emerge anytime there's even a modest implication that NU doesn't invest enough.
It has nothing to do with mindset. Write what you mean to convey. If they've spent more than a dime (and apparently thousands more than that) on facilities, than don't write "they won't spend a dime." Also, your original post, which was the first to which the other poster responded, did not include the second statement you mention.
Guessing it was a figure of speech. Also do any other Big Ten programs not turn all of the BTN money to their Athletic Departments?
Does NU not turn 100% of its television revenue cut to athletics? That would really suck.
I think it was Ken Pomeroy who wrote that he can tell who most of the top basketball programs in the country will be in five years, ten years, etc. He's been testing the thesis for years and it's the schools that spend the most on basketball.
When you spend marginal, marginal results follow.
Now, I believe that when NU wins just a little bit more that more money will start to flow. But I do not believe that will come from the school.
Right it's my understanding that all of the BTN goes to some kind of general fund and not the athletic department. Where will this additional money come from if not the school? Attendance? Concessions? Memorabilia?
None of the above.
Donors.
If Collins continues the recruiting arc and gets the team into the tournament and the top half of the big ten.......they'll start making much more aggressive asks of donors. I'd argue that Collins will be advancing his agenda and the AD will be scrambling behind.
I've always assumed 100% of the television money doesn't go into athletics, and that's fine. DePaul since the late 70s is a great example of how athletic success can enhance the rest of the school. It should. I would hope a large portion of the money gets reinvested for the core principles of the school - not athletics.
But to generally (Do all my editors agree that is a better word than "completely?") ignore and invest so little in one of the sports bringing in the money over a 30 year period is just plain dumb in so many ways. It's also pretty scummy.
In NU's defense, except for Phillips and maybe Taylor and Collins, I have no doubt the board of trustees haven't had to deal with people who know how to build a strong infrastructure and negotiate a solid plan. Certainly, it's never on the radar of the NU athletic community.
I was going to leave this out of the discussion but since you brought it up ...
Yes, hoops will get some love when football moves in two years. And, like you said Medill, it will be based on donations.
How long do you think it will take the school to raise that money if it took five years to raise funds for the significantly more popular football program?
I'll bet the school breaks ground by 2028. In that time, NU will collect - let's be VERY conservative - $300 million on TV alone ($30M/ year).
The money is more than there, even if they build a $100 million Taj Mahal (which nobody is asking for).
Want to make another bet? Will Collins still be the coach in 2028? Chances are he won't, so now the school is looking at another coaching search with the 1983 WR antique.
And as I've predicted for XX years, I sure hope Fitz doesn't decide he wants his game-day facility to be up to turn-of-the-century standards.
What needs/will be done for hoops? Is the assumption that NU will convert Trienens into 2 practice
courts (mbball & wbball) with offices and associated training space? Would this allow Volleyball to have
the current hoops practice court as their own home? Is a Trienens re-do less expensive than a new
facility?? Can NU ask donors for more $$ after dropping $260M on Lakeside? Would that for the most
part make all NU athletic programs "B1G TEN facility" competitive? I ask these questions because I don't
know the answers!
courts (mbball & wbball) with offices and associated training space? Would this allow Volleyball to have
the current hoops practice court as their own home? Is a Trienens re-do less expensive than a new
facility?? Can NU ask donors for more $$ after dropping $260M on Lakeside? Would that for the most
part make all NU athletic programs "B1G TEN facility" competitive? I ask these questions because I don't
know the answers!
I don't think the issue is with the practice facilities or locker rooms. It is playing in a Cold War era dump of a warehouse when the rest of the Big 10 play in basketball-only arenas.
I could even be convinced to play in the Cold War era dump. I always hate this comparison, but look at what Duke does. They shine up the dump, while every other structural part of the program is top-of-the-line/envy-of-every-program.
I don't have strong feelings for a direction one way or the other. Sometime in the near future, I'd be happy if NU made a good, solid and competitive investment in some structural aspect of the program that allows Collins to be on par with most mid-range B10 programs.
God forbid they put together something exciting and unique that gives the program a clear advantage over the rest of the league.
I'll just refer you to a previous post that showed that NU will receive 30 million from the BTN alone. Then there is the other TV money fro ESPN and alike, as well as from the bowl pool. And let's not forget the NCAA Tournament. Thinking NU could afford to build a new arena now, before they even ask donors. Or they could ask the City of Evanston to build them one, like Chicago is doing for DePaul. Then again it's Evanston and the NU Trustees we are talking about.
There is always an issue with practice facilities and locker rooms. That is the place where the arms wars start. For the players, the place they play is probably fine. For fans it is second rate. Sec 212 is a fan so for him, it is second rate. For the players, I would guess that locker rooms, practice facilities and other things are far higher on the list as far as things that they would like changed. Same is true of FB and that is why they put the money in the Lakeside facility rather than the stadium.
The BB program has brought a lot of money into DUKE so it is easy to justify spiffing it up. To date, the BB program has brought relatively little into NU. It becomes the classic chicken egg situation.
At least they are starting to put money into athletic programs and facilities. For decades they did not. Do you realize how huge the Lakeside facility is in terms of institutional support? I mean the biggest expenditure prior to it was about $20 million in 1997 Now we are seeing that kind of expenditure for Baseball. IT is coming but it will need patience. Expenditures have to come from donations. We have a small alumni base, few of them are NU BB fans, high construction costs and little land. Wicked combination.
Similar threads
