Bud Poliquin on our facilities

[SWC75]

I called Bud and the Manchild today to talk to Bud as a follow up on this article which contains my quesiton in the #2 slot:

Dino Babers on his dream job, bleeding Orange, Clint Eastwood (10 questions)

Babers kind of side-stepped my question about whether SU has what he needs to succeed so I asked Bud for his assessment on how competitive our facilities are. He said that a few yeas ago he regarded our facilities as "kind of primitive" but from his point of view, they are now "Taj Mahal-like". He thinks the IPF, the locker-rooms, the eating facilities are state of the art- form his point of view.

But, "climbing out of my moccasins", he knows that Clemson just opened up a $90 million facility complete with "nap rooms" for the players and that other schools like Oregon have built amazing places for their players and Syracuse will never match that.

I wondered if, beyond a certain point, the Law of Diminishing Returns might apply such that these people are spending all this money and it's not going to produce that much better teams better teams than they would normally get. Bud replied that "somebody thinks it will make a difference. That's why they are spending the money."

I hope we don't have to spend what certain schools are spending to have a good team. What would Dino Babers do with "nap rooms"?

 

[djorange1989]

he didn't say the facilities are whiz bang?

 

[SU2NASA]

Needs more brick.

 

[rocklloyd]

No "huzzahs" or "ramrods"?

 

[Jeremy L.]

Not sure if this does play a role, but the fact we share with the basketball/lacrosse teams, does it limit what we can actually do with the facility we play in?

I was watching a show about Michigan St, and their lockers had full body stickers of them on their lockers. It looked incredible.

 

[PhatOrange]

Those schools will always get the kids they deem to be the cream of the crop because of their facilities but scholarship caps will ensure there’s enough kids to go around.

As long as our facilities stay in that 2nd tier (peer group) we're fine.

 

[Pyle]

Not sure if this does play a role, but the fact we share with the basketball/lacrosse teams, does it limit what we can actually do with the facility we play in?

I was watching a show about Michigan St, and their lockers had full body stickers of them on their lockers. It looked incredible.

I think the lack of butts in the seats is what limits us from doing most things.

 

[kuethstheman]

At the point where facilities is the main thing keeping us from recruiting up against Clemson, we should probably upgrade.

 

[RF2044]

I think the lack of butts in the seats is what limits us from doing most things.

Hopefully, not for long.

 

[RCDICK44]

I think the lack of butts in the seats is what limits us from doing most things.

I think the fact that most of the State Schools you speak of are given State Money and that they have considerably more money to work with than a Private School such as Syracuse University.

 

[orangeinjersey]

Facilities do matter, ours are keeping up. We will never be ahead of the curve (need money for that). That being said, was kind of interesting to hear the Nebraska graduate transfer say that when he was looking for a spot to transfer too, he didnt care about the bells and whistles like he did when he was a frosh. Food for thought.

 

[Pyle]

I think the fact that most of the State Schools you speak of are given State Money and that they have considerably more money to work with than a Private School such as Syracuse University.

I think you're wrong. The fact is these large state schools have to divulge all of their financials and those pesky academic types, you know anyone who doesn't play sports or works in the AD, get really testy about spending the university's money to support athletics. Rutgers is a perfect example, they get enough money but can't manage their budget and end up $25 million in the hole every year. Fact is the big difference between us and a school like Iowa is the number of seats in the stadium, number of alumni within a close distance, more donors, etc. Iowa looks like they average something like 20-25k more people per game than we do. That's not Big Blue or the Tide, that's the Hawkeyes. So 25k more people at a modest $35 per ticket equates to about $875,000 more per game at the turnstiles alone. Add in concessions, merchandise sales, parking, etc and I think you can see how a school like Iowa easily makes $5,000,000 to $10,000,000 more per season that Syracuse. We need the fans back.

 

[orangeinjersey]

I think you're wrong. The fact is these large state schools have to divulge all of their financials and those pesky academic types, you know anyone who doesn't play sports or works in the AD, get really testy about spending the university's money to support athletics. Rutgers is a perfect example, they get enough money but can't manage their budget and end up $25 million in the hole every year. Fact is the big difference between us and a school like Iowa is the number of seats in the stadium, number of alumni within a close distance, more donors, etc. Iowa looks like they average something like 20-25k more people per game than we do. That's not Big Blue or the Tide, that's the Hawkeyes. So 25k more people at a modest $35 per ticket equates to about $875,000 more per game at the turnstiles alone. Add in concessions, merchandise sales, parking, etc and I think you can see how a school like Iowa easily makes $5,000,000 to $10,000,000 more per season that Syracuse. We need the fans back.

alums that stick around too. SU graduates maybe 4k students a year? OSU, maybe 12k a year. Compound this every year, and well that is a lot more donors in the long run.

 

[texascpa]

I know that since this is football/basketball forum, we focus on what amenities college athletes get, but athletes aren't the only ones that have millions and millions of dollars worth of amenitites spent on them in order to intice them to attend a university. Here are some non-football/basketball amenities on college campuses: Texas Tech University - In Photos: The College Amenities Arms Race

Texas Tech's $7M Lazy River:

University of Houston's $53M in 1.3M gallon indoor pool, four lane jogging track, 6 aerobic rooms and 53 foot indoor climbing rock wall:

 

[NJCuse97]

These sort of "Student Life" Rec centers are why SU is doing a gut renovation of Archbold. It is also why they are talking of converting South Campus into hiking trails and jogging paths. SU is a bit behind in this, but they are showing an interest in rectifying that. Even the promenade is geared toward that.

As to the question of diminishing returns, I think that may be a story for Okie State or Oregon. For the Clemsons of the world, who have all but arrived in full or the Alabamas and tOSUs, they are all spending to maintain. They can't afford to look inferior in any way to anyone. It isn't about a gain in returns, it is maintaining what has become the status quo. They most have done some analysis to determine the financial return, but this is a matter of "adapt or die" for them.

 

[Whitey23]

I doubt Bud has seen one other college's facilities in person, maybe ever.

 

[kcsu]

Once the dome is redone we will be in the top tier

 

[xc84]

No "huzzahs" or "ramrods"?

or "burgs"?

 

[NJCuse97]

http://campusrecmag.com/creating-a-successful-new-path-for-recreation-at-missouri-state-university/

This is a facility at Missouri State. Not exactly a huge P5 institution. We are lacking. I actually think SU will try to approach this as multiple satellite facilities. I think they will reno Archbold, but eventually also Flanagan, Women's Building, and Watson to be student life centers. When the Vet Center gets underway, they will lose the Health Center. Something will need to be done to replace that (It can be assumed that program will be incorporated into the Archbold renovation).

 

[CanadianSU]

#whizbang

 

[Cusester]

He has to retire someday, thank God.

 

[MSOrange]

I doubt Bud has seen one other college's facilities in person, maybe ever.

That was my thought. I would almost guarantee it.

 

[tipphill]

Once the dome is redone we will be in the top tier

i am anxiously awaiting when that will be. how long did it take to get ipf after it was announced? just curious

 

[Moontan]

I think you're wrong. The fact is these large state schools have to divulge all of their financials and those pesky academic types, you know anyone who doesn't play sports or works in the AD, get really testy about spending the university's money to support athletics. Rutgers is a perfect example, they get enough money but can't manage their budget and end up $25 million in the hole every year. Fact is the big difference between us and a school like Iowa is the number of seats in the stadium, number of alumni within a close distance, more donors, etc. Iowa looks like they average something like 20-25k more people per game than we do. That's not Big Blue or the Tide, that's the Hawkeyes. So 25k more people at a modest $35 per ticket equates to about $875,000 more per game at the turnstiles alone. Add in concessions, merchandise sales, parking, etc and I think you can see how a school like Iowa easily makes $5,000,000 to $10,000,000 more per season that Syracuse. We need the fans back.

Syracuse makes up half of that $5-$10m from men's hoops (extra 10,000 seats @ $20 * 18 games is $3.8m. Add in a few 30,000 games and you're over $4m).

 

[jr4750]

Those schools will always get the kids they deem to be the cream of the crop because of their facilities but scholarship caps will ensure there’s enough kids to go around.

As long as our facilities stay in that 2nd tier (peer group) we're fine.

My thoughts entirely. Clemson will always recruit better than us, but to their disadvantage, they can only take 25 kids. Same goes for all the top programs. That leaves quality players, and as long as we have something adequate, we should be fine.