bisonaudit
01-24-2006, 02:40 PM
Did anyone else see this or was it just me?
Was it just the graphic on the web site or did they print it that way as well?
Strictly interpreting the information presented in the table one must conclude that the 8 events listed resulted in almost $445 billion in revenue for the year. Exxon Mobil, now apparently the second largest company in the world, did a paltry $300 billion in business over the same period.
Ok, so they messed up the caption, it should have read’ thousands’ instead of ‘millions’.
Now lets look at the NDSU v. SDSU football game. Assuming they intended ‘thousands’ the Dome took in a little over $18 million in revenue for one game. Assuming a packed house of 20,000, that’s $900 in revenue per ticket holder. Sorry, that doesn’t pass the smell test either. Either the graphic is wrong or the folks from the Red River Valley Fair are keeping the books at the Dome too.
Finally, the graph depicting the Dome’s historical net income trend looks very nice. Unfortunately, they call the graph ‘Revenue’ not ‘Net Income.’ These are two completely different things and the terms cannot be used interchangeably. Revenue to Forum Communications would be the $1.25 I pay for the Sunday edition. Net Income to Forum Communications would be that $1.25 less all the costs associated with running the company.
I’d suggest including rudimentary math and finance education for writers, editors, and graphics personnel, or identifying someone with suitable knowledge to review financial information prior to publication. These sorts of errors are completely unreasonable and they harm the Forum's credibility.
Was it just the graphic on the web site or did they print it that way as well?
Strictly interpreting the information presented in the table one must conclude that the 8 events listed resulted in almost $445 billion in revenue for the year. Exxon Mobil, now apparently the second largest company in the world, did a paltry $300 billion in business over the same period.
Ok, so they messed up the caption, it should have read’ thousands’ instead of ‘millions’.
Now lets look at the NDSU v. SDSU football game. Assuming they intended ‘thousands’ the Dome took in a little over $18 million in revenue for one game. Assuming a packed house of 20,000, that’s $900 in revenue per ticket holder. Sorry, that doesn’t pass the smell test either. Either the graphic is wrong or the folks from the Red River Valley Fair are keeping the books at the Dome too.
Finally, the graph depicting the Dome’s historical net income trend looks very nice. Unfortunately, they call the graph ‘Revenue’ not ‘Net Income.’ These are two completely different things and the terms cannot be used interchangeably. Revenue to Forum Communications would be the $1.25 I pay for the Sunday edition. Net Income to Forum Communications would be that $1.25 less all the costs associated with running the company.
I’d suggest including rudimentary math and finance education for writers, editors, and graphics personnel, or identifying someone with suitable knowledge to review financial information prior to publication. These sorts of errors are completely unreasonable and they harm the Forum's credibility.