Stop donating to GoFundMe. Donate to your local school

[moose97]

Clearly GoFundMe is the new hotness college hockey. Stop donating to "other" teams & make sure your own school isn't going under.

[Ed Trefzger]

The one thing I can say for GoFundMe is that the donations are transparent. Donating to a school directly is a great idea, but in high-profile situations that are efforts to save a program, the public tally of how much is given is a plus.

[JohnsonsJerseys]

Agreed, but I think the original poster's point was the trend appears to be that more institutions want everyone else to pay for their school's athletic programs. Gets the benefits of exposure for the school with minimal (if any) cost. If your own school can't support the program then I guess it goes away. Alumni and fans stepping up sadly only adds fuel to the fire and give more teams an incentive to see if they can cut some fringe sports from the budget in their town and get fans to pick-up the tab.

[Sean Pickett]

Agreed, but I think the original poster's point was the trend appears to be that more institutions want everyone else to pay for their school's athletic programs. Gets the benefits of exposure for the school with minimal (if any) cost. If your own school can't support the program then I guess it goes away. Alumni and fans stepping up sadly only adds fuel to the fire and give more teams an incentive to see if they can cut some fringe sports from the budget in their town and get fans to pick-up the tab.

Having researched the available financial statements for every DI program since 2009 I can state that reported contributions have come nowhere near the cost of running a program for a single season. In looking at UAH and RMU it does appear that they are trying to change that dynamic:

UAH raised $750 thousand in spring 2020 for the 2020-21 season while UAH reported total expenses of $1,603,750 for 2019-20. They then announced that fall they had commitments totaling $17 million over ten years, which would cover all hockey costs, at least at the beginning of the ten years.

RMU is looking at raising $7 million over 5 years/$1.4 million a season. For 2019-20 the school reported total expenses of $1,448,957, so like UAH, this would just about cover annual expenses for 5 seasons.

On the other hand, I'm not sure what Alaska-Anchorage is thinking with the $3 million goal they set for the fans to raise. The school reported just over $2.2 million in expenses for 2019-20 and an average of just under $2.4 million per season in the nWCHA era, so the $3 million would only pay for 1+ seasons. Furthermore, during the same period contributions to the hockey program averaged just $30,000, with a high of only $63,000. So this one-time campaign is unlikely to put the program on a solid financial foundation for even a few years.

As JohnsonsJersey said, it is the schools that supports the programs, even with fan contributions. You can look at my NCAA financials spreadsheet to see contributions are actually a small percentage for most programs*. However, if you do, please remember that the percentages are for total reported revenues, not total reported expenses, which are usually higher.

By the way, while LSSU and FSU have long been near the bottom in expenditures, BSU cut its expenses by 27% in 2018-19, including Coach Serratore taking a 60% cut in total compensation and his assistants taking a 58% cut in total compensation. A sign of concern?

Sean

*It appears that North Dakota reports Champions Club donations to the overall athletic department in general

[beaverhockeyfan]

You also have to figure in the cut Go Fund Me takes. 3% of the $7 million RMU is asking is another $210,000 that needs to be raised.

[moose97]

Having researched the available financial statements for every DI program since 2009...

Seanl

All due respect, you have wasted a ton of time with your research. I know first hand discussing with people within athletic departments that would know otherwise that statements you have made are completely inaccurate.