Louisiana athletics operated at $8 million deficit during 2023 fiscal year

[UL_Cajuns]

Some good news is that we have some decent opponents coming to Cajun Field next year: Tulane, App, USA, Troy, but limited seating. In 2025 hopefully we can get JMU and Coastal home because there are no great home games in 2025 besides USM for the new stadium. Troy and USA will be on the road.

[ultracajun]

So they were in the red the year before as well.

[Scott Malkinson]

So they were in the red the year before as well.

Univ will pay it off with the general fund

I think the biggest issue from the report is plummeting ticket sales. Especially in you 2 major sports

[cajun4life]

The new contract for Marlin should have been half that knowing the financial crunch. Extended because we made the NCAA ok but extended at that 700k salary was just bone head.

I won’t say that, he earned the extension. But any coach here should be required to be responsible and held accountable for butts in the seat.

[UL_Cajuns]

I won’t say that, he earned the extension. But any coach here should be required to be responsible and held accountable for butts in the seat.

Good point. Give them an Incentive to put butts in the seats as part of their salary.

[Million$Mullet]

I won’t say that, he earned the extension. But any coach here should be required to be responsible and held accountable for butts in the seat.

He earned his one year extension at the previous base. The new contract base is much lower and more incentive based.

[JamesTheJeweler]

Don't forget the money we saved between Napier and Des' salaries

[JamesTheJeweler]

I just can't understand how one would think we have a spending problem when our two biggest money generators can't average 40% of their attendance capacity. We get brutalized by Ticketmaster and how long did that take to change? We get brutalized by Sodexo, and how long will that take to change? We lost $3mm in revenue after Barnes and Noble took over merchandise. How long will that take to change and when will the person responsible for that jackassery be fired?

If you look at the trends, season tickets and attendance have declined three straight years in basketball and two straight years in football. We don't pay full cost of attendance and we have a skeleton staff for everything. The issue is generating revenue in the current climate of collegiate athletics.

When I found out we weren't selling out Lamson and Russo, I knew we were in trouble. I had no idea it would be this bad. And this is from LAST year. Wait until the 2023 numbers get tailed up.

Man, you're just being negative. We'll never make up that deficit, much less increase profit with all these negative posts on this board. All this negativity is what's killing the program. If only we could stop asking the obvious questions and holding the administration's feet to the fire, we could really take this program to the next level. The sunshine brigade and the rainbow coalition is the only thing holding it together.

[JamesTheJeweler]

Hmmmm. Maybe THIS is why they've failed to address the contract situation between Michigan St and Wake Forest. They knew this report was coming out and didn't want to add fuel to the fire. Kinda makes sense.

[Scott Malkinson]

Hmmmm. Maybe THIS is why they've failed to address the contract situation between Michigan St and Wake Forest. They knew this report was coming out and didn't want to add fuel to the fire. Kinda makes sense.

Maggard has not spoken publicly about the rumors around that. Makes you say hmmm especially if it was MSU idea.

[CajunNation]

I have been scratching my head about the attendance drop here. It doesn't make sense. We have been a leader in attendance in the SBC in every major sport and in all of the G5 in the diamond sports and sometimes football even when Hud was here.

While other SBC members have either stayed the same or improved, our attendance has fallen off of a cliff in football in the face of major successes and now even our diamond sports are taking a hit.

What is happening here that isn't happening elsewhere? It isn't play on the field. Has inflation hurt our fan base more than others? Has streaming hurt us more? Does an in state P4 hurt us more? Is our fan experience worse than others? Have the youth given up on sports more around here? Has the university failed to keep the fan base engaged?

I really am perplexed. Whatever it is though, it seems to be happening here and not at places like APP and Southern Miss.

What is the difference?

[Ragin9221]

I have been scratching my head about the attendance drop here. It doesn't make sense. We have been a leader in attendance in the SBC in every major sport and in all of the G5 in the diamond sports and sometimes football even when Hud was here.

While other SBC members have either stayed the same or improved, our attendance has fallen off of a cliff in football in the face of major successes and now even our diamond sports are taking a hit.

What is happening here that isn't happening elsewhere? It isn't play on the field. Has inflation hurt our fan base more than others? Has streaming hurt us more? Does an in state P4 hurt us more? Is our fan experience worse than others? Have the youth given up on sports more around here? Has the university failed to keep the fan base engaged?

I really am perplexed here. Whatever is though, it seems to be happening here and not at places like APP and Southern Miss.

What is the difference?

I can tell you exactly what is going on. Perfect example is the Icegators.

When they changed the tailgate, ticket prices, and the overall experience, and over charging the average fan said I am done.

Same with the Icegators. Now you have to make good with the public.

The University will have to work work double to get these fans back.

They going to have to get out in the public domain they going to have to meet people shake people hands. They going to have to revamp tailgating, they going to have to actually get out in the community and invite them back into Cajun Field

This situation a new stadium will not fix, putting things on Facebook, or Twitter will not fix.

Until they start doing a complete change on how they look at fans. Only then it will start turning around.

I don’t think they will ever figure it out

[ManAboutTown]

I have been scratching my head about the attendance drop here. It doesn't make sense. We have been a leader in attendance in the SBC in every major sport and in all of the G5 in the diamond sports and sometimes football even when Hud was here.

While other SBC members have either stayed the same or improved, our attendance has fallen off of a cliff in football in the face of major successes and now even our diamond sports are taking a hit.

What is happening here that isn't happening elsewhere? It isn't play on the field. Has inflation hurt our fan base more than others? Has streaming hurt us more? Does an in state P4 hurt us more? Is our fan experience worse than others? Have the youth given up on sports more around here? Has the university failed to keep the fan base engaged?

I really am perplexed here. Whatever is though, it seems to be happening here and not at places like APP and Southern Miss.

What is the difference?

It's not hard to figure out. Incompetent athletics administration with no clue how to connect with our very different culture paired with a dysfunctional University Administration who ONLY care about the bottom line and have ZERO desire to have athletics out-shining academics in any way.

[Boomer]

I have been scratching my head about the attendance drop here. It doesn't make sense. We have been a leader in attendance in the SBC in every major sport and in all of the G5 in the diamond sports and sometimes football even when Hud was here.

While other SBC members have either stayed the same or improved, our attendance has fallen off of a cliff in football in the face of major successes and now even our diamond sports are taking a hit.

What is happening here that isn't happening elsewhere? It isn't play on the field. Has inflation hurt our fan base more than others? Has streaming hurt us more? Does an in state P4 hurt us more? Is our fan experience worse than others? Have the youth given up on sports more around here? Has the university failed to keep the fan base engaged?

I really am perplexed here. Whatever is though, it seems to be happening here and not at places like APP and Southern Miss.

What is the difference?

…….I would guess all on here don’t know that reason…..best to me is all the above…..COVID, inflation, LSU rebound, the TV party is easier, the aging of UL’s greatest generation, the lack of interest by incoming students, administration not pushing the situation!!!!

[ManAboutTown]

I wonder who in the media will do their jobs and corner Maggard on this. And then I wonder how hard Maggard et al will dodge every single question asked.

Didn't athletics just release a "state of the program" announcement just a few weeks ago? I don't recall addressing this at all. More brilliant communication.