Texas Size Money
What is your opinion of the BIG money of college athletics? This article from Texas Monthly talks about the dynasty of UT sports. It is the most profitable university in the history of USA. Do the sports help/hurt/both academia??
Last fall’s Iowa State game, in Ames, Iowa, proves the point. The day started with a bus ride to the airport on Friday morning. Chartered buses for the round-trip ran $14,419. The Continental jet carrying the team, coaching staff, and trainers cost $41,254. Once on the ground, the team checked into the West Des Moines Marriott, a three-and-a-half-star hotel, where the bill for the night was $29,460. That included the hotel’s grand ballroom, where the players were fed on Friday night and Saturday morning for $5,302.
That is just for the football team. On Saturday morning another chartered Continental jet took off for Iowa, this one carrying the band and the cheerleaders. The cost for the round-trip flight was $31,000. This group needed buses and food too, which added up to $9,580. After the game, both jets headed back to Austin. By the time their chartered buses arrived on campus, the entire group had spent exactly $140,248 in a little more than 24 hours.
via Come Early. Be Loud. Cash In.: Texas Monthly November 2008
Posted on November 12, 2008, in Daily Word. Bookmark the permalink. 5 Comments.
Robin Steele 
WoW!! I am in a bit of shock! Thats a LOT of money to go play a game of football! What a waste…….
Makes me wonder…Where does the money come from? how much is earned? donations? the parents/ students that do NOT have a full ride scholorship? Ticket sales?
Networks pay to televise the games, ticket sales, Longhorn Foundation membership (have to donate to be able to purchase season tickets), luxury box seats, anything that has UT on it that we purchase at the store…all these are part of the money making machine that is UT sports.
We can all agree that the money could be spent wisely elsewhere, but until people stop purchasing the tickets, watching the games, donating to the foundations, purchasing the clothing these expenses will continue.
Pastor, if I don’t buy my season tickets you might be out of luck next year 🙂
I do believe that the sports teams help academia, some of the same people that donate to the sports programs also do so to academic programs. Personally, I would not have donated to the academic programs if I didn’t purchase tickets. However, feel that since I’m spending on sports, I also need to give back to the academic program that helped me better myself.
When I started looking at attending a university, I looked at specific academic programs and had chosen several schools and then (selfishly) looked for the school with the best football program at the time.
Wow, Ruben, good to hear from you. Unlike you, I never participated in sports on any level or graduated from a school of higher learning. My education was self attained, for the most part, so I have a very limited knowledge of these programs. I do agree with you that the sports programs provide funding for many academic opportunities that students would not have otherwise. Sure there is waste, but this is the system that is in place. The mania that surrounds the football program provides an excitement that is very attractive to kids (and older kids also), therefore more students attend those universities that have successful programs, like Ruben did. So the program does exactly what it is intended to do-it brings in great amounts of money, which is the lifeblood of any business.
On another level, anybody who says we are out of line when we worship our God with enthusiasm has never been to a UT game when these students worship theirs
Well, we do like our football down here in the south. It is really fun to attend a game now and then. And we LOVE to say we support a team who has been the national champions. (Pride).
The sad part about it is, I do not make in one year the amount of money they spend in one weekend. I think of what all we could do for the Kingdom with that amound of money. I bet for 140,000 we could build a couple of churches in Nigeria…
absolutely absurd
That would build several very nice churches in Nigeria.