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Basketball Head Coach Candidates

Say Hey Deac said:
I have no insider knowledge, but I'm pretty sure our Athletics Department is not just sitting on a pile of leftover cash. Did you see 60 Minutes this past weekend? The vast majority of university athletics departments lose money each year.
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I am sure it isn't either, but I do know that we have had a massive increase in revenues (based on available information) without actually doing anything to earn it. Maybe that's all going to reduce the university's subsidization of the AD, but it seems logical to me that if we were running a $11mm deficit and the university was happy to subsidize it that they would likely be willing to subsidize a $3-4mm deficit if the AD was actually doing something useful for the university.

FWIW: I don't think it's entirely coincidental that we've been doing a lot of smallish facility improvements lately. Basketball locker rooms, continued baseball renovations, football scoreboard, etc.
 
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TBR said:
While I am sure they are relatively well paid, none of them made more than $175k during fiscal year 2010 as Grobe, [Redacted], and Wellman are the only AD employees to show up on that year's form 990.
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Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if Vidi has scratched six figures by now, but I would kind of be if those other two are. I know the assistants get absolute shit.
 
El Chupacabra said:
I could see us getting close to a top basketball salary if we had to in order to retain a guy, but I'd be skeptical that we would show that much cash to hire a guy. 3 mil is a lot of scratch. We'd definitely have to get rid of Grobe, right?

I don't know though -- Hello+Buckets+Caturday? Anything is possible.
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We might not be able to get it done on the boards, but I know that we can mobilize the boosters that can. I guarantee you that if I said "do you know one guy in the moricle society" level of donors then we'd have a lot of people that do.
 
I doubt we have the money to pay two coaches over $2M.
 
Dented said:
did we offer him $4mil a year 3 years ago?
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Don't know the $ invovled but we had already canned Dino and Ron assumed there was no way Brad Stevens would turn down an ACC gig... and he did. Buzzballs was a hurried back up plan. We underestimated his ties to Indy and sense of loyalty.
 
Les Grossman said:
I think right now for any potential hire, Wake is viewed as a mediocre program in a top basketball conference. There are only two types of coaches who would take such a job. A guy in his 50s who has achieved an average amount of success coaching and is looking for a change, or a young coach at a small school who has yet to break through in the NCAA tournament looking for a break.

What our program desperately needs is the latter. It's needed it for quite some time. Unfortunately for us, Wellman will only hire the former.
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Bingo. You nailed it.
 
WFU1977 said:
Don't know the $ invovled but we had already canned Dino and Ron assumed there was no way Brad Stevens would turn down an ACC gig... and he did. Buzzballs was a hurried back up plan. We underestimated his ties to Indy and sense of loyalty.
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According to some on this board, Stevens was never approached. "Buzzballs" was the target the whole time. The story is that Wellman got together with some of Wake's heavy hitters and laid it out for them two weeks before he canned Dino... That means Ron took all the time he needed to come to a decision that nobody in their right mind would have made.
 
It's weird we can't get a clear answer on that. I have heard Buzz was his guy all along but have also heard we had some feelers out via AD boots on the ground in the first and second NCAA tournament round locations.
 
PhDeac said:
I doubt we have the money to pay two coaches over $2M.
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well i assume we wont have to pay grobe's replacement that kind of cash especially if we pick up a strong up and comer.
 
CheesePritchard said:
It's weird we can't get a clear answer on that. I have heard Buzz was his guy all along but have also heard we had some feelers out via AD boots on the ground in the first and second NCAA tournament round locations.
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It's very easy to "contact" someone without directly "contacting" them.
 
TBR said:
We had $7mm more in television revenue for the 2011-2012 season than we did for the 2010-2011 season (when we hired [Redacted]). About $4m more when the latest contract kicks in. If we have already committed to an additional $11mm in annual expenses then, well, that would be pretty remarkable since we haven't made any major facility improvements that might need to be financed other than the tennis facility or hired new coaches in any major sports. For reference, our budget for the 2010-2011 season (we run a June-July fiscal year) was $42mm. We're talking about more than a 25% increase in revenue.
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thedeacfan said:
If you want a "proven performer", you have to be willing to pay. Why should you be willing to pay that high salary? The "proven performer" is more likely to generate success AND REVENUE. Consequently, the "proven performer" should not "cost" you anything. In fact, they should generate positive cash flow for your program.
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PhDeac said:
I doubt we have the money to pay two coaches over $2M.
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@PhDeac - Given that we are already at ~$3.2 million between Grobe and Buzz, adding another ~$1million to that to get the hoops coach to $2 million certainly seems doable. In light of the additional revenue as referenced by TBR above, even adding $2 million to the pot and paying up to $3 million for the "right" coach should be possible. This is particularly true if that "right" coach resurrects the program. The additional ticket sales, concessions, parking, DC contributions, and license fees for shirts, etc. would have to be substantial as well. (I wish we could find out exactly how much these revenues have fallen since Buzz came on board.)

To be clear, I claim no specific knowledge of finances in the Wake athletic department. And my "proven performer" post above is not based on specific knowledge of the college basketball industry, but I do feel that it is accurate. In any event, I would appreciate your take on these specifics. Thanks...
 
From the little I talk to people who would know stuff about this kind of thing, there doesn't seem to be consensus either, which makes me lean towards Bz being the guy. I know Hatch and Wellman were at the Final Four that year and that was when the decision to can Dino was made. I heard that before the Bz hire, so I know I assumed we had someone in the bag, and was holding out hope it was Stevens, but I haven't heard directly from anyone I trust that this was the case, even if it was "contact" without direct "contact". That doesn't mean that much I know, but after the fact I can usually get the low down on general details that were going down.

I think it would have come out by now, filtered down through the ranks, but the thing that pops up most often is that Bz was the guy from the start, which is just ridiculous.

So that doesn't give me much hope for Wellman turning around and throwing a curveball. It's as likely as him showing up at a gas station Mitt Romney style.
 
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Let me be clear in saying that I have no idea how an athletic department determines its ability to pay coaching salaries, but I have to believe its more complicated than selling parking spots/concessions to go from the $1-1.5mm we've been paying our basketball coach for over a decade to $2 or even $3mm.
 
We are down to 7000-9000 tickets/game. That's millions in lost revenue.
 
buckets said:
Not sure what your point is with this statement
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You said this right above me:

"Let me be clear in saying that I have no idea how an athletic department determines its ability to pay coaching salaries, but I have to believe its more complicated than selling parking spots/concessions to go from the $1-1.5mm we've been paying our basketball coach for over a decade to $2 or even $3mm"

I was pointing out you weren't including a major revenue source.

It's not quite that simple. But if one revenue source can cover the costs, it can be.
 
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