Money Games?

[NewBengFan]

I am not familiar with the inner workings of the ISU athletic department so I have a question that I hope someone could answer. With these "money games" the football team plays each year to gain hundreds of thousands of dollars, is this money being accumulated in order to upgrade some athletic facilities such as The Holt or an arena for basketball? Or is the money just enough each year to prevent a loss within the athletics department budget?

Just a curious fan looking for some insight.

 

[Skippy]

I am not familiar with the inner workings of the ISU athletic department so I have a question that I hope someone could answer. With these "money games" the football team plays each year to gain hundreds of thousands of dollars, is this money being accumulated in order to upgrade some athletic facilities such as The Holt or an arena for basketball? Or is the money just enough each year to prevent a loss within the athletics department budget?

Just a curious fan looking for some insight.

If you want more detail, NewBengalFan, go to the Idaho State Board of Education web site, then to "meeting materials," then to the February, 2014 materials. All four schools provide a very detailed report on their athletics income and expenditures every year, and it's usually at the February meeting.

Bottom line on your question is this: according to the 2014 report that ISU gave the board, game guarantees ("money games") are the fourth largest source of funding for ISU in FY2014, at $1.25 million. (This includes game guarantees for football, men's and women's basketball.). Football generated $850,000 of that money. The other higher sources of funding for the athletic program are: 1)general fund (state money) -- $2.5 M; student activity fees -- $2 M; and non-resident tuition waivers (state money) -- $1.6 M.

Put another way, out of ISU's total expenditures in FY 14 of about $12 M, a little over one-twelfth of that comes from guarantee money. ISU reported to the state board that it anticipated spending exactly what it took in in FY 14 ($12.063 M), so they wouldn't be putting anything "in the bank," so to speak, for facilities, a rainy day, a hole in the Holt Roof, etc. The athletic department did report it has about $1.5 M already in the bank, and surely some of that "reserve fund" came from guarantee games. But while $1.5 M would have built you the Minidome in 1970, today it might outfit a rest room for you.

 

[NewBengFan]

Thank you for the information skippy. I always read about the great benefits for the money games but to actually see the numbers is seems that they are actually out of necessity. Hopefully increased attendance in football and other sports that have become successful can help the program bank some money for some upgrades.