Here's an interesting question and it should help manage our expectations.
If the Wake job and Illinois job were both open and Shaka only cared about $$ who would win the bidding war?
From the businessofcollegesports.com Illinois' athletic department turned a $1.8m profit last year and Wake broke even. They had higher revenue and higher costs.
Their attendance is 15k but revenue around $15m while Wake's attendance last year was about 9200 with revenue around $9m.
The primary driver of revenue is attendance. Illinois' (illinois's?) capacity is 16k. Even if they hire Shaka, galvanize the fan base, they stand to gain at most 1000 more asses in the seats. Also, in that report is the idea that prices are inelastic, I wish they had more stats on it but I buy the notion. Wake on the other hand has the potential to gain up to 4500 more seats. We can offset Shaka's cost with the expectation the we will sell more tickets. Illinois doesn't have the same expectation. However, the demand for the tickets is higher (based on seatgeek which tracks the price of tickets) Illinois' fanbase has a more inelastic demand and thus they could increase revenue that way. However, raising ticket prices in this climate is risky. In this area we have a hidden advantage: our friends in red and blue. Duke, UNC and NC State give us a base of ticket sales that Illinois can't count on. Many of whom will buy season tickets, go to a few WFU games but get excited over the times WFU plays the other members of the big 4. Obviously, Illinois has a large fanbase and it increases exponentially. However, we've seen that Wake's fanbase can be as rabid as any in the country.
Obviously there are more inputs of revenue but this is the easiest to calculate and the most important.
My conclusion is that while Wake is at a disadvantage in such a scenario, but the disadvantage may not be as big as some here think. We can offset a lot of Shaka's (or any big name) salary with expected revenue better than most. Just running a few examples of increases of tickets sold * expected ticket price*home games will give you an idea of what the change would be. With just these variables we generate $67 per ticket/game. Obviously there are other variables but I don't have access to them. As AD, I sure hope Wellman has an idea of the parameters of these variables because if not we're selling ourselves short in a big way.
Wake Forest has a unique brand; elite academics, competitive sports and a small campus environment. Sometimes I really feel that we're not monetizing it. A marquee coach can help with that; think Coach K Amex commercials. Guys like Shaka and Stevens have great marketing appeal nationwide.