The real reasons for Calipari's exit from Memphis surfaces.

[JoeHova]

It's not a dead league. ESPN is paying the WNBA for those TV rights (for 7 more years too). If the league was dead, why would they do that? $12 million per year is nothing at all, that's less than $1 million per team in losses, and that's only if we take sports owners at their word for the first time in history. As late as 1965, the Red Sox drew 8,000 fans per game. The Brewers drew less than that in 1972. The White Sox drew less than 6,000 in 1970. Sports leagues and teams (really, any business) take time to build a fan base.

 

Also, as I've mentioned, people often totally ignore the indirect benefits for the NBA (and basketball in general) in continuing to support the WNBA.

[homer]

My opinion that is that a decent developmental league would have larger indirect benefits for the NBA than the WNBA currently provides.

[endaround]

Well it has now become official, Memphis has to vacate their 2007-2008 season.

[bjkrautk]

It's not a dead league. ESPN is paying the WNBA for those TV rights (for 7 more years too). If the league was dead, why would they do that? $12 million per year is nothing at all, that's less than $1 million per team in losses, and that's only if we take sports owners at their word for the first time in history. As late as 1965, the Red Sox drew 8,000 fans per game. The Brewers drew less than that in 1972. The White Sox drew less than 6,000 in 1970. Sports leagues and teams (really, any business) take time to build a fan base.

 

Also, as I've mentioned, people often totally ignore the indirect benefits for the NBA (and basketball in general) in continuing to support the WNBA.

 

I would assume that ESPN/ABC pays to broadcast WNBA games so they can continue to broadcast NBA games. So far as I can tell, they don't promote the bundling of the leagues publicly....but I very much doubt it is coincidence that both leagues broadcast rights run through the 2015-2016 season. (Admittedly, though, I don't care, as I don't watch nearly as much ESPN as I did a decade ago.)

[LouisEly]

Back to scholarships. Depending on the sport, being a scholarship athlete is only about 1% fun. Football demands the most time from its players. Beyond going to class lets say 3 hrs a day, another 8-10 is spent doing football related activities including practice, film, workouts and other team related duties. The last couple hours in the day are there for meals and study. In the offseason it the committment time goes down by a couple hours a day but it is still very time consuming. Another thing people need to remember is that all scholarships are paid for by the boosters of the Athletic department(at least at UW). No school money is used to pay for the scholarships. In essence, the school and athletic departments are two seperate entities.

In regards to the time and schedule demands, it is exactly like someone who works full time while going to school and lots of people do that. Except instead of making minimum wage or slightly more, the athletes get their tuition, books, and meals paid for. If the value of a scholarship is $20,000/year and you compare that to someone making $10/hour working while in school, that means someone would have to work 2000 hours a year to make $20,000 which breaks down to 40 hours/week, 50 weeks/year. So athletes are generally making the equivalent of a full time job. Actually more - the person making $10/hour is taxed on that whereas scholarships aren't taxed.

 

The UW is lucky that it has two major sports that are profitable; my understanding is that the football team funds the entire athletic department and the basketball team's profit is gravy for the university. Not many schools have both football and basketball programs that are successful enough to bring in that kind of revenue.

[dadofandrew]

UW also has hockey...very few colleges have 3 profitable sports.

[LouisEly]

The seats haven't been filled much lately for hockey so I'm not sure how profitable hockey is right now. I guess that depends on luxury box revenue which in this economy is probably down. My wager would be that hockey is breaking even right now.

[trwi7]

The seats haven't been filled much lately for hockey so I'm not sure how profitable hockey is right now. I guess that depends on luxury box revenue which in this economy is probably down. My wager would be that hockey is breaking even right now.

Huh? Last year they averaged 13,728 with a 15,237 capacity. That's exceptional for college hockey.

[hawing]

Plus UW isn't paying rent to Dane County for use of the Coliseum anymore. (I'll be in the cold, cold ground before I call it the Alliant Energy Center.)

 

Incidentally, LouisEly, terrific avatar.