Terps Sports

HOF bad decision

Another looming problem stems from the naming rights agreement the school signed with Comcast Cable Communications, Inc., in 2000 for its new $125 million basketball arena. The Comcast Center opened in 2002.

The naming rights agreement, a copy of which was obtained via an open records request, called for Comcast to pay the school $25 million over the course of 10 years, but retain naming rights for 25 years. The athletic department has used those funds, which will run out in 2016, to help pay its annual debt service.

Beginning in 2016, the department’s annual debt service will increase by roughly $1.4 million, and it is projected to remain in excess of $6 million from 2016 to 2021. Comcast Center is scheduled to be paid off in 2023.

Randy's a good dude. I'll accept what he says - sugarmag - college athletics is not the business world, it's fantasy land at Disneyworld. You have former coaches with no business training in charge. See DY. I've dealt with them for years on different business matters. Athletic department staffers (at all universities, not just UMD) are the dumbest of the dumbest.

I've dealt with athletic departments and universities for years. I don't trust one thing I am told. The cliche - "those who do, do and those who don't teach" can be taken to another level - "those who never did anything, are administrators."

On the other hand, while it is easy to blame DY for these what I think are bad business decisions over the past decade, we do have to remember that, in the end, no major capital project cooked up by DY could have been accomplished without the direct approval of the Board of Regents.

No one on the BOR ever spoke up and said, "wait a minute, the stars are not aligned right now for an expensive new Tyser Tower. Put this notion on the back burner for now."

I am no fan of DY, but she did have putative oversight - and they failed to watch our money bags, or so it seems. Or, maybe these people just think that Messers. Tyser, Gossett, LeFrak, Smith, Clark and the others simply will just keep on writing those big checks.

I thought Mote basically gave DY carte blanche when it came to the athletic department...so if she sold something no one would really question it. I am not surprised the BoR did not speak up since it had Motes backing and he was well respected.

No, they did speak up. On Dr. Motes' recommendation, the BOR endorsed the financing package of the expanded Tyser Tower. The AD ( whoever it is) may not legally commit to such debt financing without official University approval.

I will not sit here idly by and let you slander the good name of Dr. Yao. The woman has a PhD!!!! Sure, its a PhD in "religious counselling" from a mail-order school that is not accredited to give PhDs but that is beside the point. It may not sound like much in the way of business education but what exactly do YOU have?!?!? And, need I remind you, President Mote trusted her explicitly. How does he feel about YOU???

In all seriousness though, the capital plans that revolve around athletics are the AD's decision. Yes, they need sign-off and yes it is part of the role of the school president and members of the Board of Regents to approve them, but let's be realistic here. They hired Yao to do a job. They have to let her do that job and trust her until it becomes clear she's a fuck-tard. We all wish they would've come to their senses earlier and fired that bitch but Mote has his own job to do on a day-to-day basis. He can't be looking over Yao's shoulder every day. He has to delegate and trust that she's not going to completely screw over the athletic department by basically lying and engaging in low-level financial fraud.

Edit to say I just realized this wasn't the lede - the link above went straight to page 3 of the article. my bad.

Also, worst lede ever?

"The amount of revenue generated by the football program each year decreased by roughly $1.6 million from 2005 to 2010, according to annual financial reports Maryland filed to the NCAA. During that span, the team’s expenses rose to a high of roughly $11.7 million in 2008-09, but by 2009-10 they had fallen to roughly $9.8 million, which is slightly less than they were in 2005-06."

I had to read it like 6 times to figure out wtf he was saying.

the level of financial incompetence that was created is mindboggling to me. It'll get fixed. Kevin's doing the right thing by going through all the necessary channels. Randy's pulling a CYA as he has his own career to protect.

Sorry, it was completely tongue-in-cheek. I thought that would be pretty obvious.

It truly is amazing to me looking at the PackPride board how in denial the Wolfpack fans are about what they've just bought themselves. They're too busy laughing at our situation to realize that they're the ones who just bought the Trojan Horse.

15 Years of Free Naming Rights Starts Here.