NO FANS AT CYCLONE GAMES?
- Thread starter iowa_wildcat
- Start date
Sorry, are you saying that there wouldn't be fans at MBB, or that the season wouldn't happen? I thought you were saying that you thought they would cancel the MBB season if there are no fans at football games.
I'm well aware of the reasons why being outside in warmer weather reduces your chances of contracting COVID based on everything we know regarding transmission.
I found the 2018 ISU Athletics revenue (income) statement. This is for all sports. The numbers, rounded to the nearest 1M, in order were:
Media Rights 28M, contributions 21M, ticket Sales 16 M, NCAA and Conference Distributions 12M, other 4M, student fees, parking and concessions, licensing all 2M and Bowl game 1M.
Athletics is a roughly $90 million dollar budget. If you think they're going to give up ~7% of the endowment to fund athletics, I'm not sure what to tell you.
I'm not even sure the endowment is that high. It was $1.1B at the close of last fiscal year and the market is roughly in the same place today. So that ~7% is more like 8%.
Now, if there truly are no athletics in 2020-21, some sizable chunk of expenses also vanish for the year, which reduces the burden. No travel costs, no gameday operations costs, etc. So the real dollar amount is less than $90M. Still, are they going to give up, say, 4% of the endowment to pay Matt Campbell and Steve Prohm not to coach? Of course not.
I don't know what percentage of the endowment is locked in due to donor restrictions, but I'm guessing you don't either. It's just not as simple as looking at a large dollar amount and saying "there's enough there." Nor does any of this address whatever shortfalls there might be on the (much, much, much larger) academic and research side of the university.
At the end you are correct. It's way too soon to make a decision for 2 months from now. We need to proceed as if football is happening with Jamie's plan for reduced capacity. Contracts will for sure have clauses on stuff like food and drinks that can be voided if fans aren't allowed. Un-elected county officials luckily don't have the final say
I agree with everything you're saying here. But the reality is, there will be football in the fall. There will probably be fans. The cases are going to explode in the fall when students come back already. For the record I'm not sure I'll be in the stands in the fall if fans are allowed.
My apologies for any confusion. This is why real conversations need to happen in person. But I was speaking about fans. However, I think an argument could be made to cancel basketball again if we aren't comfortable with having some crowd at outdoor football games
It would appear any benefits of heat are more than offset by people’s actions - at least based on Florida, Texas and Arizona (hot places). I might be wrong, but I think the models used a 2% drop in cases, per one degree centigrade (1.8F) temperature increase. I assume that was based upon some prior history. Hard to tell if that is true as we have changed a lot of other variables. But outdoors definitely better than indoors.
Cyclone Sports Properties will have to adjust their strategy..instead of someone winning chic fil a for a year....it'll be convincing them to pony up to "save the cyclones" lol
Yeah, you have to have 14 sports to be D1. I could see us cutting some though and it would 100% be the right move.
It is interesting to think about the endowment and unrestricted funds in the endowment. I think some of it should be invaded for purposes of the University and trying to maintain programs and budges, but probably not for athletic purposes. In my opinion this is an appropriate time to use a portion of the endowment, particularly given the loss of some on-campus housing revenue, apparent decrease in enrollment which will be coming and loss of events and conferences which surprisingly bring-in a significant amount of good rental and other revenue to the University. I hope universities and colleges all across the country are considering this right now.
I mean, I completely agree, if they don't allow fans at the football games, I don't see how you can justify having fans at the basketball games either, because by any measure it's more dangerous indoors for hours at a time.
Perhaps the medical experts would be slightly more comfortable if you reduced capacity and required masks for everyone at all times -- because then you're reducing the chances of a big outbreak by a lot, which is the concern with crowds. However, it's incredibly naive to think that people would follow a mask order for a football game (they won't), and that ISU could reasonably enforce it.
I'm not sure if the data is out yet regarding crowds inside wearing masks for long periods.. it'd be great if it was as effective, but I'm not sure we know yet.
We accomplished that in one wave, yes. Now we will simultaneously be having 60k descend back on a community and live in close quarters, partying and going to bars. (While we're throwing around anecdotal evidence, I can tell you how the patio looks every weekend at AJ's Ultra Lounge.) The same students will be interacting with the community; they don't live in a bubble. They interact with people who interact with people - and not all healthcare workers are wearing masks when out in the public. So you take the same population and introduce mass sporting events in close quarters, and think that the 17 ICU beds in all of Story County will handle a huge upsurge?
And again, you're totally just avoiding the economics discussed in a verified study. Analogously - do you think it will be cheaper for ISU Athletics if there's a huge outbreak due to a football game and they get sued by thousands of fans, players, and workers? And all of this is for a grossly reduced attendance with the current plan - donors have already donated.
...You do realize that the entire city of NYC closed down, right? And most of it is still closed? If everyone 45 and younger lived in a bubble, great - but we don't. It's incredibly selfish thinking. "We'll be fine, so just do it anyway!"
It may be time for an ASPCA style commercial with Brock begging for donations and Sarah McLachlan playing the background.
Every COVID test/study is anecdotal by that definition - they all have different outcomes.
The problem is what mens sport can Iowa State cut to remain in compliance with title IX?
The idea that the Foundation money would be used to support athletics is just absurd.
I think, realistically, there will be football and fans. The right move for ISU would be to hold all classes virtually, but they are refusing (currently) to make that call because they fear it will affect tuition income. They're making decisions entirely fiscally currently. Which I understand, but find irresponsible.
