Univ of Kansas: Travel costs rising fast

[arbitragegls]

For those of us who have thought about this issue, the Univ of Kansas had a travel budget of over $4,500,000 last year. It is expecting that to rise to over $5,100,000 this coming year with WVU included in conference.
Wonder what FSU's budget is going to be going to Kansas, Iowa, Texas etc...can not be cheap. But hey, all those hatchets have to cost a bit too.

"According to the financial report presented by senior associate athletics director Sean Lester at Thursday’s meeting, the cost of team travel is expected to increase by half a million dollars during the coming school year.
“There are several areas that the team travel budget is up,” said chief financial officer Pat Kaufman, who replaced the retired Susan Wachter and began working at KU on April 2.
To this point, KU has shelled out nearly $4.5 million on travel expenses for the fiscal year. The budgeted amount for next year is just under $5.1 million"

http://www2.kusports.com/news/2012/may/25/kansas-athletics-inc-board-discusses-big-12-growth/

 

[44PRIDE]

but but but...their TV contract is so awesome

 

[bnoro]

For those of us who have thought about this issue, the Univ of Kansas had a travel budget of over $4,500,000 last year. It is expecting that to rise to over $5,100,000 this coming year with WVU included in conference.
Wonder what FSU's budget is going to be going to Kansas, Iowa, Texas etc...can not be cheap. But hey, all those hatchets have to cost a bit too.

"According to the financial report presented by senior associate athletics director Sean Lester at Thursday’s meeting, the cost of team travel is expected to increase by half a million dollars during the coming school year.
“There are several areas that the team travel budget is up,” said chief financial officer Pat Kaufman, who replaced the retired Susan Wachter and began working at KU on April 2.
To this point, KU has shelled out nearly $4.5 million on travel expenses for the fiscal year. The budgeted amount for next year is just under $5.1 million"

http://www2.kusports.com/news/2012/may/25/kansas-athletics-inc-board-discusses-big-12-growth/

I'm sure FSU's travel expenses won't go up when Pitt and SU join the conference...

 

[NKR1978]

I'm sure FSU's travel expenses won't go up when Pitt and SU join the conference...

Pittsburgh and Syracuse, to a lesser extent, are probably much cheaper to travel to than Ames, Lubbock, Waco, Manhattan, KS and Lawrence. To get to Morgantown they'll have to fly to Pittsburgh anyway.

 

[Townie72]

Shouldn't be a big surprise to anyone who does any flying,

5 or 6 years ago you could fly to Europe for $300 R/T, if you shopped.

Now it $1000 to 1200. That's 3x to 4x.

Increases have been pretty much constant. I go 3 to 4 times a year and every time I book it's more than the last time (seasonally adjusted)

And its headed up from there.

I'd hate to be buying domestic tickets for hundred of athletes from places like Fayetteville, AR to Tallahassee, FL.

 

[PhatOrange]

I'm sure FSU's travel expenses won't go up when Pitt and SU join the conference...

With SU/Pitt now in the BE I don't think FSU's travel costs would even move the dial. Probably not much of a measurable increase.

Every single one of FSU sports teams would have to get on a plane for a conference game in the big 12.

Other than a bi-annual football tilt up north I'd think it's a safe bet that FSU's other sports travel would pretty much be the same as it is now. I have no idea how the ACC breaks down divisional olympic sports but I'd guess it's geographic and not the same as the football divisions. I wonder how much the FSU volleyball team travels to Boston?

 

[Chip]

I'm sure FSU's travel expenses won't go up when Pitt and SU join the conference...

Pittsburgh is a major city, probably not too expensive to get to. But in the ACC, FSU's non revenue sports have quicker trips to most schools, some of the new northeast outposts notwithstanding.

When they join the Big 12, where's the easy trip? Morgantown?

 

[cusenole9]

Pittsburgh is a major city, probably not too expensive to get to. But in the ACC, FSU's non revenue sports have quicker trips to most schools, some of the new northeast outposts notwithstanding.

When they join the Big 12, where's the easy trip? Morgantown?

If FSU brings 3 other schools the difference is negligible. If only Clemson comes along travel costs are a concern and I'm sure will be incorporated into any cost benefit analysis.

 

[NKR1978]

If FSU brings 3 other schools the difference is negligible. If only Clemson comes along travel costs are a concern and I'm sure will be incorporated into any cost benefit analysis.

It seems the only other school that would consider leaving is Clemson. Georgia Tech and Miami seem to be pretty loyal to the ACC.

 

[javadoc]

Shouldn't be a big surprise to anyone who does any flying,

5 or 6 years ago you could fly to Europe for $300 R/T, if you shopped.

Now it $1000 to 1200. That's 3x to 4x.

In fairness, trips into Europe now contain a big fee for Eurozone entry or some such nonsense, right?

I fly from SF to smaller regional airports on the east coast routinely now on a week's notice or less and the round trip is $800 or so. But then I've heard guys on the same project say that a ticket from Atlanta to the Hampton Roads region costs them the same.

 

[cusenole9]

It seems the only other school that would consider leaving is Clemson. Georgia Tech and Miami seem to be pretty loyal to the ACC.

Yes I agree that it's a big IF.

 

[Guinness]

I think as we start seeing actual numbers and how they match up from year to year that FSU is going to find that they won't make much money at all by moving. The real question is going to be just how pissed are they at the ACC and it's commish.

 

[TexanMark]

Just one tiny datapoint: my trips from TX to SYR has gone from $220-300 to $350-500 in the last two years...needless to say travel is going to be an ongoing concern.

 

[sutomcat]

With SU/Pitt now in the BE I don't think FSU's travel costs would even move the dial. Probably not much of a measurable increase.

Every single one of FSU sports teams would have to get on a plane for a conference game in the big 12.

Other than a bi-annual football tilt up north I'd think it's a safe bet that FSU's other sports travel would pretty much be the same as it is now. I have no idea how the ACC breaks down divisional olympic sports but I'd guess it's geographic and not the same as the football divisions. I wonder how much the FSU volleyball team travels to Boston?

I'll run some numbers later on this, but suffice it to say I disagree on this. Especially if the ACC does the inevitable and splits into North-South divisions for the Olympics sports.

The president of FSU, Dr Eric Barron, agrees with me on this.

3. Much is being made of the extra $2.9M that the Big 12 contract (whichhasn’t been inked yet) gets over the ACC contract. Given that the Texas
schools are expected to play each other (the Big 12 is at least as Texas
centered than the ACC is North Carolina centered), the most likely
scenario has FSU playing Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, and West
Virginia on a recurring basis and the other teams sporadically (and one
more unnamed team has to join to allow the Big 12 to regain a championship
game), we realize that our sports teams can no longer travel by bus to
most games the estimate is that the travel by plane required by FSU to
be in the Big 12 appears to exceed the $2.9M difference in the contract
actually giving us fewer dollars than we have now to be competitive with
the Big 12 teams, who obviously do not have to travel as far. Any
renegotiated amount depends not just on FSU but the caliber of any other
new team to the Big 12.

 

[Townie72]

In fairness, trips into Europe now contain a big fee for Eurozone entry or some such nonsense, right?

I fly from SF to smaller regional airports on the east coast routinely now on a week's notice or less and the round trip is $800 or so. But then I've heard guys on the same project say that a ticket from Atlanta to the Hampton Roads region costs them the same.

That's why I used the DC to Europe example. I was trying to filter out all of the crazy US stuff.

The cost of US airfare seems to be relatively insensitive to the actual distance flown. It depends more on where you are flying from and to and how much competition there is on those routes. And for some crazy reason, its cheaper to fly on a couple of planes and travel more miles than it is to fly direct and fly fewer miles. It's a market in which price has become decoupled from costs (which have to be linked to per-mile usage of planes, etc)

However you figure it, the cost of air travel is going up. And its going up for two reasons. The first is fuel costs. The second is that airlines are reducing the number of flights and charging more for the seats on them. Their profit-maximizing position is to fly fewer passengers and charge more for the seats.

As an old Econ Major, this is beautiful use of micro-economic theory. They have drawn the demand curve (How many people are willing to fly at the various price points) and they are playing it like a violin. I don't like the higher prices, although I do admire the quantitative tools they are using.

 

[HtownOrange]

Pittsburgh is a major city, probably not too expensive to get to. But in the ACC, FSU's non revenue sports have quicker trips to most schools, some of the new northeast outposts notwithstanding.

When they join the Big 12, where's the easy trip? Morgantown?

They fly to Pittsburg and bus in. Seriously, that is what I heard most football teams do. The football teams require a large chartered jet and cannot land in Morgantown. Smaller teams can fly in on the puddle jumpers, but not football teams with the large number of bodies and extensive equipment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgantown_Municipal_Airport
http://morgantownairport.com/

 

[SU2NASA]

The closest Big 12 school to Tallahassee is West Virginia at 830 miles away.

In the ACC, 9 of the 13 other ACC schools are closer than the closest Big 12 school.

 

[mscanlo]

In fairness, trips into Europe now contain a big fee for Eurozone entry or some such nonsense, right?

I fly from SF to smaller regional airports on the east coast routinely now on a week's notice or less and the round trip is $800 or so. But then I've heard guys on the same project say that a ticket from Atlanta to the Hampton Roads region costs them the same.

as of a couple months ago, all fares now must include the taxes (landing fees in london, government taxes, etc) and carrier imposed fees (fuel surcharges). for example, airlines use to market the fares as $300 roundtrip to europe, and then tack on $300 in fuel surchages and $200 in taxes, now the trip must be marketed as $800. granted, fares have indeed gone up over the past 3 years, but that is because the fares dropped dramatically when the economy fell.

 

[mscanlo]

That's why I used the DC to Europe example. I was trying to filter out all of the crazy US stuff.

The cost of US airfare seems to be relatively insensitive to the actual distance flown. It depends more on where you are flying from and to and how much competition there is on those routes. And for some crazy reason, its cheaper to fly on a couple of planes and travel more miles than it is to fly direct and fly fewer miles. It's a market in which price has become decoupled from costs (which have to be linked to per-mile usage of planes, etc)

However you figure it, the cost of air travel is going up. And its going up for two reasons. The first is fuel costs. The second is that airlines are reducing the number of flights and charging more for the seats on them. Their profit-maximizing position is to fly fewer passengers and charge more for the seats.

As an old Econ Major, this is beautiful use of micro-economic theory. They have drawn the demand curve (How many people are willing to fly at the various price points) and they are playing it like a violin. I don't like the higher prices, although I do admire the quantitative tools they are using.

airlines know the business wallet generally books within 2 weeks of departure, and so generally raises the price around that time. also, in terms of connecting planes for a lower price, generally people will pay more to connect, so the airline will raise the price for the direct flight. the airlines also know the demand between specific markets and how much people are willing to pay for them. for example, a direct ticket from syracuse to atlanta can be a lot more expensive then a ticket from syracuse to birmingham, alabama (connecting to atlanta on the same direct flight as the person going from syracuse to atlanta)