ShortSideOption
Guest
I am intersted to get peoples thoughts on this. Nebraska currently is one of the few athletic departments in the country that generate a profit in 3 sports (football, mens basketball, volleyball), could our baseball team ever turn a profit? If so, what would be the biggest factor?
What got me thinking about this is seeing how teams like LSU continuously turn out a profit from their baseball team. While I understand that the climate is much more conducive to getting butts in the seats, could Nebraska ever get to that point with their baseball team? And further, what would it take? It's no secret that LSU is a college baseball power, but besides being better, is there anything they could do to help get them in the black? Would taking more local kids help? That is an area that I think Erstad can do better in, but also think he did that very well in the 2018 class. Is there anything they lack for a gameday environment that could help?
The problem with baseball right now, is that it is 750k in the hole, even while they get a bargain out of their baseball coach by paying him just around 200k. Which adds another dynamic to getting in the black. You can't get rid of a coach that has given you your only conference title in the last decade out of your Big 3 sports, has won a conference coach of the year, and done that all as recently as less than 2 years ago when you are getting him for 500k less than the going rate.
In 2017 (the year we brought a trophy to Lincoln for the first time in over a decade), we were 6th in the country for average attendance. The problem is, you have usually 7-10 games less than the southern schools.
https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Issues/2017/06/02/Research-and-Ratings/NCAA-baseball.aspx
So that takes you to the corporate donors and boosters to get you there. What would it take to have a few companies pay the 20k-25k per year to get those all sold out?
Long question short, do you think we could ever get there? We have to make up 750k that we are in the hole while we already have a bargain price on a Conference Coach of the Year and already have extremely good attendance numbers.
What got me thinking about this is seeing how teams like LSU continuously turn out a profit from their baseball team. While I understand that the climate is much more conducive to getting butts in the seats, could Nebraska ever get to that point with their baseball team? And further, what would it take? It's no secret that LSU is a college baseball power, but besides being better, is there anything they could do to help get them in the black? Would taking more local kids help? That is an area that I think Erstad can do better in, but also think he did that very well in the 2018 class. Is there anything they lack for a gameday environment that could help?
The problem with baseball right now, is that it is 750k in the hole, even while they get a bargain out of their baseball coach by paying him just around 200k. Which adds another dynamic to getting in the black. You can't get rid of a coach that has given you your only conference title in the last decade out of your Big 3 sports, has won a conference coach of the year, and done that all as recently as less than 2 years ago when you are getting him for 500k less than the going rate.
In 2017 (the year we brought a trophy to Lincoln for the first time in over a decade), we were 6th in the country for average attendance. The problem is, you have usually 7-10 games less than the southern schools.
https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Issues/2017/06/02/Research-and-Ratings/NCAA-baseball.aspx
So that takes you to the corporate donors and boosters to get you there. What would it take to have a few companies pay the 20k-25k per year to get those all sold out?
Long question short, do you think we could ever get there? We have to make up 750k that we are in the hole while we already have a bargain price on a Conference Coach of the Year and already have extremely good attendance numbers.