USF Athletics Budget Balanced on Backs of Students

Thanks to the help of ESPN's Kristi Dosh (@SportsBizMiss), we took up the topic of USF's high athletic fees last night on 10 News.

Most USF students will pay around $1,800 by the time they graduate directly to varsity athletics - on top of their tuition bills. The $15.2 million in subsidies make up 36% of USF's athletics budget - more than any other school in the BCS automatic qualifier conferences.

Here is a link to the story from last night, as well my appearance on our morning show discussing the investigation:

Forbes: Stu Sternberg Getting Richer

An update to my post from March explaining Rays ownership is doing just fine, despite implying the team is struggling to turn a profit; Forbes reports this week:

(Stu) Sternberg, meanwhile, has turned the Tampa Bay Rays into a perennial playoff team by getting a big bang for the buck from his player payroll. The former Goldman, Sachs partner bought the Rays for $200 million in May, 2004 and the team is now worth $331 million, a 66% gain. The stock market is up only 10% since he bought the team.

For those of you counting at home, even if the Rays claim they lost $15-20 million a season (which nobody in their right mind would believe), ownership could still possibly turn a profit if it decided to sell the team right now.

More on Hillsborough Commissioners and Tampa Stadium Talk

It's a tricky position for Hillsborough Commissioners: how to support long-term efforts to keep the Rays without upsetting their "friends" in St. Petersburg or the vocal anti-tax voters around Tampa that put them into office.

With Commissioner Ken Hagan bringing up stadium funding at a budget workshop yesterday, it's a good time to take a look back at what commissioners said about a possible Tampa stadium on the campaign trail:
Commissioners Campaigning - 10/31/10

Also:
Timeline and coverage of Rays' Stadium Saga

Breaking News: Fans Don't Like The Trop

I've seen bogus "studies" this week about cities most overdue for hurricanes (Tampa was #3) and the most dangerous zip codes in the country (Downtown St. Pete was #8). But the sports world had it's own - baseball's best ballparks, judged by fan ratings on review site Yelp.com.

As someone who has been to two-thirds of these parks, I can tell you there are plenty of slights (Wrigley Field 10th? Nationals Park 26th?). There are also head-scratchers, like how the White Sox' U.S. Cellular Field ranked higher than the Diamondbacks' Chase Field.

The Rays ranked 28th, by the way.

Article author Nate Silver, formerly of 538.com, concluded some of the surprises could be explained by fans' perceptions of their team's performance, rather than the stadium.

He also concluded that it's not worth building a retractable roof since the five stadiums with the expensive technology averaged a 3.86 rating, compared to 4.10 without them.

Silver didn't make any conclusions with regards to attendance, however. Maybe it was because the most-popular park belonged to the Pirates (26th in attendance) and other popular parks belonged to the Orioles (22nd), Royals (25th), and Indians (27th).

USF Students Bear Athletic Dept's Growing Pains

By the time the average senior walks across the stage to get his or her diploma this week at USF, he or she will have paid more than $1,600 in fees to help fund the Athletics Department.

With full-time students paying anywhere from $320 to $400+ a year in athletic fees, the university collects $14.5 million of its $34.9 million athletics budget from students. The 42% dependence is more than double any other school in the six major conferences.

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