And everyone who hates UL will come out of their holes to bash us for spending $65M on a stadium when they don’t know how that money is/was acquired.
They already have.
This is embarrassing.
UL’s FY25 operating budget is $215.5 million. FY25-HIED-Operating-Budget-Distribution-Act-4-June-25-2024.pdf (laregents.edu)
$25 million deficit is….crazy
I don’t know how higher ed administrators and LA politicians can look at that document and not want to tackle consolidation of 4-year universities.
Also saw this on Google:
You would think they’d want to follow that common sense route but….. a chicken in every pot keeps buying votes.
What made it successful and stadium full during Hud was a combination of things.
First, you had the long time drought of a bowl game, the little flashes of success for the 40 years since the last bowl game, and Hud was dynamic to fire up anyone who could hear him.
Combine that with $10 tickets and half the stadium being GA meant you could get a family of 4 in for $40. Cheaper than going to the movies. And tailgating was only $250 so anyone could afford it to the point of waiting lists for years.
There also was no ESPN+ were every game is accessible to watch.
In addition, the students seemed to be more in-tune with athletics in general at that time.
Then the money grab happened. We have it now at the point that the family of 4 is spending over $100 a game to even get in if you don’t have season tickets.
While we do need the money, there is also the basic supply and demand curve that we have seemed to go away with and only promote “deals” that also diminish what the long-time fan has had to pay. Similar to when random communication companies offer new customer deals. And then, we at one time were charging for parking in the Gras “ponds”.
Think if this, you could realistically go to Festival Acadien, not pay to park or get an entry ticket. Be entertained and spend less than it costs to just get a family of 4 in.
And the mindset is not there to lower the cost of the tickets to actually get more people interested in purchasing (and not just a promo). It is being viewed as devaluing the product. But I feel in reality, you aren’t selling that ticket anyway. So we end up getting 0% of that cost instead of saying let’s lower the price down to 60% to 75% of what it is now and get more to purchase.
Plus more in the stadium means more sales inside with concessions and merch.
And with being this close to TSAB, the casual fan views it as how dare we charge that much. And if they wanted to pay that much, they would just drive to TSAB. The casual fan will only come if it is cheap in their opinion because the product is not TSAB.
We have out priced what most can do. And the casual fan is now saying that it is not worth it. And let’s be real, we need those casual fans.
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At some point you must move from starting over and start learning the fine art of adjusting your strategy in real-time. This assumes we have a strategy.
Clearly T-joe was asleep at the wheel the last few years . Also explains why he was pushed put so suddenly
The TJoe, Blanco et all Cajun mafia need not ever return.
Hiring from inside rarely works out. See football.
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As time passes, the truth will continue to leak out. The best thing that can happen to this program is a total reset.
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If the mandated budget numbers for next year and the year after I’m hearing about are anywhere close to being true, our athletic department is going to be a shadow of a shadow of its former self.
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So be it. We will rebuild. This time, we will do it right from the beginning.
The fact that we are staring down a $25 million deficit is mind boggling to me. Where were the financial controls?
Don’t hold your breath waiting for any university “leadership” to come out and explain what happened. Just accept it, keep paying your state income taxes, continue your donations to the alumni club and RCAF (in fact, we need you to increase them), and if you have high school kids, send them here and your tuition money.
My wife is an accountant and we were discussing this issue. There had to be red flags raised from someone in accounting.
Well, when you failed the last three state audits, flags should have been raised after the 1st NC
Just dont know how the university can give athletics the 16 mill they have been giving out the general fund without riots on campus
.
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All makes sense now why we BEGGED the conference to take LA Tech. Hell, we probably got on our knees in Ruston and pleaded “Please come join us!”
We didn’t want to have to muster traveling to Bowling Green or any other school that might have been interested that wasn’t a bus ride away. We’d have probably lobbied for Sam Houston State, Lamar or McNeese rather than have to do Western KY, Middle Tennessee, Liberty, etc.
That day is coming, I do believe. Embrace the suck.
Worst part is seeing the 3 ulm fans roasting us.
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