Tournament travel costs

There is a release on the NCAA website that bemoans the rising cost of fuels which has made them go over budget for Championship Tournament costs.


the NCAA News- Sept 17

My favorite part is here.

Projections indicate that charter costs could double or even triple during the next 18 months.

In response, the national office assembled an internal staff group to develop recommendations to alleviate some of the budget strain resulting from increased travel costs and to get ahead of anticipated problems created by diminished airline capacity.

I have a suggestion. If they wanted to address their budget strain, they might want to consider siting games where people would actually pay to see the games. That might help a lot with the budget.

Hmm.. anybody have an idea where that might be?

Don't you need competent finance people before you can make a rational decision about siting games where you are proven to increase your revenues?

I think you need to fix the foundation before you start wondering why the walls keep falling down...

(If you already do have competent finance people, then you've got a bigger problem than my brain is able to compute!!!)

Somewhere in the bowels of the NCAA there have to be competent finance people. They have a TV contract worth $6 billion, they didn't just stumble into it.

March Madness, Big Money

The problem is lower down the food chain. Non-revenue sports are given piddling budgets and restrictive rules so the NCAA fat cats can save the bulk of the $6 billion for more important things, like executive meetings in Hawaii and lavish cocktail parties for NCAA execs.

If they are really interested in holding the budget in check, they have the means.

I'm afraid if we're facing NCAA fat cats, we may just be stuck in the mud.

Unless someone higher up the food chain starts making some real noise, nothing is going to change, I wouldn't believe. Is there reason for a "higher up" to make noise? Then why change anything if our tournament is just peanuts?

There you go....
Insulting someone just because they are Kibbles challenged

They may be more challenged than that.................

Thanks for telling us where the money goes, Geezer. When I started reading this thread, I thought, "hmmm...how much did they make from all that March Madness every year? After all, it seems like a lot of people watch basketball."

Geezer - that cat is FAT. That changes my whole perception of the meaning of the term "fat cats".

To make a suggestion that is not totally off-the-wall, we have a Congressman in Earl Blumenauer and a Senator in Ron Wyden that have pretty significant seniority. Once the dust settles, why shouldn't they make rumblings about hearings hauling in the NCAA to explain its siting programs? They could address RPI issues at the same time, just for fun.

I am kind of hoping we have solvent airlines come December given the state of things. The President just announced the whole economy might be in trouble.

Yes, things are getting a bit dicey, aren't they.....