OSU needs money and will find better uses for it than this.
Oregon State AD Bob De Carolis eagerly awaits money from the new Pacific-12 Conference TV deal to kick in next fall to help the entire program.
De Carolis said OSU should have about $9 million dollars after buying out the Learfield Sports contract. Learfield paid about $5.5 million a year to OSU for broadcast rights. The buyout is about $1.5 million
The plans for that money is to begin paying down the $20 million of debt to the university and OSU Foundation. They helped the athletic budget the last few years and with the Reser Stadium expansion.
Repayment could take six or seven years, and that will cut into the first year’s $9 million. After seeing what’s left, investment will go back into all the programs.
De Carolis hopes an additional $5 million will be distributed to the schools in the fall of 2013 if DirectTV and Dish Network signs on with the conference.
Fundraising concerns
De Carolis is concerned with money raised from the fans in the wake of two losing seasons. His goal of 12,000 donors by 2012 fell short. There are about 7,500 with two weeks to go.
“We are not as close as we want to be,” De Carolis said. “We’ve increased but not anywhere near what we need. We haven’t done a good job articulating the message or it’s falling on deaf ears.”
Another BASF fundraising push will happen in January. The plan is to come up with another marketing idea to help raise money since 2012 is upon us.
19 comments
Mike says:
Dec 15, 2011
BDC should talk to me
Matt says:
Dec 15, 2011
Football wins is key to everything athletically. The downward trend is disturbing when looking at our football program so it should come as no surprise that donors aren’t excited and thus aren’t giving money. For those who think it primarily is because of the economy think again. Our lovely neighbors down south are doing just fine, seeing ticket sales soar. The largest crowd to watch a football game in OR history happened at Autzen this past year. Conclusion? Wins mean everything.
It will truly be interesting to see how many season ticket holders OSU loses because of the results the past couple of seasons. I know the true orange and black fans don’t like to see the so-called “bandwagon fans” but as it stands OSU could really use the money. Fans who are on the cusp of season ticket holder or not are going to see the results from the past two seasons and may not want to budget money to see a bad team for next year, even if it is $250 or whatever.
Also, I respect Bobby D for being objective in saying that he doesn’t want to make a knee jerk reaction among the coaches, however, I also think he is understating (big time) the need and necessity for wins and what they mean for our athletic programs. Not sure what he saying behind closed doors, but the crap he is feeding the media gives the impression that these results are acceptable and are not nearly high of a priority as they should be. De Carolis needs to demand that we, not only have a winning season and go to a bowl, but there should be an expectation of 7 or 8 wins next year if Riley and company are truly serious about their jobs. This passive approach to dealing with inconsistent and subpar results is NOT getting the job done and it’s about time for some accountability.
bbb says:
Dec 15, 2011
its winning that opens up the ears bob. win win win win win win win win win win win win win!
BeaverDon says:
Dec 15, 2011
Come on. It’s clear Bob doen’t care about the Beaver fans. He will still get his trips to the Fiesta Bowl and Rose Bowl as a Pac-12 AD, and now he has $20 milion on the Pac-12, maybe more, plus a share of the Pac-12 Bowl money. The 12,000 by 2012 because they ” haven’t done a good job articulating the message or it’s falling on deaf ears.” It of course has nothing to do with the team losing 4 straight Civil Wars, losing out on two chances to go to the Rose Bowl, two losing seasons, and never doing better than the Sun Bowl. Nope it was they”haven’t done a good job articulating the message or it’s falling on deaf ears.”
pfbeaver says:
Dec 15, 2011
Winning means a lot. I like winning. I enjoy watching the beavers win, but it’s the losing that really gets to me. When I’m at Reser and I watch the beavers lose I feel like I just got kicked in the balls. I’m a season ticket holder, and I enjoy the trip to corvallis(3 hours drive). It’s a nice get away. Last year BDC increased the price of our tickets like $250 per seat. It honestly pissed me off. Sure do that after an up year, but to do that after a horrible season where the team looked like they just didn’t bother to show up on several games during the season. Well I think I’m going to downgrade my seats this year. I just don’t feel like paying so much to get repeatedly kicked in the balls.
AndyPanda says:
Dec 15, 2011
“We haven’t done a good job articulating the message or it’s falling on deaf ears.”
Oregon St. has done a good job of articulating the message, and it’s not falling on deaf ears. The message is don’t expect to get what you are paying for, so people aren’t going to pay for what they aren’t getting.
SoOrAaron says:
Dec 15, 2011
+1. Indeed! Is anyone else starting to think this guy is the guy we need to fire? Lets be clear, he’s the strategist calling the shots that most directly affect the current situation as well as the future…
AndyPanda says:
Dec 15, 2011
“If DirectTV and Dish Network signs on with the conference?”
I’ve seen and heard this several times now, and its very disturbing. While Comcast covers a number of high density communities in the state and Pac-12 footprint, the majority of the AREA in the footprint is NOT served by Comcast. Northwest residents are already all too aware of what happens, or more accurately, what doesn’t happen, in dealing with Comcast.
If Commissioner Larry Scott thinks the Comcast and Time-Warner deals cover the distribution needs for the Pac-12, it is one of the few things he has mis-read.
Carriage with the major satellite distributors is mandatory if the Conference and its members are going to come anywhere near maximizing the potential of this.
There seems to be a general attitude that it will just happen, but that’s a dangerous assumption, and the $5 million, not to mention the value of maintaining visibility with their customers, should make that clear.
Both local administrators and the conference office needs to hear repeatedly that this needs to be a priority, not an incidental.
BeaverDon says:
Dec 15, 2011
Cliff,
I have a question. “De Carolis said OSU should have about $9 million dollars after buying out the Learfield Sports contract. Learfield paid about $5.5 million a year to OSU for broadcast rights. The buyout is about $1.5 million”, so the Beavers buy out Learfield, what happens to Mike Parker and Beaver sports broadcasts? Will the Pac-12 assign Radio and TV announcers? Will the same radio statiions be carrying Beaver sports?
Cliff Kirkpatrick says:
Dec 15, 2011
Parker told me he’ll still be employed, and probably be doing more stuff. Radio should stay the same.
Aaron says:
Dec 15, 2011
A thought: wouldn’t this be a prime time to recruit a new athletic director? Big money on it’s way? New ideas how to use it? A fresh start with money to open new doors?
Look at the messes BDC has gotten us into. Should we trust him with these upcoming windfall of funds to do what’s best for the future of the department?
(what a provocative story this could make for a columnist!)
Matt says:
Dec 15, 2011
He has done some good things. He did spearhead the Raising Reser campaign and has done well with facility improvements like Truax, Gill interior/exterior renovations, and the Sports Performance Center/bball facility. He found Craig Robinson. He found Scott Rueck. He’s talked Pat Casey into not retiring several times, including this past year. The only thing that’s missing is him calling out Riley because he’s stuck in his little bubble with his good buddy buddy coaches. If we have another losing season next year it is time for Riley to move on.
OS_Beaver says:
Dec 15, 2011
I see the game vs. Howard pretty close to what appears to be the consensus. What I want to see is Roberto Nelson getting comfortable in his role of adding close to 15 points a game and Eric Moreland played for over 15 minutes. The guy was a beast defensively last game and he provides way more potential on both ends of the floor then does McShane. He is a guy who needs his development accelerated so he can be a big contributor this year. He definitely is capable of it. Hopefully Collier is good inside and Cunningham keeps attacking.
OSU 84, Howard 63
Howard @ Oregon St. Preview w/ Power Rankings:
http://beaverbyte.com
dili says:
Dec 15, 2011
Bob DeCarolis is in Riley addiction denial if he pretends to be surprised that ticket sales fell nealry 5,000 short. Who in their right mind wants to see a patheticaly boring football product get beat up Saturday after Saturday. Our offense wasn’t enjoyable to watch all year long. And Riley has stated no changes are coming. The college leadership needs to stand up and tell Riley that he did a crappy coaching job this year, and if he doesn’t make significant changes right away his job is in jeaopardy. I am not going to buy tickets next season and the majority of my friends who are long-time Beaver football addicts tell me they are not going to either. We are fed up with DeCarolis and his this coaching staff of football imbicils.
BeavsBelieve says:
Dec 15, 2011
You got a frog in your pocket?
Brad says:
Dec 17, 2011
Just to clarify: the BASF donors are 4500 short of the goal. Season tickets are a different number. Next year I think the latter will be huge because of Wisconsin and the Civil War coming to town.
bob says:
Dec 16, 2011
It’s not worth the drive, the parking scramble, the long walk to the stadium, the long lines at the heads, and all the other game day hassles unless we win. It’s just easier to watch the beat down on TV, then I can just turn it off. Every game I went to this year, (before I gave up) to include the Sac State game, I left pissed off and grumpy.
Whole different story when the Beavs get the W.
Chris says:
Dec 16, 2011
How much will my bill be if Directv gives each Pac-12 team $5M? Oh lord.
JAHALL says:
Dec 16, 2011
Bob,
Be careful what you wish for. When DirectTV and Dish sign up and every game is shown on the PAC12 network you will have some serious competition.
You’re first mistake is that you have or project a belief that the fans/alumni owe something to the program. They don’t owe jack! It is up to you to make the experience worthwhile so that they freely give.
You’re finally listening to game day complaints, good for you. Do something about it and don’t do a half assed penny pinching job of it.
I like what Robinson has done with the basketball team this year. The Orange Express is back!
Now you need to get in Riley’s ear. He needs to do his part to make the game exciting. Need to open up the playbook, go deep. When we get the lead we should never ease up on the throttle, throttle the opponent. OSU needs to call a few plays every game that are designed to be big plays, not plays that can go big if the opponent makes a miscue.
It’s up to you Bob, if the fans aren’t screaming in the stands next year you’re going to lose your ticket base to DirectTV and Dish a little every year. Why? Because people won’t have to look over their shoulder wondering were big brother is, they will get to see replays on controversial calls, and will regularly get to see updates on other games around the country.
Be careful what you wish for Bob, ’cause if you and the athletic department don’t step it up you’ll get your rear handed to you.