UT Claiming A Profit From The Taxlsayer Bowl

#26
#26
The UTAD is going to try and claim as small a profit as possible so that the SEC doesn't cut down stipends. If they somehow made 500k off it, then the SEC might reduce future stipends. By claiming a meager profit it sends a message to the SEC that the stipend is appropriate.
 
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#28
#28
I don't know why so many are surprised by this. Many schools lose money on going to bowl games. A few years ago a yahoo sports article noted that Ohio State lost money the year they lost the natty to Flordia.
 
#29
#29
KBVol said:
And your travel, your luggage, your equipment, all the events and extracurricular activities and itineraries are equal to what all they did for the week? It's apples and oranges. Neither you nor I know what all was fully involved in their weeklong stay at a major event/bowl game.

Good for you that you and your wife got a great deal. It's apples and oranges to what was involved in getting an entire football team, staff and athletic department personnel to a major event.
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The fact that it was the entire team/staff/personnel group is irrelevant. The post I was responding to was suggesting an estimate *per person*. A per-person estimate does not become incommensurable solely on the basis of there being more people.

I agree that there is a lot involved in heading to a bowl game. I just wonder whether we can reasonably expect it to cost twice as much per person, relative to a trip to 2 places over 10 times further away, with stays in fantastic downtown apartments, food, passports, transportation to NYC, transportation between Paris and Rome, etc. That just strikes me as a bit much.
 
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#31
#31
TNVolunteerGrad said:
The UTAD is going to try and claim as small a profit as possible so that the SEC doesn't cut down stipends. If they somehow made 500k off it, then the SEC might reduce future stipends. By claiming a meager profit it sends a message to the SEC that the stipend is appropriate.
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Teams oftentimes lose money when they go to bowl games. It's nice that we put a little of change in the coffers this time.
 
#32
#32
KBVol said:
Teams oftentimes lose money when they go to bowl games. It's nice that we put a little of change in the coffers this time.
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Exactly, this is perfect scenario for the UTAD. Didn't lose money, and made sure the stipends for future bowl games will at least stay the same. Bowl trips are not about cost savings and penny pinching.
 
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#33
#33
Probably_in_Class said:
$3500 for a week in Jacksonville isn't unreasonable?!?! I want to party with you sometime cause you must fly private jets and get bottle service everywhere you go. That's an insane per person price for a group that large.
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They didn't go down there and lay on the beach. They also had just a little bit more luggage and equipment than your average Joe heading down for a little r and r. We also have no idea exactly how many people were included in the travel party and also don't know what other expenses were included/involved.
 
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#37
#37
UT has one of the top logistics programs in the country, and it's clear a lot of you didn't attend it. Transportation costs are always a huge expense. They had to send everything from pads to exercise bikes to giant fans down there. During a game look on the sideline at all that equipment, it was trucked down there. Also they chartered a flight, so you're paying to rent the plane, the fuel, and for the entire crew. But yea, use your Priceline rates and assume that's the cost
 
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#38
#38
Aesius said:
$700k for transportation, lodging, and meals alone blows my mind.

How many people travel as part of the official football team party? Did the entire 85-man roster make the trip? Obviously all of the coaches and support staff made it. UT athletics media crew (VFL Films) did as well. I guess in all 200 people made the trip as part of the football team travel party (not counting the band). I could be way off on that, but it seems like a fair estimate.

The flight to Jacksonville was probably $300 each way per person, so that's $120k. And they stayed for about one week, right? So we'll go with about 150 hotel rooms (some got single rooms, some shared) at maybe $200/night--that's $210k.

Meals probably average $20 per person 3x per day, so that's another $84k. Add snacks and drinks and other more expensive meals and we'll go with a total of $100k spent for food.

Bus rides to the stadium and back for practices and the game probably cost $10k total.

That's still about $450k, which is just over half of the estimated cost and leaves $250k unaccounted for. Did the coaches go wild at some strip clubs in Jacksonville after the players went to bed?

The only I see it adding up is if the actual travel party was more like 400 people and every football player's family spent the entire week in Jacksonville eating/sleeping on the UT AD's dime.
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I would guess that you're pretty much short on everything, especially transportation and food costs. As far as the travel party goes, people most often underestimate the number of support staff. Between student managers, equipment managers, medical staff, video staff (not VFL films but Harrington's crew), administrative staff, etc... it's a lot of people. Add to that all of the media relations people, broadcasting, VFL films, etc. A big event like a bowl game gives the families of coaches and administrative staff an opportunity to join, though not always as part of the official travel party (which has limitations, per SEC & NCAA). Beyond the big things (team transportation, food, lodging) there are TONS of little things that add up as well. All of the team activities, all of the facilities they use, per diem, bowl specific equipment costs, bowl gifts, travel costs for band and cheer squad... it goes on and on.

Forgot the $20 per meal.... that's a laughable amount when dealing with a football team.
 
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#39
#39
08Vol said:
UT has one of the top logistics programs in the country, and it's clear a lot of you didn't attend it. Transportation costs are always a huge expense. They had to send everything from pads to exercise bikes to giant fans down there. During a game look on the sideline at all that equipment, it was trucked down there. Also they chartered a flight, so you're paying to rent the plane, the fuel, and for the entire crew. But yea, use your Priceline rates and assume that's the cost
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But wait, but wait....there are some guys that got great deals on a Carnival cruise and they didn't pay anywhere near the "transportation costs" that Tennessee did.
 
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#40
#40
Aesius said:
Yeah, you're probably right. You would think a massive travel party like a college football team would pay less per person than the average joe when it comes to travel costs, but they probably get price gouged. A $300 plane ticket probably goes up to $500 in those circumstances, and a $300/night hotel goes up to $400/night.

I would love to see a full breakdown of how they hit $700k in costs for one week, though.
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it would actually probably go down, what hotel would not want to book the whole place for a week straight?
 
#41
#41
Aesius said:
$700k for transportation, lodging, and meals alone blows my mind.

How many people travel as part of the official football team party? Did the entire 85-man roster make the trip? Obviously all of the coaches and support staff made it. UT athletics media crew (VFL Films) did as well. I guess in all 200 people made the trip as part of the football team travel party (not counting the band). I could be way off on that, but it seems like a fair estimate.

The flight to Jacksonville was probably $300 each way per person, so that's $120k. And they stayed for about one week, right? So we'll go with about 150 hotel rooms (some got single rooms, some shared) at maybe $200/night--that's $210k.

Meals probably average $20 per person 3x per day, so that's another $84k. Add snacks and drinks and other more expensive meals and we'll go with a total of $100k spent for food.

Bus rides to the stadium and back for practices and the game probably cost $10k total.

That's still about $450k, which is just over half of the estimated cost and leaves $250k unaccounted for. Did the coaches go wild at some strip clubs in Jacksonville after the players went to bed?

The only I see it adding up is if the actual travel party was more like 400 people and every football player's family spent the entire week in Jacksonville eating/sleeping on the UT AD's dime.
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You're putting way too much thought into this. These kids get spending money for making a bowl game - provided by the university. As far as I know, all universities who make it do a bowl game do this - probably even at the D2 level to some extent. It's a little way of giving back to the guys who have been busting their butts nonstop for the better part of a year.
 
#42
#42
08Vol said:
UT has one of the top logistics programs in the country, and it's clear a lot of you didn't attend it. Transportation costs are always a huge expense. They had to send everything from pads to exercise bikes to giant fans down there. During a game look on the sideline at all that equipment, it was trucked down there. Also they chartered a flight, so you're paying to rent the plane, the fuel, and for the entire crew. But yea, use your Priceline rates and assume that's the cost
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Actually...I do have a logistics degree from the University of Tennessee. They don't really touch much on team travel expenses for bowl trips. They focus far more on isolated models dealing with price of gas for trucking hauls, etc....so...yeah.
 
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#43
#43
I don't care about the bowl money or how they spent it. I just want it to be football season again.
 
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#45
#45
Volnatic said:
Actually...I do have a logistics degree from the University of Tennessee. They don't really touch much on team travel expenses for bowl trips. They focus far more on isolated models dealing with price of gas for trucking hauls, etc....so...yeah.
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Well then why chime in and suggest that the players must've been given "copious amounts of blow" to account for the costs? If you're not certain, like pretty much none of us are, why take the side that the costs are excessive or aren't justified if that's not your expertise?
 
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#46
#46
Reading through this thread reminds me some folks never get out of the county. Right rooms are still $39 in Nutbush, TN, but they don't play many NCAA bowl games there.
 
#47
#47
Lol, I can't believe some people here suggesting that large parties would be charged more. You think hotels have leverage in a situation where the buyer is offering to rent over 100 rooms? I have no idea, personally, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if the city was paying a huge stipend, either directly to the teams, or by paying part of their fees given the short-term economic boost and the publicity.

$20/person/meal seems high to me, but I'm not a college athlete. First of all, no one drops $20 on breakfast. You can get a buffet almost anywhere for half that. I'd be surprised if the University was allowed to pick up the tab on liquor considering most players are underage.
 
#48
#48
KBVol said:
Well then why chime in and suggest that the players must've been given "copious amounts of blow" to account for the costs? If you're not certain, like pretty much none of us are, why take the side that the costs are excessive or aren't justified if that's not your expertise?
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It was a joke, which I followed up with an explanation of the fact that they likely paid more than what was estimated in the prior post. I don't believe I said that the costs were excessive in any way. You're really out to start arguments today, aren't ya?
 
#49
#49
kmkemp11 said:
Lol, I can't believe some people here suggesting that large parties would be charged more. You think hotels have leverage in a situation where the buyer is offering to rent over 100 rooms? I have no idea, personally, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if the city was paying a huge stipend, either directly to the teams, or by paying part of their fees given the short-term economic boost and the publicity.

$20/person/meal seems high to me, but I'm not a college athlete. First of all, no one drops $20 on breakfast. You can get a buffet almost anywhere for half that. I'd be surprised if the University was allowed to pick up the tab on liquor considering most players are underage.
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I've worked for companies that allowed me $150 per person when entertaining for dinner.... not saying they were given $150 per player for dinner, just giving a little context. I can assure you, those boys on average ate waaayyyy more than $20 worth of food for dinner and likely for lunch as well. Those are some big ol' boys downing thousands of calories at both lunch and dinner.
 
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#50
#50
Volnatic said:
It was a joke, which I followed up with an explanation of the fact that they likely paid more than what was estimated in the prior post. I don't believe I said that the costs were excessive in any way. You're really out to start arguments today, aren't ya?
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Apologies, not trying to start an argument, just a little debate. I just assumed you were implying the costs were excessive when you referenced copious amounts of blow.
 
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