Thanks to our new sponsor Inteleca for helping bring back Q's Take my weekly look at things around GT and college sports from my vantage.
Kicking the debt can down the road and trying to win big on a budget in the ACC was a formula that Paul Johnson somehow made work, but even the gas ran out of that can as the divide grew in his final years at Tech and his frustrations grew to the point of quitting. Two different ADs hired men's basketball coaches that other schools fanbases were on the verge of turning on and that turned into one NCAA Tournament appearance and one ACC title over 12 years.
Like someone with massive credit card debt, Georgia Tech needed to tackle its budget numbers. The debt service for the stadium expansion and other projects rolled into that was eating up ten-plus million a year in the budget. That led to cheapness for Paul Johnson, Josh Pastner, and even to a lesser extent Geoff Collins when it came to who they could hire and the size of their support staff and the quality of their on-the-court/field staff. That contributed to a lot of losses and downward attendance in the two major revenue sports for GT further staining the bottom line.
AD J Batt came in with the marching orders to fix the financial side of things from President Cabrera and to fix the on-the-field product. They have been chipping away with various projects since last fall including the scholarship match program "Competitive Drive Initiative" and other projects and fundraisers.
The good news is there is more money coming via the ACCN deal, ticket sales should pick up with both major sports under new head coaches and both of those coaches are under favorable contracts that are not breaking the bank for GT.
Still, they need to turn over every rock to find money wherever possible.
That leads us to one of the easiest ways to make money without having to do much other than annoy some longtime fans and that is selling the naming rights to the stadium or part of them. In this case, as the AJC reported the deal is with Hyundai the auto manufacturer who is aiming to pair up with Georgia Tech on multiple levels including athletics. Per our sources this should be a lucrative deal for Tech and the Jackets are far from the only program with this happening.
Most schools that do major renovations or replace buildings rename them after wealthy alums or sell the rights. We all saw that when they tore down the AMC and the McCamish family got the naming rights for the new arena.
With NIL becoming a big draw for donations now, the leadership is trying to be creative with revenue streams. Folks should support this and the idea that they are trying to be creative in fielding a competitive product rather than borrowing more money or underfunding sports. Tech also has to pay out a smaller buyout to Josh Pastner and a very large one to Geoff Collins. Luckily by hiring Key and Stoudamire, they avoided having to pay buyouts to other programs.
This was a necessary move to increase cash flow and try to balance the books while Brent Key and Damon Stoudamire try to fill their respective venues with quality products over the next few years.
It is the right move. Will everyone love it? Hell no. Do I have people bitching at me privately about it? Yes. Do they understand why they are doing it though? Yes.
This is a weird time in college sports and a transitional moment on so many levels and I'm sure that Batt is keenly aware of that. He is trying to position the program for the future and sometimes you have to say goodbye to the past to do that.
Kicking the debt can down the road and trying to win big on a budget in the ACC was a formula that Paul Johnson somehow made work, but even the gas ran out of that can as the divide grew in his final years at Tech and his frustrations grew to the point of quitting. Two different ADs hired men's basketball coaches that other schools fanbases were on the verge of turning on and that turned into one NCAA Tournament appearance and one ACC title over 12 years.
Like someone with massive credit card debt, Georgia Tech needed to tackle its budget numbers. The debt service for the stadium expansion and other projects rolled into that was eating up ten-plus million a year in the budget. That led to cheapness for Paul Johnson, Josh Pastner, and even to a lesser extent Geoff Collins when it came to who they could hire and the size of their support staff and the quality of their on-the-court/field staff. That contributed to a lot of losses and downward attendance in the two major revenue sports for GT further staining the bottom line.
AD J Batt came in with the marching orders to fix the financial side of things from President Cabrera and to fix the on-the-field product. They have been chipping away with various projects since last fall including the scholarship match program "Competitive Drive Initiative" and other projects and fundraisers.
The good news is there is more money coming via the ACCN deal, ticket sales should pick up with both major sports under new head coaches and both of those coaches are under favorable contracts that are not breaking the bank for GT.
Still, they need to turn over every rock to find money wherever possible.
That leads us to one of the easiest ways to make money without having to do much other than annoy some longtime fans and that is selling the naming rights to the stadium or part of them. In this case, as the AJC reported the deal is with Hyundai the auto manufacturer who is aiming to pair up with Georgia Tech on multiple levels including athletics. Per our sources this should be a lucrative deal for Tech and the Jackets are far from the only program with this happening.
Most schools that do major renovations or replace buildings rename them after wealthy alums or sell the rights. We all saw that when they tore down the AMC and the McCamish family got the naming rights for the new arena.
With NIL becoming a big draw for donations now, the leadership is trying to be creative with revenue streams. Folks should support this and the idea that they are trying to be creative in fielding a competitive product rather than borrowing more money or underfunding sports. Tech also has to pay out a smaller buyout to Josh Pastner and a very large one to Geoff Collins. Luckily by hiring Key and Stoudamire, they avoided having to pay buyouts to other programs.
This was a necessary move to increase cash flow and try to balance the books while Brent Key and Damon Stoudamire try to fill their respective venues with quality products over the next few years.
It is the right move. Will everyone love it? Hell no. Do I have people bitching at me privately about it? Yes. Do they understand why they are doing it though? Yes.
This is a weird time in college sports and a transitional moment on so many levels and I'm sure that Batt is keenly aware of that. He is trying to position the program for the future and sometimes you have to say goodbye to the past to do that.
