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President Kennedy Message on Athletics


fightingsioux4life

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What is the committees plan for costs that will continue to rise?  These would include retaining successful coaches, travel costs (regardless of conference), facility improvements/maintenance and increased scholarship costs.  We can't continue to "find money" just to sustain what we have in 2016.  They need to look ahead to what we want to have/be in 2020. 

That is the president and ADs challenge and i hope they are looking at this. 

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52 minutes ago, nodak651 said:

They want to keep all of the sports, but their recommendation was to cap institutional support at 7.3 million.  According to the USA today database, we are already at  $7,343,918

The Herald actually listed it as "Increase direct institutional support for UND athletics by no more than $7.3 million" which I take to mean as they are suggesting to double institutional support. State funding is being cut, so the increased institutional support will have to come from somewhere within UND (aka the academic side). I don't see that flying. Edit - If it is as Brad described, the Herald worded it poorly (big surprise!) and they must have meant they recommended leaving the institutional support the same as it was despite the state budget cuts. Point still stands about it not flying real well since it would have to come from the academic side.

They also recommended increasing student fee for athletics from $10.69 per credit hour to $14.50 per credit hour which is a 35% increase. That would increase student fees to around $4.4 million (~$1.2 million increase). Student fees are high enough right now, no need to increase them further.

If Kennedy follows through on these to the extent recommended without cutting anything on the expense side, UND would, and should, get skewered.

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1 minute ago, jdub27 said:

The Herald actually listed it as "Increase direct institutional support for UND athletics by no more than $7.3 million" which I take to mean as they are suggesting to double institutional support. State funding is being cut, so the increased institutional support will have to come from somewhere within UND (aka the academic side). I don't see that flying.

They also recommended increasing student fee for athletics from $10.69 per credit hour to $14.50 per credit hour which is a 35% increase. That would increase student fees to around $4.4 million (~$1.2 million increase). Student fees are high enough right now, no need to increase them further.

If they follow through on these to the extent recommended without cutting anything on the expense side, UND would, and should, get skewered.

Agree 100% I don't think President Kennedy will accept these recommendations in whole.

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8 minutes ago, jdub27 said:

The Herald actually listed it as "Increase direct institutional support for UND athletics by no more than $7.3 million" which I take to mean as they are suggesting to double institutional support. State funding is being cut, so the increased institutional support will have to come from somewhere within UND (aka the academic side). I don't see that flying.

They also recommended increasing student fee for athletics from $10.69 per credit hour to $14.50 per credit hour which is a 35% increase. That would increase student fees to around $4.4 million (~$1.2 million increase). Student fees are high enough right now, no need to increase them further.

If Kennedy follows through on these to the extent recommended without cutting anything on the expense side, UND would, and should, get skewered.

 

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Since I already gave my thoughts on a couple of the recommendations, I'll finish out with the list:

• Increase ticket prices by 25 percent across all sports for which tickets are required. - 25% is a little steep but ticket prices haven't increased much recently and I was surprised there wasn't any bump this year with season tickets. Season hockey tickets only cost $420/seat before donation so increasing by 25% move the price to $525. Increases in football, MBB, WBB and whatever else would be pretty minimal but you also need to be careful when raising prices without a strong demand. The big caveat with this one is whether it includes Champions Club donations or just the ticket price, which would make a huge difference.

• Increase the distribution of ticket revenue from 48 percent to 60 percent. - Not sure exactly how this contract is worded, but I actually do think that if possible, this is something that should be looked in to. I believe that UND contracts with one of the REA entities for this.

• Reduce the number of complimentary tickets. - Seems logical on the surface without actually knowing how many tickets are being comped. Likely will make a minimal impact though depending on the scenario could end in a few negatives.

• Restructure the agreements with the Ralph Engelstad Arena and the Alerus Center. - Likely easier said than done with the Alerus Center, which I think is already pretty UND friendly to begin with, especially considering the amount of time UND actually uses it. The REA is a whole separate issue and my feeling is that any gains now come at the expense of gains when UND eventually takes it over. Doesn't mean there isn't some middle ground to help out right now but likely more complex than just "restructuring".

• Add scholarships to fully fund each sport at the allotment of scholarships permitted by NCAA. - A recommendation to actually increase expenses instead of cut them. By my rough count, this would require UND to add ~25 scholarships on the men's side and ~15 on the women's side (plus FCOA as well). I actually agree with the general theory behind this but it should be done only after they have cut a handful of sports. Cut the operating expenses and move the scholarships over. If they did follow through I'm sure that imbalance wouldn't cause any Title IX angst.

• Keep all 20 sports. - I've already said my piece. What a punt.

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Why keep any of the sports on the chopping block? No one comes to UND because of any of those sports other than the athletes  themselves. Yeah these decisions are tough and can affect some student athletes but they need to be made to keep the financial health of the athletic department. We should not be keeping these sports by raising prices of other team tickets or by asking for more state funding.

these sports are a waste of money and we need to cut the fat! There is no return on investment.

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15 minutes ago, Sioux>Bison said:

Why keep any of the sports on the chopping block? No one comes to UND because of any of those sports other than the athletes  themselves. Yeah these decisions are tough and can affect some student athletes but they need to be made to keep the financial health of the athletic department. We should not be keeping these sports by raising prices of other team tickets or by asking for more state funding.

these sports are a waste of money and we need to cut the fat! There is no return on investment.

I'd bet the majority of people would agree with you, I know I'm one. Get to a realistic # (whatever the minimum is for FCS or maybe +1 of that). I'm just ready for this whole thing to be over with. I really hope Kennedy can take a step back and think about everything objectively. His statement the entire time has given me hope that at the end of this painful process, he'll make a smart decision.

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15 minutes ago, Sioux63 said:

Swimming and diving just got an e-mail that they're safe and won't be cut.  Softball was just called to an emergency meeting.  Nothing from soccer or tennis as of yet?

If S&D is safe, soccer would likely be the only other one possibly on the block until any final decisions are made on conference affiliations. Tennis is required by the Big Sky, so they are safe unless UND moves Olympic sports to the Summit. On top of that, I'd be surprised if they cut two women's sports and no men's sports, especially due to participation numbers and scholarships given out.

I still don't think this is enough and guessing there is some final decisions hinging on conference affiliations.

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10 minutes ago, supersioux said:

I do think its time to raise the ticket prices of FB, MBB, WBB and Hockey, regardless of the outcome...it's time that we fans start picking up our end of the bargin.

Three of the four are not even selling out now at current prices. 

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I found this a bit interesting.  Hadn't heard or seen it in print before.

 

"The Summit League has already scheduled a visit to the UND campus November 1st-2nd, which can be reasonably construed as “serious interest” by both parties."

 

https://letsgodu.com/2016/10/06/state-cuts-will-likely-impact-summit-league-membership/comment-page-1/

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24 minutes ago, SiouxVolley said:

As said before, tennis and softball will be cut, as they are non campus sports.  UND will go to the WAC with Idaho and the Montanas.  The WAC doesnt require those sports.

They might be cut but it will have nothing to do with the WAC, which I want to point out requires men's soccer and baseball. Pretty bold strategy for UND to cut baseball if a move to the WAC was imminent. It is almost like Ed Schafer wasn't aware of this whole WAC thing.

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1 minute ago, dmksioux said:

I found this a bit interesting.  Hadn't heard or seen it in print before.

 

"The Summit League has already scheduled a visit to the UND campus November 1st-2nd, which can be reasonably construed as “serious interest” by both parties."

 

https://letsgodu.com/2016/10/06/state-cuts-will-likely-impact-summit-league-membership/comment-page-1/

That UND article is from 2010.

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