82SiouxGuy

That perception is what I talked about when you asked why REA didn't put the numbers on their web site. Most people would be really happy if someone was giving UND Athletics $500,000 per year, but some of them don't think it's enough based on their perceptions of the facility. Jody and Chris are nice guys, but they are also pretty good businessmen. You can probably find places to cut in just about every organization. But making those cuts may not be the best idea in the long run. I think that if you compared profit at REA plus the services they provide UND you would find they do a good job compared to a lot of other similar size venues around the country. You also have to look at having competition from a similar size venue in the same community, and venues in Winnipeg and Fargo. All of those affect the profit potential of REA.

The Spirit campaign was definitely a mix of current donations and pledges. Future pledges are always a part of the Foundation's fundraising efforts. I remember that many of the large donations in the past have been announced as pledges for the future rather than immediate cash. I think that this will continue in the future. Therefore, announcements in future years will include new pledges. The impression that I got from announcements during Homecoming was that they thought $40-50,000,000 could be an annual standard in new money and pledges each year. They think they can continue at that rate because of the work they have done during the last campaign, the relationships they have in place and the staff that is in place. But, you're right about the potential for double counting when both cash and pledges are given.

I'm pretty sure that number fluctuates depending on the year. For instance, during the past year they had extra expenses due to the name change. But you have no proof that there is "something wrong over there", that is just a guess that you are making because you have an impression that they "should be making more". You really don't know what they should be making any more than any of us on the forum. And you don't know what additional services they are providing to UND Athletics as an in-kind donation. Remember, any services they provide below normal cost is money that UND doesn't have to spend. That is as good as a monetary donation.

Do you have any experience running a facility? Do you know anything about running an athletic department? Do you know anyone on the board that runs REA? Did you know that Earl Strinden is still part of that board, and that he is the one that talked Ralph into making the donation? He was also Speaker of the House for the North Dakota Legislature for many years. Do you know Jody Hodgson or Chris Semrau, the general manager and the Director of Events, or know how much time and effort they put into running the complex? Did you know that Semrau was one of the first employees hired? Do you have any knowledge or experience that would let you speak intelligently on the subject rather than making broad accusations?

$50,000,000 per year times 6 years equals $300,000,000. They had some better success in some years, not quite as much in others. Not sure where I'm double counting. This includes all fundraising for the University including athletics, education, facilities, etc. The Foundation believes that they can continue fundraising $40-50,000,000 per year going forward. But thanks for your interest in UND.

You do realize that Ralph's trust still owns and operates the building. Ralph's daughter is on the board of the trust that operates the building.

They passed the law after Ralph had announced the donation but before the building was built. Yes, they could have done it the other way. But I'm pretty sure the building wouldn't have been nearly as fancy. I think that the design was part of what worried law makers. A lot of buildings have been built on campus with donated money. The small chapel is one example. These buildings weren't covered by the law. And the fact that they were built by the school or the foundation after money makes them different than REA.

Major difference in prime time TV (the hours between 7 and 10 pm) and prime college football time. The networks make more money on prime time than they do on college football. They set advertising prices based on viewership. If the affiliate preempts programming then the networks don't get credited for viewership. The networks aren't going to drop an affiliate for preempting college football. They have dropped affiliates for preempting too much prime time programming. The networks give a little leeway for special events, that's how the affiliates get away with broadcasting high school state tournaments. But there isn't a network that would let an affiliate get away with 20 nights of hockey games, not to mention any of the other sporting events. As far as I can tell, NDSU hasn't had anyone offer to pay them for TV rights, at least not a substantial amount. They had trouble getting anything on TV a few years ago when UND was starting to get games on regularly. That's why they started doing their own thing. They have just expanded the number of games they are doing on their own. They haven't been given a choice of payday versus exposure.

How many of these games are on prime time? The networks have different standards for prime time versus daytime. The networks put very severe limits on how often local affiliates can preempt prime time programming, they are less strict about preempting daytime programming. I don't know how the CW and ME networks stand on preempting prime time programming. My guess is that the CW has similar standards to the major networks. But again, none of this matters. WDAZ and Forum Communications didn't put in a large enough bid to win the contract. It doesn't matter why they didn't, or if they could have. Midcontinent put in the larger bid and they won. That was more than a year ago and it isn't going to change for another 3 1/2 years.

I'm not confusing anything. The dollars I quoted include athletics, academics, etc. They include the new Indoor Practice Facility, which is not included in the Athletic Department dollars. But it is sure going to benefit the Athletic Department. It's all one big pie. I'm not sure where your expectations come from other than grabbing numbers out of the sky. That $19 million in revenue included ticket sales, donations, sponsorships, student fees, contributions by the school itself to athletics, etc. According to an article in the Grand Forks Herald and the Fargo Forum about a week ago, student fees and school contributions make up about 47% of the revenue for UND athletics and 43% of the revenue for NDSU. The rest comes from the other sources. Student fees were higher at UND, institutional contributions were higher at NDSU. 47% and 43% were among the lowest numbers in schools that sponsor FCS football. Both athletic departments are doing all right compared to their peers. As far as individual donations, that is up to the people that have the money. They can donate to whatever they want. Just because some young athletes come into money doesn't mean they have to make large donations. I've been told that some do and some don't. They also have a right to donate to the athletic department, education, or whatever they want. Some of them actually do care about academics. The same goes for alumni that make their money in other fields. Many of them have done very well, and many of them have made very generous donations. I would guess that a lot of them are interested in donating to the academic side, and many of them are included in that $324,000,000 in donations over the past 6 years. NDSU has had some alumni that have done pretty well themselves. They have an engineering school, a business school and have had athletes play professional sports. They have some very large farmers that are alumni. Fargo is a larger city with more businesses that can donate significant sums of money. I don't believe their endowment is as large as UND, but they do very well for the size of school.

UND just completed a fund raising campaign that raised $324,000,000 in something like 6 years. UND is now raising $40-50,000,000 per year in donations and they expect to continue raising money at that rate. I don't know how much you want people to give. As far as how much REA has given to the athletic department, as has been mentioned before it would be a losing proposition to broadcast it no matter how much it is. Some people would think it wasn't enough. Other people would complain about how much they were giving away and complain about the prices that REA charges. It would be a lose-lose proposition to broadcast the amount.

6 NDSU home football games, most broadcast during Saturday daytime hours, is a lot different than 20 home hockey games broadcast during evening hours when the stations are contracted to broadcast the network prime time programming. Television stations can only preempt network prime time programming so often before they risk losing their contract with the network. The situations are completely different. Forum Communications would have had to create a whole new channel to broadcast all of those UND hockey games.

If it was outsourced, then WDAZ doesn't have it. And we go back to the cost of HD equipment. But none of this really matters because WDAZ couldn't put together a bid that was big enough to compete with the Midcontinent bid. WDAZ buying HD equipment for their newsroom has absolutely nothing to do with their ability to or their interest in buying HD equipment to broadcast University of North Dakota athletics.

Have you actually tried talking to Jody, or is this just your guess? You aren't going to get the answer if you call the front desk, you actually have to talk to someone that knows what is going on. Have you tried talking to someone in the Athletic Department? As a public entity they have to be pretty open about where money comes from.

I was under the impression that WDAZ produced the broadcast, but I don't think they owned the equipment to uplink the hockey broadcasts. I think that was (probably still is) owned by the REA. And I don't think that the existing SD equipment is able to uplink HD broadcasts. I don't know who owned the cameras and other production equipment. In the past the hockey broadcasts were a joint venture between WDAZ, UND and Midcontinent. It was never just WDAZ responsible for the entire broadcast.

Producing 750+ news broadcasts per year might be more important to WDAZ than 20 hockey games. And they need less equipment for the news broadcasts.

They were all head coaches in the NFL. Tim Tibesar is not. Steve Spurrier had about 20 years experience as a head coach, most at the college level, before trying the pros. That was his only NFL coaching experience. Nick Saban had about 10 years of experience as a head coach in college before his brief time in the pros. At least he had some NFL experience before becoming a head coach. Pete Carroll had a second attempt as an NFL head coach before he went to the college level. None of these are similar to Tim Tibesar leaving the NFL after 1 year as an assistant. At least try to compare similar cases.

I went back and checked the 990 from the other thread. The $4,000,000+ was assets, the form listed $0 for liabilities. After looking at it closer, it probably is not for the Betty, it must be a separate 501©3. So I don't know if they still owe any money on the Betty or not.

Which is why I also said that you would need to contact someone at REA, or did you forget that part? You seem to miss some of those details. The 990 isn't set up to give specifics on how much is given to a specific entity, although sometimes those details are revealed in the attached schedules. That is up to the organization and the people that are filling out the forms. They can decide how much detail to put into the form. The 990 is a generic form used by thousands of non-profits around the country. That's why they don't have a line that says "Money given to UND Athletics". You would be better off being a tax accountant to understand the forms rather than an attorney. Accountants fill out the forms. The information is there, you just need help separating it from all of the other information. Of course you always want someone else to find the answers for you rather than you going and asking questions of the people that might actually know something.

First Head Coaching Position Mike Smith - Atlanta Falcons John Harbaugh - Baltimore Ravens Ron Rivera - Carolina Panthers Marvin Lewis - Cincinnati Bengals Rob Chudzinski - Cleveland Browns Jason Garrett - Dallas Cowboys John Fox - Carolina Panthers, currently coach of the Denver Broncos Jim Schwartz - Detroit Lions Mike McCarthy - Green Bay Packers Gary Kubiak - Houston Texans Chuck Pagano - Indianapolis Colts Gus Bradley - Jacksonville Jaguars Andy Reid - Philadelphia Eagles, currently coach of the Kansas City Chiefs Joe Philbin - Miami Dolphins Bill Belichick - Cleveland Browns, currently coach of the New England Patriots Sean Payton - New Orleans Saints Rex Ryan - New York Jets Dennis Allen - Oakland Raiders Mike Tomlin - Pittsburgh Steelers Mike McCoy - San Diego Chargers Pete Carroll - New York Jets, currently Seattle Seahawks after several stops Jeff Fisher - Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans, currently St. Louis Rams Mike Munchak - Tennessee Titans Mike Shanahan - Los Angeles Raiders, currently Washington Redskins after a few stops 24 out of 32 current head coaches in the NFL had no head coaching experience at any other level. 18 out of the 32 are currently in their first head coaching position. The normal path for an NFL head coach is to start as an assistant coach in college, move on to an assistant position in the NFL, be a coordinator in the NFL and then become a head coach. If Tim Tibesar has aspirations of becoming an NFL head coach he will stay in the NFL. This is his first year in the league.

The timing was definitely bad. Personally, I don't think it would have helped much to start raising the fee. As the price went up, the number of users would naturally go down. It was already about as high as I was willing to pay for the convenience. If my estimates are close, they would have had to add another $3-4 per person for the shuttle. A family of 4 would have had to pay another $12 per game. There would have been outrage about that also. The only way I see it coming back is if REA (or some sponsor) underwrites the service.

I'm pretty sure that they borrowed money to build the Betty. I think it was on another thread that someone posted a link to the 990 for the Betty. When I glanced at it I thought that it looked like they still owe more than $4,000,000. But that wasn't the reason I was looking at the form so I can't be sure if I read that correctly.

I know that the subject of a ramp has come up before and I'm sure that it would be popular. But I don't know if they have enough events to make it pay. Between hockey games and concerts there are probably 25 to 30 events a year where they would need the parking space. Say they have 400 spots in the ramp. Charge $10 per spot, that totals about $100-125,000 per year. Some of that revenue would go to pay employees. That probably isn't enough to pay for the debt service on building the structure. They would need to have more events where they would have 6,000 or more people to make it pay for itself.

I never said it wasn't valuable to people that used it. I enjoyed using it when I didn't have better options. For instance, it was better than parking behind Tabula even though it was double the price. My point is that I don't blame UND for stopping the service if they were losing money on it. I don't believe that UND should have to subsidize a service for a selected few. And there must not have been enough people using it if they were losing money. If they were making money on the service I'm sure that they would have been happy to keep it going.

Getting back to the actual topic, how about another parking option. According to the web site, UND sells season parking passes at the Wellness Center for $175. The distance from there to the Student entrance at REA is pretty close to what someone would walk from a parked vehicle to the shuttle, plus from the shuttle to the front door at REA. The advantage is that most of the walk would be protected from a north wind by the building. In addition, yesterday I was told by a student that you can park in that lot for $10 per game. They saw signs up as they walked to the game on Saturday. You should probably call the Parking Office to verify that, but if it is true it provides the same basic parking opportunity as formerly parking in the ramp and taking a shuttle. It is also similar to parking in any of the REA lots along Columbia Road without having to pay the higher Champions Club fees. And to put a little perspective into the discussion, parking at the south end of the Tabula lot is about the same distance is parking at the very south end of the Alerus Center parking lot. Most of the parking used for REA events is within the same walking distance as parking at the Alerus Center for events. The main difference is that there is more parking in the medium distances at the Alerus Center.