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Are these both supposed to be bad things or does one offset the other?

Dear Niles, Ohio, How is your minor league franchise doing? Respectfully, The Great GP1

The rebirth of baseball at Akron was always a bit of a head scratcher to me and it has nothing to do with money. I think it's awesome that someone was willing to donate a large sum of money to rework the field and bring back a team. This level of dedication needs to be harnessed and exploited in the right direction. It was a failure of leadership at Akron to allow for baseball to happen. Sometimes leaders have to say "no" and this was one of those times. You have to say no in a manner that the donor is more than willing to donate to something that fits better in the changing landscape of college athletics. Leadership was not paying attention to the big picture and that's their job. Baseball is not in a growth mode in the USA. Universities were already cutting baseball. Cold weather state schools don't have very good programs generally speaking. MLB has gone from the national pastime to a regional sport. Minor league attendance is a disaster. The attendance and support for baseball on the professional level is so bad MLB made a proposal to reduce minor league affiliates from 160 to 120. I wonder how many of those small cities poured out millions in the last ten years to help build stadiums. God does the "building process" look even more idiotic now.

100%. Adding back BASEBALL was a totally irresponsible decision on the part of the University of Akron Department of Athletics. For Gender Equity reasons outlined above it makes no sense. It's never been a revenue sport, ever, and never will be, but what it is doing is costing the Department money. Staff Salaries for coaches, added workload for sports medicine, facilities staff, academic personnel, etc... Facility cost to renovate a field for a sport that will never, ever bring in a single dollar of fan revenue. Even look at all of the new gear that this team was boasting about on social media... 5 different uniforms, custom gloves, bats, 5 different hats. That "million dollar donation" to restart baseball has been spent multiple times over on just the new field alone, which cost a minimum of $2,000,000. Everything else - salaries, travel, operational costs for a 30+ member team add up. In accounting terms, that's (-$1,000,000) from day one, season one. GP1 movin' on up resume builder material here. An outdoor sport that starts in February, played in Northeast Ohio, that this past year featured Cross country trips to California and Texas were not free and are necessary to play games in the first 6 weeks of the season. This was a 100% vanity project for the head of athletics fundraising as he was a former baseball player. A personal agenda making long term moves that are irresponsible. But he got to book a $1 million donation that looked good on his GP1 movin' on up resume. Scholarships are funded privately at Akron, which is another drag on the fundraising priorities for a program that is already not pulling it's weight in this area. Hard to fathom that the men's cross country team (which is 100% part of the men's track and field team) and the women's tennis team (10 girls) and the men's golf team (10 guys) are costing anywhere near what was billed as millions of dollars. That was total bullshit. Baseball is such a growth sport that Bowling Green just cut it and the MAC did as well. The cost-cutting measure is part of Bowling Green’s plan to shave an estimated $2 million off the annual athletic budget. Baseball accounts for approximately $500K of those costs. (-$1,500,000 on the tote board) Maybe we should have a telethon. Someone earlier talked about how well the team was doing before the virus hit. Laughable. They did win 100% more games than football did, and almost had a Zips Football record at 1-12. That's a .077 winning percentage with the 1 win coming against a 5-10-1 team from Marshall. Mediocrity. Don't give me the "it was their first year BS either" as Akron Baseball has never been good, even when it was "funded". First Year of Baseball:............................................. 1873 Seasons: .......................entering 117th season in 2020 All-Time Record: ............. 1411-1496-19 (.485) (116 yrs.) All-Time MAC Record: ................241-377 (.390) (22 yrs.) MAC Tournament Titles:.....................................1 (1996) Over 117 Seasons of Sustained Mediocrity Schools that have cut baseball... and kept it cut - BOLD = cold weather schools American University (discontinued 1986) Boston University (discontinued 1995) Bowling Green State University (discontinued 2020) University at Buffalo (discontinued 2017) University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (aka "Chattanooga") (discontinued 1982) Cleveland State University (sponsored 1932–2011) Colgate University (discontinued 1996) University of Colorado (discontinued 1980) Colorado State University (discontinued 1992) DePaul University University of Denver (discontinued 1999) University of Detroit Mercy (sponsored 1941–2004) Drake University (discontinued 1970) Drexel University (sponsored 1929–2003) Duquesne University (discontinued 2010) Eastern Washington University (discontinued 1990) University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Hampton University (discontinued 1972) Howard University (discontinued 1999) University of Idaho (discontinued 1980) Idaho State University (discontinued 1974) Iowa State University (sponsored 1892–2001) IUPUI (discontinued 2001) Loyola University Maryland (discontinued 1979) Loyola University Chicago Marquette University University of Missouri-Kansas City (aka "Kansas City") University of Montana (discontinued 1972) Montana State University (discontinued 1971) Morgan State University (discontinued 2001) University of New Hampshire (sponsored 1911–1997) University of North Dakota (discontinued 2016) University of North Texas (sponsored 1920–1925; 1984–1988) University of Northern Iowa (discontinued 2009) Northern Arizona University (discontinued 1981) Portland State University (discontinued 1998) Providence College (discontinued 1999) Robert Morris University Saint Francis College (NY) (discontinued 2006) Saint Francis University (PA) South Carolina State University (discontinued 1974) Southern Methodist University (sponsored 1919–1980) Southern Utah University (discontinued 2012) University of South Dakota (discontinued 2004) Syracuse University (discontinued 1972) Temple University (discontinued 2014) Tennessee State University (discontinued 1993) University of Tulsa (sponsored 1965–1979) Utah State University (discontinued 1968) University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP; discontinued 1985) University of Vermont (discontinued 2009) Weber State University (sponsored 1962–1974) University of Wisconsin–Madison (sponsored 1918–1991) University of Wyoming (discontinued 1996)

It's dead because the Great GP1 has not been around to spread some whit and wisdom. With South Carolina opening up, it will slow down again because the great one will have more to do/bars and restaurants to drink and eat in.

Hey this is exactly why this forum is dead most of the time like football attendance Yall rather be a bunch of yes men continuing to be blind to reality looking down on anyone who has an objective opinion. Enjoy

On behalf of the posters here, thank you

Reading all of this, I have come to one simple conclusion. That conclusion is not that football is too much of a financial drain or is financially unfeasible. Rather, it's that $6.5 to $7 million dollars is a lot of money for awful football. It's the product that needs improved. I heard Urban Meyer on a radio show this week and in discussing assistant coaches stated that college football really all comes down to recruiting. It's all about talent on the field. Get kids that are better than PCCC's, OU's, Toledo's....and you will finally see a return on the investment. It's the administration's job to find the leaders that can accomplish that task

By the way, Jared was a part of the team he inherited for 6 of the 7 years before he inherited it. Also, 3 final four appearances in 7 seasons at the helm and 6 of those 7 in the NCAA Tourney; seems like we might want to cut him some slack on one season.

Questionable book keeping. My issue is not a soccer v football or a basketball v football issue. My point about the AD and his associate is that bad decisions, which have caused the athletics budget to grow and take more from the general budget, continue with no known repercussions to those who make them. The athletics budget has to be looked at as a whole. $1M should never have been spent to buy out 1 remaining year of Bowden's or Arth's contracts. Wait one year to get rid of Bowden and hire Arth and save taking a $1M from the general fund. tOSU uses football and basketball money to fund most, if not all, of their other sports. I know that UA can't do that, but football revenue, basketball revenue, soccer revenue all has to be pooled across the athletics department and not looked at as one sport or the others treasure trove. (Please notice I said "revenue" not "profits".)

Between buy games, CFP money, and tv money football generates the bulk of the athletic departments revenue. I'm not a big fan of the football program myself, but there is no denying that it's the biggest revenue generator for the athletics program. More than soccer and men's basketball combined.

Most of that was Hawkins' food per diem.