Today, in adventures in athletics administration

If you can’t hit folks in the wallet voluntarily, it’s good to have a backup checkbook that’s mandatory.

ECU students could face a new student fee of $75.00 a year to help fund the athletics department.

… Senior Associate Athletics Director Lee Workman says the fee increase will help offset an athletics budget shortfall for the 2019-2020 school year projected at $2 to $3 million.

Gosh, how could that have happened, Lee?

He says that declining football ticket sales have contributed to the shortfall. Workman says, “We’ve had some declining revenue, to be honest, over the last couple of years, so that’s added to the financial strain. And so while we continue to build those back, and we will, that’s our plan. Student fee is a part of that as well as other funding sources we’ll be looking at.”

He’s got a plan, kids.  That’s gotta help, right?  What do you figure the odds are that if, by some miracle, the department gets itself back in the black some day, it’ll drop the new fee?

Chalk it up as an educational experience.

22 Comments

Filed under It's Just Bidness

22 responses to “Today, in adventures in athletics administration

  1. Uglydawg

    Toll booths tend to be permanent structures.

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  2. TXBaller

    *** advisory – you will not like this
    3 = Langley/Miller/Evans
    He is not ready for the big stage
    Where is Stokes? BTP!

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  3. Russ

    Man, this really chaps me now that I have a kid approaching college age. Smaller schools shouldn’t be trying to play in the deep end, and larger schools should have the money flowing the other way. That $32M they want to give Gus would pay a lot of “student activity fees”.

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  4. 81Dog

    Tax and spend ADs should try living within their means instead of squeezing students. Maybe they figure student loans or HOPE cover it, who’s really going to notice? A little old school fiscal discipline might be useful, if that is not too much to request.

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  5. This is why we need a separation of education and state. Since that’s too radical of an idea for those educated in state schools (which is most everyone), then perhaps a separation of athletics and state would be a good place to start.

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    • Er, wut?

      Vanderbilt:

      Undergraduate Students:

      For the fall and spring semesters, all undergraduate students must pay an activity fee of $289.00 each semester.

      The Activity Fee for undergraduates covers: Issues of Versus, The Vanderbilt Review, and other VSC, Inc., publications (excluding the Vanderbilt Hustler, which receives no activity fees); Admission to Office of Dean of Students programs at special student rates, and use of Sarratt facilities; admission on a seat-available basis to home football and basketball games and to other varsity athletic events; and admission, subject to space availability, to programs or events sponsored by student organizations that are funded by student activities fees, a complete list of which is maintained by the Office of Student Activities.

      What “state” is involved with that?

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  6. Go Dawgs!

    Yeah, I’m sure they’ll knock that student activity fee back down after the season ticket sales go back up. Honestly, I’m still a little surprised that they took the toll booths off of GA 400, which is the exception rather than the rule. When the public is used to paying a fee, you certainly don’t do away with it.

    And, it may be a long time until ECU gets those ticket sales back anyway. That school never should have fired Ruffin McNeill.

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    • PTC DAWG

      Traffic was much better with the tolls in place on 400, I wish they had raised them.

      Thankfully, I don’t have to go up that dreaded road too often.

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    • Gaskilldawg

      The parkway onto St. Simons Island was once a toll highway. State took those roll booths down quite a few years ago, too.

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  7. Geezus

    Living in the ECU footprint, I can say that when the university replaces Scotty Montgomery with a coach that can win, the stands will be full. The alumni here are disgusted with the way the university treated Ruffin McNiell.

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    • WarD Eagle

      Came here to post this.

      McNeil is a good guy and a good coach. They ran him off to hire Montgomery who has been a flop. They hired Jeff Lebo who had just been fired at AU for woefully underperforming.

      ECU can pack the stadium with a good team. TV $ is a different concern.

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  8. JCDawg83

    My issue is with the structure of college athletics and the athletic associations wanting their cake and eating it too. The athletic associations are set up to get around those pesky university and govt rules on compensation and other financial issues. However, when the athletic association revenues fall short they have no problem taking money from students without giving them any choice as to whether or not they want to pay for athletics. The donors and ticket buying public at least have the option of not paying for athletics they don’t want to see. The university is a co conspirator in this scheme as well since they collect the fee and hand it over to the athletic association.

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  9. AusDawg85

    I wonder what percent of salary cut for the athletics department would have equaled the student fee increase?

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  10. DawgPhan

    Does UGA still collect a student fee for athletics?

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  11. NCDawg

    Don’t forget to increase them more when we start paying student athletes.

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  12. JCDawg83

    The recreation fee is no problem to me, students get to use Ramsey and other facilities because of that fee. The athletic fee does offset ticket prices to all sporting events so it is a good deal if a student goes to games. I think the athletic fee should be optional. Not all students care anything at all about sports.

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