COLUMN: Do the math, football still needed
In response to the firing of Utah State head football coach Mick Dennehy, some people don’t feel the need for Athletic Director Randy Spetman to stop there.
Some think the football program should be cut all together. They say it will save the university a ton of money and the school has nothing to lose anyway, because no one cares about football.
People, the football team might be down this year, but it is not dead.
Cutting the football program would actually cost, not save, USU money each year. Let’s do some rough math:
Let’s say that the football team averages 15,000 fans for its home games (in ticket sales, it has actually averaged 20,920 fans per game thus far, but we’ll round down).
We’ll say that 7,000 of those fans are students who do not pay to get in, and we’ll say that the other 8,000 people pay an average of $15 per ticket (ticket prices range from $10 to $25). That means that each game brings in $120,000 just in ticket sales.
So this season USU receives $480,000 before you count sponsorships, advertisements, concessions and parking. Then add a half-million dollars each from Alabama and Clemson for playing games at their stadiums, and the football program raked in approximately $2 million this year with only four home games, a 2-8 record, a fired head coach and many doubts and worries coming from the fans.
And if you really think the football team spends more than $2 million each season, we’d all like to see your side of the math.
Now granted, we’re not Ohio State, which gets 100,000 fans for all eight home games every year, but our football team will be a money-making machine once it starts playing again.
As far as the claims that no one cares about football, take a look around! Just hearing all the complaining that has gone on this year will tell you how much people care about football here. If no one cared, then no one would have noticed that Dennehy got fired.
We Aggie fans have shown that we really support our teams when they play well. The men’s basketball team had sellout crowds last season, the women’s basketball team averaged 67 percent more fans per home game than its opponents and the USU hockey fans have recently been criticized for getting too involved in cheering on the Aggies.
There is no reason whatsoever to believe that the football team won’t be supported this well when it starts playing well.
That’s right, WHEN it starts playing well. USU President Kermit L. Hall and Spetman know what they’re doing in finding a new coach and will get what they are looking for. And the Aggies will be playing in a real conference, the Western Athletic Conference, next season which will give USU better national exposure.
Cheer up Aggie fans, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. USU will get what it deserves: a top-notch football program.
Bryan Hinton is a junior majoring in print journalism. Comments can be sent to bhhinton@cc.usu.edu.