Chun’s presser
- Thread starter dgibbons
- Start date
He is good. I like him more and more all the time. Feel good about trusting him to get this done right.
Some of those guys in the press were f’n morons. In particularly the ‘contract’ guy. Must have been sanctimonious troll.
Thank you! That “contract guy” sounded like a slurring, geriatric troglodyte. Dumb ass questions, like he doesn’t understand buyout clauses at all.
He has swagger. I know we were wondering who he was when he was hired because he didn’t come from a big school, he’s earned some credit. It’d be dope he was able to lure Luke Fickell.
One of the most refreshing AD press conferences I’ve ever seen. No PC rhetoric. No excuses about the future. He knew it was coming and he didn’t try to hide it. Thanks for 8 great years. The program is in great shape and it’ll stay that way.
I also appreciated not going overboard with the platitudes/ gratitude. Thank him for what he's done and move on.
Speaking of that era, I found myself thinking about Jackie Sherrill not long after the news, since he spent a few years in Starkville after his cup of coffee on the Palouse. Wonder if he's got any motivational techniques he'd share with the Pirate.
If memory serves me correct, the buy out was much higher earlier. With each year it decreased.
2.2 million does seem a little light but Leach consistently made fools out of WSU negotiators. A bigger buyout wouldn’t really have mattered though. Mississippi State has Aflac or at least the guy that founded Aflac is a big booster. He could write a check for four or five mil without even needing to balance his checking account.
Regardless of whether he “made fools” out of our negotiators, WSU made out very well during Leach’s tenure.
Maybe not financially. Moos and Leach have left. The bills and huge debt remain.
Oh, no! Debt. Terrible. Just terrible. What will we do, besides make the payments of course?
Imagine how bad our debt would be if we had a coach winning 1-2 games a year and having the stands 30% full? Leach has offset a lot of costs by revenue generated. If we want to eliminate the debt more, maybe fans should donate more instead of griping online about it.
Absolutely true. Leach kept things at a point where football was a good enough revenue generator that the whole thing hung together. But as I said, he’s gone now. If the new guy has maybe 2 or 3 bad seasons that model falls apart. It’s really a crucial hire.
Let me take a shot at translating your post. Apologize if I guessed wrong.
I think you were trying to say that my post about debt and bills remaining after Leach and Moos left is incorrect. I guess we can agree to disagree on that. The latest info on the NCAA CAFI database is that WSU had 135 million in athletic department debt as of 2017. I doubt that number has changed much since. The same database shows 9 million or so in athletic department debt service costs. That debt and that debt service cost remains after Leach and Moos departure. That was all I was saying. Don’t see why it’s controversial at all except I understand that people are often reluctant to honestly face their debt situation.
135 million in debt would not be a big deal if we had say 100 million in athletic department revenues each year but we don’t. We have more like 60 mil. So, 15% of our revenue is currently not available to be spent on salaries and maintenance and the like. If ticket revenues and corporate sponsorship money drops because of a few years of bad football, we could find ourselves taking money from salaries and maintenance or dropping some non revenue sports to keep being able to cover debt service. Of course to stay in the league and NCAA we have to have some specified number of sports. I don’t remember what that number is.
Mississippi State also has John Grisham, who's net worth is between $250-330M. However, it's noted that Grisham is a basketball guy, not a huge football fan.
Incorrect, no. The numbers are the numbers.
The fact that that the debt and bills exist is not a problem. Thinking otherwise is silly. The debt will be serviced. WSU has over $500 million in long-term liabilities. WSU is the borrowing entity. WSU will service the debt. The fact that you are focusing on the Athletic Department rather than the University is telling. What's happened/happening is that WSU has finally invested in one of its most underfunded departments. Chronically underfunded. WSU is at the minimum for number of sports, so cutting programs will not happen.
Agree that the debt and bills are not a problem as long as we can pay them. If we start to have a decline in athletics revenue and the athletic department can no longer meet its share of the obligations, then we will have a problem.
The state legislature passed a law a year or so ago establishing that by 2024 (I think - maybe 2025) state funded universities have to quit allowing athletic department borrowing from their universities general fund to cover shortfalls in the athletic budget. It seems kind of like that bill was aimed squarely at WSU. WSU athletics has been borrowing about 7 mil a year from the general fund and owes it about 50 mil. We don’t have to pay off the 50 mil by 2024 but do have to quit borrowing from the general fund by then and begin to pay down the balance. In case you were wondering, even though they have substantially more debt than us, the UW athletic department usually turns money over to the general fund each year - in other words the athletic department makes a profit most years.
But to your larger point, yes the athletic department’s debt will get paid by the university or failing that by the state. Default is not what I’m worried about.
But if the athletic department is not able to hold up their end of the bargain by covering debt service for their bonds within their budget, we will have problem. You can expect aggrieved parties to begin extracting pounds of flesh through athletic department staff and salary cuts and other unpleasant acts. Hope we never have to find out. A multi year budget has been submitted to the state that meets the requirement for no general fund borrowing after 2024. That multi year budget assumed increasing ticket and corporate sponsorship revenues which likely implies higher ticket prices and parking fees. But if revenues plummet because the football team is Paul Wulff lousy, that multi year budget blows up and the state legislature gets mad.
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