I picked up this curious item at the courtesy table at an Aggie soccer match last month. I’d glanced at it, but hadn’t actually read it until this weekend. This isn’t going to an in-depth investigative report, since I don’t really know anything about this subject. Nor is this going to be much of an opinion piece, since I don’t entirely know what to make of the numbers, and I won’t really be advocating for anything either. So, this is just going to present some information and you can make of it what you will.
The magazine featured various team and player accomplishments for the academic year (which I’m presuming to be fall 2015 through spring 2016). There are some good highlights presented for various sports. On the back cover, the very last items talk about the Aggies’ economics. I’m not real good at math, but let’s look at these numbers.
Total athletics revenue is $5,268,418 (from adding everything up). Guarantees are the biggest contributor at just under 40%. I’m assuming this revenue includes games where the Aggies have been paid to play somebody, such as Texas A&M a couple of weeks ago. The payout for that game was reported at $1.5 million, which would be more than ticket sales for all of last year. I hate to keep pleading ignorance, but I don’t and can’t understand how this arrangement works between big schools and small schools. Let’s just say, “Thank you,” to A&M and any other schools who want to pay our Aggies to play them.
Likewise, as much as I hate the NCAA (let’s not get off topic, this would be a severe detour to explain why I hate these sanctimonious bastards), we’re going to have to thank them and the conferences the Aggies belong to (WAC and Sunbelt). Clearly, these organizations are willing to pay schools well to be their friends. I guess this is why people put up with them.
I’ve had my issues with the concessions at events, mainly that their products aren’t that great. I notice they’re down 11%, which may have precipitated the change from Coke to Pepsi. Given that it’s a non-profit operation, it’s unlikely that they’re going to change for the better in food. They just may improve in the amount of sponsorship money they get. The change this season to Underarmor will also boost income, I would guess in the licensing area. Tenant income may include the annual Cruces-Mayfield game at Aggie Memorial. That’s a major event for everyone involved.
Let’s look a little deeper at the 22% of revenue that is ticket sales. This doesn’t necessarily mean attendance, just sales. I know that the place I work for, though not a major sponsor of Aggie athletics, does buy a lot of tickets, which they give away to employees and customers, some of which go unused. Men’s basketball and football drive the bus in income with over 91% of total ticket sales. The basketball team leads the way, because they’re pretty good. As bad as the football team is, quite a few people still show up to watch them.
Both programs are down in revenue compared to last year however, that was even with a “Stuff the Stadium” event for football. This was before a dramatic increase in season and regular ticket prices, which has definitely turned a lot of long-time fans off. Will the increase offset or even increase revenue lost from angry fans? I’m sure football is hurting, since they’re not winning, and they’re about to become unaffiliated with a conference. For the basketball team, if they get to the big dance, all will be likely forgiven.
The rest of the team sports all had an uptick in revenue. Since overall ticket sales are down, I’d say money lost to men’s basketball and football wasn’t going to the other sports. Check out that 130% increase in women’s basketball. They were a really good team last year and the $2 ticket promotion game probably made them quite a few new fans. Baseball had a nice jump with a vastly improved team and, more importantly, stadium upgrades last year. Another $2 promotion certainly helped. (My workplace bought a bunch of these promotional tickets for both events.) Baseball could use a new scoreboard (direct sunlight on the current one renders it unreadable), but other than that, I think they’re set.
Volleyball, which is a good program at NMSU, had a nice increase. Whoever is in charge of their promotions does a good job. They’ve really made me feel like they want me as a fan. Soccer had a huge increase. Having been to a few games, I’m at a loss to explain that. The fans there are terrible, the team isn’t that good, and the facilities are primitive. The only thing I can think of to do for their grandstands would be to put a press box/suites up behind them, but that seems really unlikely. Putting up some lights would allow them to play night games, which might help in attendance, but that would even be more expensive. I’ve even overheard staff there complaining about how unsupported the program is. Still, NMSU has only had it for seven years. Aggie soccer is still in development.
Softball had a 1% increase, which I assume accounts for myself and my boss going to several games. I remember during a game with Missouri, where their fans mentioning that Ole Miss has free admission to their softball games. When your football program makes money like theirs, you can give away the Title IX sports to the alumni. Softball’s only problem is their stadium. It’s the only thing that keeps me from really recommending it like I do the baseball since their upgrade. Athletic Director Mario Moccia was interviewed on the radio during a game there and he acknowledged it. Apart from another large, earmarked donation (which is how the baseball stadium got upgraded), I can’t imagine it happening. (The program also mentions that the softball program lead all the rest in community service. Congratulations on that.)
You see, NMSU is having some money problems as a whole at the university. I couldn’t speak as to why. I do at least get the impression that the university is committed to its athletic programs. I can at least compare them favorably to UTEP in El Paso. In spite of having a much larger community, their storied basketball program is floundering and their football program, even with a stadium that gets on national TV every year with the Sun Bowl, sucks worse. The Triple-A Chihuahuas couldn’t have picked a better time to have appeared and plucked all those frustrated sports dollars away from the university. Their soccer program gets good attendance. Their women’s basketball team is pretty good. I don’t know about their softball or volleyball teams, but they’re both below the Aggie programs. (The volleyball team plays at Memorial Gym, not the “Don.”) They don’t even have a baseball team.
NMSU’s men’s basketball team is fairly solid. We hope the new coach, Paul Weir, continues the tradition. The women’s team seems to be on a good track too. Volleyball and softball both do well thanks to some good, long term coaching stability. Soccer is a work in progress, but I think they are making progress. But the football program is cursed. I don’t know what other word to use. It has to kill Moccia and every AD who preceded him to see the stadium filled for a high school football game and games against the Lobos. (UTEP is too “big time” to play the Aggies here anymore. No doubt NMSU would drop playing them if they weren’t close enough for Aggie fans to easily travel to.) This attendance shows that the community would love to come out and see a good game. They just don’t think New Mexico State football can provide a good game against any opponent.
This continuously losing football program has the unfortunate effect of dragging down the other sports, at least in perception. As shown above, football and men’s basketball are paying the bills, but people equate the football team losing with the rest of the programs being losers as well. Even in basketball, where fans should know better, they’re never surprised when they lose. Nobody’s expecting a Rose Bowl bid, but an Aggie football team that could qualify for a crappy bowl game would do wonders, and would boost all the other programs along with it.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any answers. I said at the beginning I wasn’t advocating for anything. If smart people whose job it is to figure this stuff out are befuddled, somebody from the bleachers is going to be clueless. I’m at least glad I discovered the smaller sports programs at NMSU. I’ve really been well entertained by them. I do have some fear they could disappear (like the equestrian program) or be severely degraded if the football program collapses, not from losing too often, but because of other financial problems at the university. I’m pretty sure that the football team doing well would alleviate that concern. It’s just a question of how.
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