Time to step up by signing Hall

[lcitsh]

It's nice that so many of you want to keep the Halls in town, but it's going to come down to the fact that we, the alumni, need to give up the money to genuinely support this program. If alumni can come up with guaranteed money to sign football coaches for several years, we can do the same for basketball coaches. I'm not talking about buying season tickets, although that would be a proper start, but donate money to the athletic program specifically earmarked for the basketball coaches' salaries. It's not just about keeping J. Kelley and Meredith, but about keeping Rosalyn and Bill, also.

[CajunRebel]

Turbine,

If you look below, you will see three graphs that will help me illustarte my point.

As you can see, as the budgets of womens basketball teams increased greatly, yet their revenues increased only slightly. Contrast this with men's basketball, and you can see why a university (that can't afford it) will not be willing to invest a whole lot in women's athletics.

I did not put a dollar value on the positive publicity, however you have to realize that the impact of a successful women's basketball team is simply not that great. The truth is, not too many people in Lafayette are going to care about a Sun Belt Women's Basketball team.

Just look at our softball team. Softball is by far our most successful sport, and because of this there is a good impact. But it is a small impact at best. Softball doesn't make the front page (unless it's playoff time). Softball doesn't get games on TV (unless it's a game or two in the WCWS). It's very unfortunate, but it's true.

Now don't get me wrong, Coach Hall definately deserves a raise. The turnaround of this team by Coach Hall has been extrordinary! But you have to look at it from Nelson's perspective. UL has one of the smallest budgets in DI, and I can guarantee you that we don't have an extra $15-20,000 lying around. This money is going to have to come out of someone's budget. Looking at those graphs, do you really want to take money away from football or men's basketball?

I agree with Icitsh though, this sounds like something the alumni should really get involved with. We have a gem with Coach Hall, and we really can't afford to lose him.

P.S. I ran some numbers to see if attendance alone will be able to cover the raise. The answer is no. My math is below.

Our average attendance increased by 140 from last year. 314 to 454 fans.

Let's say that there are 10 games next year, and the attendance rises by 140 again, but 40 of these people are students who get in free. With 100 people paying $6 a ticket, there will be $6000 in extra revenue; not enough to cover the raise.

[CajunRebel]

graph 2

[CajunRebel]

graph 3

[Turbine]

Great info CajunRebel, are those national figures? Do they only include schools that increased funding? What were the variables?

How can anyone say the investment in Hall so far has is not paying dividends? How can we say the reward has been tapped out?

[TheRaginTruth]

Well cajun rebel.

I beleive you have some inacurate data.

There are many women's basketball teams that will make money and all the teams in the final four cannot lose money because of the NCAA money that is guaranteed.

The lady cajuns were one game away from getting that money that the men will receive. So, does in not make sence to have two teams that have a chance to get that money or just one?

And will we ever make any money on football? NO!

I bet if you compare the men's and women's budget that it is not even close.

So let's look at this practically.

Did everyone know that every DI school in the state gets the same amount of money from the state!!

All the other money comes from the school (which UL probably does not contribute over the state money) & booster!

So if the support grows and the university would kick in more every sport could win big with all the good coaches that we have!


Any money invested unwisely will lose money and investing in a winner is a sure thing!!!!

Geaux Cajuns

[Clutch0364]

TheRaginTruth...I am not saying his data is correct but if you believe it to be wrong I wouldn't mind seeing if you can find any thing different.

I can see your arguement but just because a woman's team makes the tourney and gets money does not mean they make a profit.

[TheRaginTruth]

Well Clutch

You have to start with a base figure that would have to be spent must. Because you have to have a women's team. But the investment made over the min (which is UL) would cover the investment made over the min and actually cut down on the initial investment that had to made any way.

[CajunRecruiter]

Thanks everyone for your support.

I can tell you we are all hard at work on the spring and fall recruiting.

We are excited about next year and many more after that.

Oh if anyone was courious, I voted to pay coach Hall!!

Thanks again,

Bill

[RaginFan2]

Nice looking crowd! I would to have at least that type of crowd for most games next year.