Here’s an athletic director, from Washington State University, who has led his program to a $6.6 million deficit. Some of that deficit is because they had to hire the incredibly spectacular, incredibly expensive Mike Leach (details here).
Year before they only lost about a million. They’ve now lost over six million. Oh, and under Leach this year the team bit the big one.
So what can Bill Moos say?
He can explain to the idiots – and I’m sure they’ll buy it – that he’s a visionary. He sees into the future. He makes plans for the ages. The multimillion dollar coach with the very bad reputation; all the new athletic buildings the school can’t afford?
Moos said he has based many financial decisions on a massive increase in future television revenue resulting from the creation of the Pac-12 Networks this year.
Moos has estimated each Pac-12 school could eventually bring in more than $20 million a year from the Pac-12 Networks. For the coming fiscal year, however, Moos estimates schools could net anywhere from “zero” to several million dollars, due to start-up costs and the failure to reach agreement on contracts with some carriers (most notably DirecTV).
Asked about the status of negotiations with DirecTV, Moos said, “I think both sides are standing pretty firm. We’ve got to be patient, and we are.”
Moos said it will take “at least two or three years” before the Cougars might turn a profit again. The Cougars plan to reduce debt during the current fiscal year, Moos said, with the aid of increased income from football season ticket sales, Cougar Athletic Fund donations and the suites and other premium seating areas added to Martin Stadium.
You do wonder whether the Washington State folks have ever met a huckster before, the sort of person who promises massive returns if they’ll just wait a bit, but while they’re waiting they’re going to need to give him all their money.
December 26th, 2012 at 9:27AM
I like this part:
“‘We couldn’t wait a year because he (Leach) wasn’t going to be around,’ Moos said Wednesday.”
This seems somewhat unlikely, since he (Leach) was fired by Texas Tech in 2009.
December 26th, 2012 at 9:46AM
JND: Yes, I liked that part too. It makes Leach sound like quite the catch — even though he’s so – er – controversial that most programs avoid him like the plague.
December 26th, 2012 at 4:35PM
So, since Moos is so confident about the future, surely he’d be happy to renegotiate his contract to provide for a modest base salary…say, whatever the average for a brand-new assistant professor at Washington State might be…with a substantial upside in the form of a big % of profit generated by the program above an agreed target?