Facility Funding Discussion

[zeWilbur]

1 hour ago, pigfarmer said:

 

I admit that I am no expert on university finances, but I have to question this assertion.  We always hear that the athletic department makes all this money and is supporting academics, but is it really?  Are there any specific instances where you see the athletic department giving scholarships out to, say, math majors?  I think most of the 'support' athletic departments claim they give to the universities is self-serving, like paying tutors for their players etc.  Again, not claiming to be an expert, but this is one of those things that I hear all the time (not just for UNL) without any examples to show that the athletics really support the university in any way other than athletics.

https://journalstar.com/news/local/education/husker-athletic-department-to-provide-5-million-in-scholarships-to-nonathletes/article_d55a4276-b344-566f-bdaa-672dc8de9a99.html

 

This is old but took me all of ten seconds to find. 

[Red Five]

I think we can we all agree that the $450M stadium modernization project that was outlined by Trev  won't be happening as planned (either in cost or timeline)?

[Guy Chamberlin]

15 hours ago, Mavric said:

 

What was the capital budget of the athletic department before the cuts?

 

What is it now?

 

How much money from the University went to the new facility that is just getting completed?

 

You forgot to say "thanks for sharing your expertise. I'll take that into consideration."

[Micheal]

So do we think we see a scaled down south stadium project then? Hope some new vision comes out soon. Need to keep momentum rolling

 

Can't remember what reporter put out these pictures when Trev was leaving. 

[funhusker]

On 3/22/2024 at 10:22 AM, Madcows said:

 

Oh...OK, there it is, I found the disconnect. It's you.

 

While you're "pretty sure this isn't the case", I do the work, and know it's the case. 

 

So Mav, can I call you Mav? Anyway, so Mav, I work in finance at a major university. I have friends who work in finance at major universities. Locally, I have friends who work at UNO, Creighton, UNL, Chadron and College of St Mary's, I correspond on a regular basis with finance people at other universities both in state and out of state.

 

I have friends that work on the academic side, I have friends who work on the athletics side. I have worked on both sides. I have worked in audit at a major university, where part of my job was going to departments making sure the accounting practices they were doing in said department followed GAAP and university guidelines (you'd be shocked at some of the "creative accounting" athletics and development will do to provide tax benefits to major donors) so when all departments are rolled up to Treasury to finalize our reports, there are no accounting anomalies between departments that need to be corrected.

 

Our annual NCAA audit is a stickler for accounting irregularities within the athletic department. The main commonality between all these different schools, whether the athletic department is in the black, the red, or relatively breaking, even was how capital projects were funded. While each university will have it's own naming formats, we all do it the same.

 

There's this crazy account and budget for each school that is some derivative of "Capital Projects". Projects that are just too big for the department to handle, ie new dorms, new chem labs, upgrades to infrastructure (think repaving parking lots, upgrading HVACs, expanding buildings etc). The funds for this budget come from various sources, donations, state funds, fundraising events, and a portion of net profits from the university. Individual departments will submit proposals annually for capital projects, these are then reviewed by the board. Some are given a green light, some a yellow and others a red.

 

Within green and yellow, they are then prioritized. With every proposal, each department will project how much they will fundraise to help mitigate the total estimate. Athletics will follow these same principals, even the ones who are in the black. That's because regardless of the net revenue/loss in athletics, they do not have capital projects in their annual budgets. This is because there's a whole different department that has that budget (that crazy Capital Projects department). So, when UNL announced major capital improvements to Memorial Stadium, it had already had a proposal done, with estimates of cost and fundraising goals, gone through the approval process, given a green light and allowed to proceed.

 

Athletics will help fund the project, but they do not, and more importantly CANNOT, fund the project entirely.

 

Now when funds to the university as a whole are reduced, one of the first areas that will be impacted will be the Capital Projects budget, as usually those are not priority needs for the university to run day-to-day operations.

 

Hopefully, you can see where this is going...but I'll try to dumb it down for you and the board. Mav, when capital funding budget is decreased, I want you to take a wild guess on what that means for current capital projects?

 

Yes, you are correct, those capital projects now have less funds available. Good work using your deductive skills.

 

To counteract that, the project has to be modified to fit within the new budget, or the project department will have to make up the difference in fundraising. In some rare cases, the department will request a temporary allocation of their annual budget to the capital budget. Doing so usually means a reduction in overhead within said department. The biggest overhead that can be reduced is staff, hence why it doesn't happen often. 

 

Now follow along with me Mav on a fun little ride, when the governor reduced funds to UNL (based on what we've learned above) what do you think happened to their stadium upgrade capital project? Correct!! 

 

The project now has less funds available.  While it's nice that UNL Athletics operates in the black, it will give them a little bit of wiggle room for some shortfalls, that net revenue in no way covers the new variance within the project. This gives athletics a few options, either go back to the people that have committed above and beyond their normal donations to UNL, to help fund this capital project and ask for even more money or modify the current project to fit within the new budget.

 

One thing I know (notice here how I didn't say pretty sure?) about UNL Athletics is they will not request a temporary allocation of their budget to the capital project. That's just not what they do.  

 

All of this is still a dumbed down version of what the finance team will do, and this team will be on both the academic side and the athletic side, all rolling up under Treasury.  The one take away I want you to understand Mav, athletics is not covering this project 100%, and (I can't emphasize this part enough) would never be able to do it on their own, the university handles this project. And while you're "pretty sure that's not how this works", I can emphatically tell you, you are wrong, and it is how this works.

This was an excellent post.  For those of you that didn't read because of paragraphs, give it another shot!  I added some spots for "brain breaks" 

 

Thanks for sharing @Madcows

[knapplc]

23 minutes ago, funhusker said:

This was an excellent post.  For those of you that didn't read because of paragraphs, give it another shot!  I added some spots for "brain breaks" 

 

Thanks for sharing @Madcows

 

I was just going to do this but my contractor stopped over and I had to let them in.

[funhusker]

12 minutes ago, knapplc said:

 

I was just going to do this but my contractor stopped over and I had to let them in.

A simple “thanks” is good enough…

[Dogs In A Pile]

2 hours ago, funhusker said:

This was an excellent post.  For those of you that didn't read because of paragraphs, give it another shot!  I added some spots for "brain breaks" 

 

Thanks for sharing @Madcows

 

Thanks for doing this since was one of the people who couldn't plow my way through the original unformatted version.

 

And it was a great read Madcows.

[Lorewarn]

Those renders are a pretty magnificent sight. Hard to imagine, really.

 

I know it's a ton of money, but it'd be a shame to see the thing get scrapped and it's unclear to me how they would do a "cheaper version" of renovating/replacing. This looks like an extremely well thought out plan that directly solves problems and adds great features to the stadium that isn't getting any younger.

[Gage County]

I gotta think it would have been cheaper to use something other than giant Legos.

 

[pigfarmer]

On 3/23/2024 at 7:13 AM, zeWilbur said:

https://journalstar.com/news/local/education/husker-athletic-department-to-provide-5-million-in-scholarships-to-nonathletes/article_d55a4276-b344-566f-bdaa-672dc8de9a99.html

 

This is old but took me all of ten seconds to find. 

 

I guess I'm just a cynical person-I'll take my medicine.  Speaking of cynical, thanks Journal Star for the paywall...

[caveman99]

18 hours ago, Gage County said:

I gotta think it would have been cheaper to use something other than giant Legos.

 

[jamesbond]

It's a waste of money to keep renovating that dinosaur. Time for forward thinking and plan a new stadium in a couple of years. Make going to the games a wonderful experience instead of having to pee in troughs or porta potties.

[Lorewarn]

17 minutes ago, jamesbond said:

It's a waste of money to keep renovating that dinosaur. Time for forward thinking and plan a new stadium in a couple of years. Make going to the games a wonderful experience instead of having to pee in troughs or porta potties.

 

 

Peeing in troughs is my favorite part tbh. Can't beat the efficient use of space any better than that, unless we install trough bunk beds!

[Mavric]

Several posts of a P&R nature have been moved here