Open Thread (11/16/2007)

So in the event the Illinois football team goes to a bowl game, where will they practice until the Jan. 1 game? Do they use that new practice facility, the 80 yd. $12 million dollar stadium? The Uben Building? Or am I confusing that with the basketball practice stadium? I know the Beifeldt Building was $4 million and that houses the athletic administration offices and the Illini Hall of Fame. The south athletic fields sure have come along way from the cement tennis courts and fenced nets adjacent to the stadium. I can't seem to keep up with all the building going on around Assembly Hall. Is there a Hotel and Convention Center going up next to the round barns, too?

>So quit complaining about the price of buildings, bowl teams earn it back, and a lot more.

If they earn it all back, then why does every student have to pay an athletic tax, which allows the athletic department to make millionaires out of Ron Zook, Bruce Weber, and Ron Guenther. Why don't they pay their own way for a change, instead of on the backs of struggling students?

Little less than a decade ago there was an athletic fee tax that bailed out the DIA which basically went bankrupt.

So what I'm understanding from the very informative discussion above is that the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics is a privately-owned business enterprise, whose revenue is from ticket sales and donations, separate from the University of Illinois academic institution?

Is the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics at all supported by revenues from the general fund of the U of I?

So what I'm understanding is we have the DIA, an auxiliary business of some kind, where the revenues generated from ticket prices and  private donations fund its day to day operation, with extra money coming from large private donations, contracts from television networks for broadcasting rights, and bowl game (and March b-ball tournament) prize monies. It also appears there exists some student fee monies going toward the Assembly Hall. The claim that students pay a fee that goes straight to the DIA has been disputed.

At the same time, the employees that work in the athletic departments get "benefits" from taxpayer money, and all the buildings are owned by the State of Illinois? Is that a correct assessment of the DIA's relationship to the University of Illinois?

Also, the I-Fund and Grants-in-Aid programs are strictly private donations to support academic scholarships for student athletes. Is that right as well?

And is that true, to be "in the Big 10" requires fielding a mandatory football and basketball team? Why does the Board of Trustees have to approve the football coach's salary? He's not considered faculty is he?

If the DIA employees salaries do not come from taxpayer money, neither do their benefits.  The actual cost a university department pays for an employee is more than just the salary dollars.  They also have to pay the university for the benefits.  So the salary money and benefits money come from the same fund.  If the source of that fund is not tax money then neither the salary nor the benefits are paid from tax money.

Basically, it works like this:  DIA has a budget just like any other department.  From that budget they must pay all of their operating expenses including salaries, benefits, construction, building operations, heat, electric, communications, vehicles, etc.  Some of these expenses are paid to other university departments such as F&S, motor pool, CITES, and the power plant.

The only difference with DIA is the source of these funds, for which I cannot vouch.  They may come entirely from self-generated revenues, or thay may recieve a portion of the University's budget pie.  I don't know.

If building construction is funded by DIA, ownership of the building belongs to the University.  This is because the DIA is part of the university regardless of it's funding source.  I don't know if they have to pay "rent" for the buildings they use.