LSU's athletic department says it expects to lose $80 million in revenue due to the impact of COVID-19 and is laying off employees and reducing salaries of others.
Here's their revenue from the previous year:
I don't understand where the $80m is coming from - I assume the $40m from ticket sales are gone, but I'm not sure where the other $40m comes from... maybe a combination of lost donations, lost TV revenue, and an increase in cost?
Regardless, pretty scary to see an Athletic Department lose ~60% of their revenue
Forums:
DISCLAIMER: Forum topics may not have been written or edited by The Key Play staff.
Comments
Not sure that 40-60% revenue loss is just a LSU thing.
Isn't LSU already operating in the red as an institution?
Yeah, I remember reading an article a couple years ago detailing that. Like pictures of dilapidated dorms and stuff lol
Hokie from Louisiana here. I know what your referring to, and that was an issue with federal funding of Louisiana universities as a whole, not just LSU. They were facing difficulty because the government was going to default (or something similar) on funding of the TOPS program. The TOPS program at the time made in state tuition next to free minus books for anyone with a 3.0 in high school or something like that. That funding going away would have shut down every public school in the state.
I wish you and I had a local watering hole to have a chat in, because I imagine this could devolve into a genuinely fun political chat. I acknowledge my lack of knowledge in your state funded...stuff (my own personal quarantined bar is limiting my vocabulary lol)
I will not shed a tear for a football program that has multiple national championships, a rabid fanbase, zero in state competition and oh yeah, swills at the $EC money trough. I can feel great sympathy for the affected employees, but the bloated football program? Hard nope.
Between Alex Box Stadium (surely been paid off for a while now), the new softball stadium, the hellacious endzone addition, and the $9some-mil/year Eddie O's getting now...they've went cut the work out for their boosters.
I don't think anyone is looking for sympathy for LSU. This is more of a mid-season check in of athletic department health. I know LSU isn't exactly known as a financially responsible institution, but I think it's notable that one of the wealthiest athletic department in the country is looking at a 60% loss.
It wouldn't surprise me if they bring in significantly less in donations, and I also wonder how the media contracts are being handled, since there it overall less inventory. Something tells me that ESPN and their ilk probably negotiated slightly smaller rights deals for this year to compensate, since the normal terms of the contract were certainly upended with all of the restrictions that conferences have placed on themselves.
How much of this is because of lost donation revenue after losing to Mike Leach?
/s that's awful for the people who are having jobs/salaries affected, but like a poster above said, tough to feel bad for a program with the advantages LSU has.
LSU as an athletic department is covered in booster money. They will be fine.
LSU as an institution can't even get AC in their dorms. In Baton Rouge.
I'd guess that a good bit of the 'Other Revenue' category is probably related to ticket sales - concessions, event parking revenue, etc.
Perhaps also possible they were counting on increased revenue after the national championship and will fall that much short of their projections?
Yea, this is my thought as well. I was annoyed ESPN didn't go into deeper detail about where that $80M was coming from.
Did LSU have to buy out all four OOC games they had to cancel? If so, oof.
I'm pretty sure those would fall under some type of force majeure clause and they would not have to pay a cancellation fee.
They weren't financially healthy before COVID so this isn't surprising. If I'm not mistaken their university system was on the brink of bankruptcy a couple years ago.
That translates to $7,272,727.27 per point they scored against Auburn. On a positive note, it's only $1,666,666.67 per point they gave up.
Lol.
What, no more libraries to close or books to sell?
When i went in 2007 I doubled fisted beers into said library and took a pee pee.
I was not 21.
Baton Rouge is the best college football venue I've ever experienced. Whole different ball game there.
Was there after katrina in 05 and was taken to the Tennessee game by some locals. LSU blew a 4th q lead and I was def for 24 hrs.
Louisiana is the shadiest US state Ive ever had the displeasure of operating in. It's basically a third world country. Locals know how to have a good time tho.
I saw True Detective Season 1, and have been to New Orleans multiple times. Based on these limited experiences, I 1000% agree with your comment.
Call up OBJ, he seems to like handing out cash around athletics facilities.