UND athletic dept. 700,000 in the red

[Tatanka]

This particular set of data directly refutes (and is the first time I remember seeing it in print) deliberate misinformation spread during NDSU's move to Division I, and uN_'s subsequent coattail ride.

[tony]

Nice to see that both schools are doing OK.

Good article by the way. Without the numbers out there, people would continue to make up their own. For example, Heitkamp and The Small Moon That Orbits The Minot Dairy Queen.

Anyway, I'm guessing that NDSU's budget shortfall is from having to buy so much championship gear.

[Bison Dan]

Good to have the numbers out there. Both schools are doing pretty well.

I'm guessing that NDSU's budget shortfall is from having to buy so much championship gear.

I think the rings the last 2 years did it!

[Tatanka]

Good to have the numbers out there. Both schools are doing pretty well.

I'm guessing that NDSU's budget shortfall is from having to buy so much championship gear.

This is also true.

[HerdBot]

Because its fun to laugh at their dumpster fires?

I dont mind jabs but this should be about our obvious strength.
Take the high road. My suggestion

[Tatanka]

And over the last 5 years they have shown a average profit of $18K (including the shortfall in 2012) vs $13K for NDSU. Athletics budgeting is a shell game and inconsistent from year to year.

You can do better than this, can't you?

[Mayville Bison]

And over the last 5 years they have shown a average profit of $18K (including the shortfall in 2012) vs $13K for NDSU. Athletics budgeting is a shell game and inconsistent from year to year.

Honest question here, not trying to make a jab. Is the shortage because of travel costs associated to the move to the Big Fluffy?

[Hammersmith]

And over the last 5 years they have shown a average profit of $18K (including the shortfall in 2012) vs $13K for NDSU. Athletics budgeting is a shell game and inconsistent from year to year.

To some extent you are correct, but there was a drop of over $800k in a single year. That's more than a minor swing.

There's some info from the USA Today site that should be concerning to UND fans. Some of us have said UND is going to have a hard time funding its transition the same way NDSU did and the numbers are backing it up. We said from the beginning that UND doesn't have room to grow in the ticket sales department. The bulk of the money comes from hockey, and those tickets are already priced high and the Ralph is sold out; there's nowhere to go. And since your priority seating is tied to hockey, that makes things really tough. On the other hand, NDSU's bread and butter is football. We had significant room to grow attendance, our ticket prices were relatively low when we started, and the priority seating fees were low and underutilized. That gave us a bunch of room for growth.

The numbers back this up. Since 2005, ticket revenue at UND has grown by about 23%; at NDSU it's grown by 240%. UND's contributions have done better since 2005(68% vs. 27%), but NDSU has a massive bump in contributions just before 2005 that isn't shown(went from about $700k to $2.1M). With the continued increase in travel costs due to the Big Sky, the increase in coaching salaries UND will need to be competitive, and the potential loss of revenue if the new hockey conference doesn't work out as well as they hope, I'd be worried if I were a fan. If they don't want to become Idaho State, the money's going to have to come from somewhere.

[nodak651]

We said from the beginning that UND doesn't have room to grow in the ticket sales department. The bulk of the money comes from hockey, and those tickets are already priced high and the Ralph is sold out; there's nowhere to go.

Football, Basketball, Volleyball... all can pretty much double.

[abc123]

To some extent you are correct, but there was a drop of over $800k in a single year. That's more than a minor swing.

There's some info from the USA Today site that should be concerning to UND fans. Some of us have said UND is going to have a hard time funding its transition the same way NDSU did and the numbers are backing it up. We said from the beginning that UND doesn't have room to grow in the ticket sales department. The bulk of the money comes from hockey, and those tickets are already priced high and the Ralph is sold out; there's nowhere to go. And since your priority seating is tied to hockey, that makes things really tough. On the other hand, NDSU's bread and butter is football. We had significant room to grow attendance, our ticket prices were relatively low when we started, and the priority seating fees were low and underutilized. That gave us a bunch of room for growth.

The numbers back this up. Since 2005, ticket revenue at UND has grown by about 23%; at NDSU it's grown by 240%. UND's contributions have done better since 2005(68% vs. 27%), but NDSU has a massive bump in contributions just before 2005 that isn't shown(went from about $700k to $2.1M). With the continued increase in travel costs due to the Big Sky, the increase in coaching salaries UND will need to be competitive, and the potential loss of revenue if the new hockey conference doesn't work out as well as they hope, I'd be worried if I were a fan. If they don't want to become Idaho State, the money's going to have to come from somewhere.

Hockey will be fine, there continues to be a wait list for tickets and single game prices actually bumped up this year and they will still average about the same amount of fans. Staying in the WCHA would have led to more problems as the balance of power shifted to smaller/lower revenue schools when previously it was even enough that neither side was able to rock the boat. Related to travel, the Great West spanned from California to New Jersey, I don't think there is much of a bump. Plus non-revenue sports aren't on the road as much due to more conference games which were near impossible to get during transition.

I'm not going to start overreacting over one year of results for the same reason that I don't think a 6 figure profit in 4 of the previous 5 years was that big of deal. Athletics department funding and accounting is not an exact science and data isn't released to show what it is made up of. If there are multiple years in a row of a significant deficit, I will then start to be concerned.