Athletic Budget Update #46

Washington State has withdrawn from competing in the last of three football games with Hawaii by paying a $300,000 buyout to escape the contract.

Gainsville.com has an extensive article highlighting the financial strength of Florida's athletic program. 

Odds and Ends:  

CTsportslaw.com has a very interesting article about a lawsuit that was filed by Marist University against their former men's basketball coach, Matt Brady (who is now the coach at James Madison) for failing to honor the terms of his contract.  CTSportslaw stated, "The contract allegedly contained two key terms.  First, Brady was precluded from discussing employment opportunities and accepting another head coaching position without the written consent of Marist.  Second, if the contract was terminated, Brady agreed to “end any and all contact with all Marist basketball program recruits” and to refrain from offering scholarships to Marist players, or anyone Brady or his staff recruited to play at Marist."  Ultimately four individuals who were deemed Marist recruits by the institution went to JMU. 

The New York Times ran a very interesting interactive graphic that details how individuals spend every moment of their day.  The ability to sort various subgroups of people (by age, gender, family size, education level and other factors) is especially fascinating.  I was personally surprised by a number of things I learned in the graphics and thought it would be worth bringing the link to your attention as you consider the best times to schedule contests for enhancing fan attendance, to better understand some of the competing interests that can impact ticket sales, and of course seeing what is competing for the consumer's wallet and attention.

The Sporting News ran a review of all of the NFL's ticket promotions (AFC and NFC) for the 2009 season. It contains some good information to consider in your ticketing decisions. If you haven't already, I encourage you to sign up for a free daily Sporting News subscription.  It's a great sports daily modeled after a traditional newspaper.  You won't be disappointed. 

As a follow up for those readers who read UltimateSportsInsider.com's earlier posts about the Pursuit of Prestige and The Golden Throne, I thought you might enjoy reading about Liberty University's installation of an 11-acre, $4 million skiing facility and lodge - which was constructed with artificial snow for year-round use.

Use Code SUMMER03

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