Adding Sports?

tim_redd

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I didn't see it mentioned much but is Men's Tennis a realistic low cost option? It's a Big 12 sport, practice facility in place and the recent success of the women's program it seems like the only realistic option for men's athletics. What would it cost, a couple coaches and travel?

For the women it seems like wrestling is the up-and-coming sport so could definitely see that happen and the big 12 sponsor it in the not-too-distant future. Would be good to get the program established.
 

NWICY

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Great question... Honest answer is I don't know. I'd rather have them build a new baseball/softball complex close to CyTown (vs pave the grass parking lots). I'd love to hang out at CyTown and have a few cold ones and then walk across our legendary bridge as I go watch some ISU Baseball in our new Baseball/Softball complex. A guy can dream can't he :)
The softball complex isn't that old over by Towers and is pretty darn nice at least it looks like it driving by.
 

PickSix

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After reading the first few pages of this thread:

How are people still using weather as an excuse not to bring baseball back? Is it really THAT much warmer in Provo, Cincinnati, Manhattan, Lawrence, and Morgantown? All of which will have Big 12 baseball teams.

Fact of the matter is that it's embarrassing to be the only team in the conference that doesn't play one of America's most popular sports.

If all of our peers can make baseball work financially, then I don't see why we couldn't either if we wanted to.

If you want to make the case not to bring it back, that's fine. There are arguments to be made. Just don't hide behind any of the above lame excuses imo.
 
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Mr.G.Spot

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After reading the first few pages of this thread:

How are people still using weather as an excuse not to bring baseball back? Is it really THAT much warmer in Provo, Cincinnati, Manhattan, Lawrence, and Morgantown? All of which will have Big 12 baseball teams.

Fact of the matter is that it's embarrassing to be the only team in the conference that doesn't play one of America's most popular sports.

If all of our peers can make baseball work financially, then I don't see why we couldn't either if we wanted to.

If you want to make the case not to bring it back, that's fine. There are arguments to be made. Just don't hide behind any of the above lame excuses imo.
Wow. We don't have baseball because there is no cash flow to support this program.
 

cyclone13

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Wow. We don't have baseball because there is no cash flow to support this program.

Yes and I don't get why it's embarrassing not to have a baseball program. Other than to satisfy some people's obsession with bringing it back. The ship has sailed long time ago. It doesn't make sense financially and only takes away resources from FB and MBB.
 

Mr.G.Spot

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Yes and I don't get why it's embarrassing not to have a baseball program. Other than to satisfy some people's obsession with bringing it back. The ship has sailed long time ago. It doesn't make sense financially and only takes away resources from FB and MBB.
It's more embarrassing to have the second highest number of grads in the big12 and have the fewest contributors to the Cyclone Club.

All of these posts are a result of this fact.
 
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VeloClone

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After reading the first few pages of this thread:

How are people still using weather as an excuse not to bring baseball back? Is it really THAT much warmer in Provo, Cincinnati, Manhattan, Lawrence, and Morgantown? All of which will have Big 12 baseball teams.

Fact of the matter is that it's embarrassing to be the only team in the conference that doesn't play one of America's most popular sports.

If all of our peers can make baseball work financially, then I don't see why we couldn't either if we wanted to.

If you want to make the case not to bring it back, that's fine. There are arguments to be made. Just don't hide behind any of the above lame excuses imo.
It is warmer* in Lawrence and Manhattan but let's see how they have done in the Big 12. KSU has 10 appearances in the tourney (top 8 teams) and KU has 9. That is far fewer than every other team that has been in the conference for the full duration of the Big 12 play and only more than short-timers TCU and WVU (5 each).

*Average daily highs (Beginning Feb, End Feb, End March)
Ames.........31...40...55
Lawrence....42...52...62
Manhattan...42...52...62

Yeah, the end of March and April probably aren't a huge deal on those temps but to be training and starting the season when the average high daily temp is below freezing is a big deal.
 

alarson

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After reading the first few pages of this thread:

How are people still using weather as an excuse not to bring baseball back? Is it really THAT much warmer in Provo, Cincinnati, Manhattan, Lawrence, and Morgantown? All of which will have Big 12 baseball teams.

Ames averages 10+ degrees colder than those places in average highs in february when the season starts. Those programs also have to start their first couple weeks on the road, but if our softball program is any indicator, we'd have to stay on the road a couple weeks longer than them.

Fact of the matter is that it's embarrassing to be the only team in the conference that doesn't play one of America's most popular sports.
Baseball is well behind football and basketball in popularity and probably will get passed up by soccer eventually the way things have been going. Its losing popularity year over year. Not exactly a great investment to jump into for a cash-strapped program

If all of our peers can make baseball work financially, then I don't see why we couldn't either if we wanted to.

If you want to make the case not to bring it back, that's fine. There are arguments to be made. Just don't hide behind any of the above lame excuses imo.

Are they actually making it work? Does it drive attendance or is it just a money sink? Do they generally have competitive success? Maybe they should be cancelling their programs.
 

GoldCy

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WBB operates at a huge loss. They probably don't bring in enough $$ to pay the lowest staff member. You can't judge any sport on $$ it brings in except FB/MBB.
The financial data used to be available on the web site but Jamie ended that. I am sure it's available somewhere. I'll let someone else find it. I am too busy being retired.
 
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Mr.G.Spot

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WBB operates at a huge loss. They probably don't bring in enough $$ to pay the lowest staff member. You can't judge any sport on $$ it brings in except FB/MBB.
The financial data used to be available on the web site but Jamie ended that. I am sure it's available somewhere. I'll let someone else find it. I am too busy being retired.
Men's BB, the last time looked, was barely breakeven. FB and TV money pay for everything.
 

Mr.G.Spot

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After reading the first few pages of this thread:

How are people still using weather as an excuse not to bring baseball back? Is it really THAT much warmer in Provo, Cincinnati, Manhattan, Lawrence, and Morgantown? All of which will have Big 12 baseball teams.

Fact of the matter is that it's embarrassing to be the only team in the conference that doesn't play one of America's most popular sports.

If all of our peers can make baseball work financially, then I don't see why we couldn't either if we wanted to.

If you want to make the case not to bring it back, that's fine. There are arguments to be made. Just don't hide behind any of the above lame excuses imo.
Who makes BB work financially? Nobody makes money at BB. Their AD allocates TV and FB money to whatever sports they feel they can have success in while complying with Title 9.
 

2speedy1

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WBB operates at a huge loss. They probably don't bring in enough $$ to pay the lowest staff member. You can't judge any sport on $$ it brings in except FB/MBB.
The financial data used to be available on the web site but Jamie ended that. I am sure it's available somewhere. I'll let someone else find it. I am too busy being retired.

Men's BB, the last time looked, was barely breakeven. FB and TV money pay for everything.

 

JCity

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No sports will add revenue so I'd prefer we don't add any. If I had to pick one I'd say women's wrestling.
 
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tube1

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From the link...

"On the money side of things, the Iowa State football program brought home $52,099,696 in revenue and paid out $29,422,443 in total expenses. On the plus side, this means that the program made $22,677,253 in net profit for the school. That’s much better than a loss."

Who writes these things? They say profits are better than losses? Hmmm.
 
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Chapanye

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Apologies for resurrecting a dead thread, but was watching the Frozen Four this weekend and couldn't help but think that hockey at ISU would be awesome and, as the sport gets more popular in the state / area, a pretty solid cultural fit.

You could put together a hell of a team just recruiting the kids that the Gophers don't want - I'd have to think that ISU would have a lot more to offer a kid from the suburban Twin Cities than Bemidji State, UM-Duluth, or St. Cloud State, and those teams routinely make the tournament. You'd have to pump some $ into the arena, to be sure, but at least you wouldn't have to start totally from scratch.

Big 10 hockey also currently has 7 members - just saying
 

BigTurk

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Apologies for resurrecting a dead thread, but was watching the Frozen Four this weekend and couldn't help but think that hockey at ISU would be awesome and, as the sport gets more popular in the state / area, a pretty solid cultural fit.

You could put together a hell of a team just recruiting the kids that the Gophers don't want - I'd have to think that ISU would have a lot more to offer a kid from the suburban Twin Cities than Bemidji State, UM-Duluth, or St. Cloud State, and those teams routinely make the tournament. You'd have to pump some $ into the arena, to be sure, but at least you wouldn't have to start totally from scratch.

Big 10 hockey also currently has 7 members - just saying
I agree about hockey. No brained in my opinion, but if we add sports, and to quote Homer Simpson, I vote for “foxey boxing, hot oil wrestling, and such and such.”


I kid I kid.
 
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cyclone13

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Apologies for resurrecting a dead thread, but was watching the Frozen Four this weekend and couldn't help but think that hockey at ISU would be awesome and, as the sport gets more popular in the state / area, a pretty solid cultural fit.

You could put together a hell of a team just recruiting the kids that the Gophers don't want - I'd have to think that ISU would have a lot more to offer a kid from the suburban Twin Cities than Bemidji State, UM-Duluth, or St. Cloud State, and those teams routinely make the tournament. You'd have to pump some $ into the arena, to be sure, but at least you wouldn't have to start totally from scratch.

Big 10 hockey also currently has 7 members - just saying
Will it make money though?
We definitely won’t pay the HC at Bob Motzko’s level (660k at Minnesota) but I can imagine it’ll be at least 200-300k.
 

HawaiiClone

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Baseball at ISU is dead.

CyTown is being built to fund Scheman and other projects the AD got stuck with a long time ago, that they don't want to pull resources from the AD budget to fund. So don't look at CyTown as an extra revenue source, it is a Net Zero to actual athletics budget. Or in my mind it. Now if that end up producing millions of dollars per year, then I am sure the AD will allocate fund appropriately, but first and foremost it is revenue that will be used on things in the AD budget that aren't actually athletic facilities/sports.
I didn't realize that the Athletic Department operated the entire IS Ctr until just now. Seems like instead having Facilities Planning and Management run everything but Hilton would make it a more campus wide effort. Also, this might help university leaders view the IS Ctr and CyTown as more of an area of campus that is important to a wider range of the university community. And the AD could then be more focused on running athletics.
 

HawaiiClone

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Women's wrestling or field hockey and if there is a team sport for men, I'd go with soccer. This would seem like one of the more financially doable options. There's a movement to make men's soccer both a fall and spring sport that is still being worked on, but in the meantime some colleges are creating more intense spring competition on their own: https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/col...-leagues-are-changing-college-soccer_aid51936
 
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