charlottealum49

This is my first post on the messageboard. I've been reading this thread for a while now - but I never had the desire to respond. It felt like everyone was just arguing their own opinions without really asking questions or considering whether their arguments were based on anything other then their own beliefs. I just did not feel like getting involved. But metro's comments seem to be coming from legitimate concerns, so I will do my best to respond to each of the statements. - "Public money" I have no idea where the idea came from that football would be paid with taxpayer money. Although it's less far-fetched from some of the other things I've read on this thread! (Bonnie Cone's paralyzed son?) I've looked at how the North Carolina spends money on the 16 universities in the state and, while I admit it's pretty awful, I can pretty much assure you that A) You won't be seeing any kind of "Football Resolution" passed in some kind of legislation session that will increase your taxes and B) The university system is very much against increasing the 5 billion+ they spend on capital improvements in the system - not that you could find any funds directly going towards football for any public school, that's gotta come from donors. - "If the boosters and supporters want to build a team and stadium with their own money then by all means proceed. But don't expect the rest of us to pay for it as there are too many other needs in this city of greater importance." What would the taxpayer money be spent on? Scholarships? ... No, the NCAA requires that athletic scholarships have to be paid for through donations specifically for athletics. Staff salaries? ....No, that's has to come from the income generated from tuition/student fees. UNC Charlotte has previously stated that expenses for football will have to come from an increase in student fees - possibly in the neighborhood of up to $200/student (muliply by 20,000 students and you will raise $4 million/year for football and the subsequent Title IX women's sports) Are there any other expenses that would come from taxpayer money?...No, I really don't think so. How about facility costs? You have to build a campus stadium, right? Not anymore. Very recently, the NCAA passed a resolution that would make Municipal Stadium in Charlotte eligible for college football. (They eliminated the 30,000 permanent seats rule) http://www.ncaa.org/releases/divi/2001080301d1.htm http://www.ncaa.org/databases/reports/1/20...report_a05.html This is very good news, as the school was investigating the possibility of constructing a football stadium on campus a few years ago to meet the old NCAA criteria. Also, for the sentimental, Municipal Stadium housed Charlotte's college football team from the 1940s. It would cost UNC Charlotte $6,500 dollars per game to pay for facility costs to the taxpayers of the city of Charlotte. http://www.charmeck.nc.us/Departments/Park...ial+Stadium.htm So in actuality, taxpayers in Charlotte would be receiving a few dollars. Even if Charlotte decided it needed to spend money on its football facilities, the money would have to come from the university itself. If you can show me anything that indicates any taxpayer money goes directly towards college football in the state of North Carolina for any school - please share the info! I would be behind you 100% in getting that person fired - aka the guy who came up with that decision. -"Nobody has provided any proof that UNCC is not able to provide a good education for its students because it does not have a football program." Well, I can't provide proof. But I can provide a good make-believe story: Once upon a time, there was a UNC Charlotte Electrical Engineering Department Head and a NC State Electrical Engineering Department Head "Oh, woe is me", said the Charlotte professor, "We need the state to give us our fair share towards capital improvements, but they won't give us the money. Where O where can we get our funding?" The NC State professor smiled and said, "I can help you. Stop the movement for football now. We have football at NC State and it costs us a bundle! Why, for every 80 cents we gain from football, we spend $1.20 on expenses for football! Oh, the humanity. Poor NC State Engineering. Don't make the same mistakes we did." So the Charlotte professor raises hell. "Stop football!', he exclaims, "We must put all of our money towards research! Athletics and academics are mutually exclusive!" And it worked. Charlotte delays the start of a new football program. Time passes, and NC State is awarded with a nice addition to its Engineering Department - maybe a new materials testing lab and a computer lab. Charlotte is left out in the cold and receives nothing. Again, Charlotte feels like it is not getting its share of the state budget. After all, it contributes the 2nd highest amount of money to the university system (Chapel Hill is first). Why does the state not give Charlotte its share of the pie? The NC State professor returns. "Woo-Doggy!", he sighs, "We sure lost a lot of money from football again this year! Hey, I hear they are trying to revive efforts for a football team. You better stop it again!" Then the NC State professor starts to giggle. I wrote my little tale to try to introduce everyone to the wonderfully weird and wild ways the state distributes money to the 16 schools in the university system, also known as 'Matching funds'. The state supplies the university with 66.69% of the overall budget, matching the collective schools' 33.31% (Check out www.northcarolina.edu for some interesting reading) So in other words, if a school raises a dollar, the state will give the school 2 dollars. Back to my tale. I made up some numbers there - 80 cents in revenues for football per $1.20 in expenses for football. If you said that football is losing a ton of money, you would be making an accurate statement. But wait a minute! The state is going to match the 80 cents the school is earning through football with $1.60 (all of which is to be spent on educational facilities. The school can't use the state funds for anything except endeavors directly relating to educating state citizens). So that means the school receives $2.40 ($1.60 for education and $0.80 for football) and must spend $1.20 in expenses for football. Seems like the school comes out ahead in that deal - academics doesn't seem to suffer all that much. So now you may begin to understand why public institutions are so attached to their football programs even though they sometimes seemingly lose a ton of money. Of course, you may be hard-pressed in getting anyone associated with football schools to admit something like that. Is it dirty? You bet. Is it unfair? Absolutely. Should UNC Charlotte sit idly by and watch the other state schools take advantage of the system? That's open to some debate. - "Nobody has provided any proof that a football team at UNCC would provide any net financial benefit to the school. Where is the financial analysis that would back this claim?" Well, it IS a bit hard to prove, I admit. I don't have enough info to know whether or not it will work or not. Of course, I'm not sure you can prove that it won't work, either. If you want, I can provide some financial analysis. At least you'll have some numbers to debate amongst yourselves. Expenses: (Unless otherwise noted, this info comes directly from a precursory investigation performed directly by UNC Charlotte from a few years ago. There's all kind of warnings in the document that the numbers should be taken with a grain of salt in terms of accuracy. For the most part, the numbers were generated by looking at how Conference USA football programs spent and earned their money) Head Coach (salary/benefits): $345,102 Assistant Coaches (9) (s/b): $786,743 Team Travel: $400,000 Recruiting Travel: $125,000 Equipment Costs: $150,000 Officials: $72,000 Stadium Costs (Charlotte): If Memorial Stadium is used, $6,500 per game x 5 games = $32,500 Guarantees: $875,000 Assumes two non-conference @ $250,000 each / three conference games @ $125,000 each Additional staffing (football-related): $335,000 Assumes two FT trainers @ $60,000 each / one SID @ $45,000 / three secretarial support @ $30,000 each / one FT Video Director @ $50,000 / one Asst Video Dir @ $30,000 Other operating expenses: $150,000 Printing / maintenance / phones / mailings / computers / courtesy cars / video Preseason costs: $75,000 Housing / meals for two weeks prior to school opening for 85 student-athletes Estimated Annual Cost for Football: $3,346,345 Scholarships (Charlotte): $935,000* Based on 85 scholarships @ $11,000: $935,000 *MUST be funded through donations, not by football revenue or student fees) ((or taxpayer money )) 3,346,345 + 935,000 = $4,281,345 How would (could) the program be funded? $1,830,000/year MUST be donated for football/Title IX scholarship funds to attain Division 1A eligiblity, college football's highest level. A lower amount would cause UNC Charlotte to play their games as a Division 1AA team or lower. (see link http://www.ncaa.org/releases/divi/2001080301d1.htm) Ticket buyers? The C-USA average is $1.33 million. Assuming five home games, you would need about 20,000 paying customers @ $13.00+ to hit goal. Game Guarantees? Assuming three conference road games @ $125,000, and two "buy" games at $350,000 each, you could generate $1.075 million. Student fees? Given the above, an additional $1,500,000 would need to be generated. Given the projected student enrollment increases, it would take about $87 per student in additional student athletic fees to fund the football portion of the equation. What are we leaving out? Office Space / Training Room expansion / Weight Room expansion Costs: Unknown ($5-7 million?) - one-time Academic Support Staff / Strength Center Staff / Adminstrative Support Costs: $300,000 annual Academic Counselor (2) $40,000 each w/benefits Asst. Strength Coach (2) $35,000 each w/benefits Asst. AD/Operations $50,000 w/benefits Asst. Compliance Officer $35,000 w/benefits Asst. Ticket Manager $30,000 w/benefits Asst. Marketing Director $35,000 w/benefits Gender Equity Concerns Costs: $0.5-1.5 million annually The addition of 85 male student-athletes would need to be countered with the addition of about 100 female student-athletes in order to meet the proportionality test. ($1.1 million for 100 female scholarships) I need to post here more often! That was a long-ass post I'll try to spread my thoughts out into smaller pieces if I ever post here again. Carry on.