Baron Settlement $1.1M

Rhody72 · Unread post by **Rhody72** » 11 years ago

I heard a blurb on the morning news citing the ProJo that JB would receive $1.1M from URI which is $400K less than what he would have gotten if he stayed. I couldn't find the article in the ProJo.

OBRAM · Unread post by **OBRAM** » 11 years ago

Article is on front page of the newspaper (paper version). It also states in the article that the money will come from generated funds, that URI's athletic budget is $8 million where $3 million come from generated funds and $5 million from state subsidies. I think that is a wrong, state subsidies are not that high in a state that only supports URI's budget of 8%. I think it is another Projo attempt to mislead the taxpayer to believing the state is paying for URI sports.

Projo Story:
http://digital.olivesoftware.com/Olive/ ... w=ZW50aXR5

Captainron@ · Unread post by **Captainron@** » 11 years ago

OBRAM wrote:Article is on front page of the newspaper (paper version). It also states in the article that the money will come from generated funds, that URI's athletic budget is $8 million where $3 million come from generated funds and $5 million from state subsidies. I think that is a wrong, state subsidies are not that high in a state that only supports URI's budget of 8%. I think it is another Projo attempt to mislead the taxpayer to believing the state is paying for URI sports.

It might be right is they consider all the coaches and staff as being on the state payroll. I know the ProJo use to roll out that old tired Baron is the highest paid state employee thing every couple of years....

Rhody72 · Unread post by **Rhody72** » 11 years ago

if the cost of scholarships are considered, the budget is substantial.

OBRAM · Unread post by **OBRAM** » 11 years ago

Well, the coaches are on the state payroll as are all URI Staff, but what the state contributes does not cover the cost. If it did the state would have to put in more than $58 million out of a $700+ million budget.

RF1 · Unread post by **RF1** » 11 years ago

Another misleading piece by the local RU media to make Rhode Islander's think most of what goes on at URI is paid for by taxpayer funds. It doesn't matter whether its BAron's salary/buyout, renovations to the president's house, or professor salaries. It is is more sensationalist type journalism used to work up the reader. The real fact of the matter is that the university only gets about 10% of its total operating budget from state funds (10.5% in 2011).

If the local media is truly that upset about money being wasted, why has there no been no expose on the purchase and renovation of the Dunkin Donuts Center? The renovation costs were far over budget adding to the total cost of a project that was never expected to come anywhere near paying for itself. I would be very surprised if the venue has come anywhere the very robust projected bookings. One reason given that the purchase by the RICC would combine the two facilities so events utilizing both at the same time could increase. other than the boat show which was already booking both through separate parties, what other events have used both?

How are the finances of the DDC doing. It was not expected to pay for itself and the struggling economy is surely make the situation worse. If it is having trouble paying off its debtload, where is the money coming from and how much is it? Our local media is shirking their responsibility of they are not reporting on this.

OBRAM · Unread post by **OBRAM** » 11 years ago

Media loves talking about Barons contract and cost to the state, next they will start on Hurley. They will never talk about the Dunk, which my neighbor thinks Dunkin Donuts owns.
In fact if you take Barons contract, multiply it by 10% (state contributions) and deduct State Income taxes paid by Baron , the State may actually spent less than $25,000 a year on his salary.

Unread post by **ATPTourFan** » 11 years ago

Neverending uphill battle against misinformation. Thanks for NOTHING, Projo.

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 11 years ago

What a bunch of morons at the projo. Irresponsible journalism at its best.

They are telling us that 62.5% of the athletic budget comes from the state? Unbelievable.

At least they are reporting that the money for Baron's buyout is coming from fund raising?

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 11 years ago

Let's see: URI saved 400K by contesting Baron's buyout.

How much are they paying all the lawyers involved?

Doesn't sound like it was worth it in the end.

At least he's gone.

BFC · Unread post by **BFC** » 11 years ago

I'd rather they pay the lawyers.

Unread post by **ATPTourFan** » 11 years ago

Can anyone with Projo digital access use the share feature to put a link to it here in this thread? Thanks.

section(105) · Unread post by **section(105)** » 11 years ago

$$$ well spent.............

RF1 · Unread post by **RF1** » 11 years ago

ATPTourFan wrote:Can anyone with Projo digital access use the share feature to put a link to it here in this thread? Thanks.

The link to the Projo front page story:

http://digital.olivesoftware.com/Olive/ ... w=ZW50aXR5

rodfromcranston · Unread post by **rodfromcranston** » 11 years ago

Great, another Projo hatchet job.
Now all the idiots who don't know anything will be calling WPRO and bitching.
Same old nonsense, and lies from the Projo.
This is a front page story?
Must be a slow news day.
I hope Thorr was blowing smoke at the press about cutting things.
I'd hate to think things will be even
more Mickey Mouse than they currently are.

Native · Unread post by **Native** » 11 years ago

a couple of quick points gleaned from the article:

Jim Baron payed his lawyers (at least) $77K for their efforts.
The email address for the contact point of the article is kgregg@providencejournal.com

Blue Man · Unread post by **Blue Man** » 11 years ago

Well at least it's finally over and done with.

The state attack on URI's athletic budget will stop when we start winning and bringing money in.

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 11 years ago

It's pretty obvious by now, that the only way the URI athletic budget is going to grow, is from NCAA tournament money, TV money, and outside fund raising.

That's it. Forget the state money. It's not there, and it will never be there again. URI has the unfortunate distinction, of being the state school of the smallest state [in many ways, not just area], and especially one that is basically broke.

URI is eventually going to have to survive on it's own. They pretty much are doing that now. The athletic programs are going to have to raise their own money. It's going to always be an uphill battle.

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 11 years ago

It's also obvious by now, that URI cannot support, thru fund raising or any other means, 2 major sports any more. Football will never make money, even if they were big winners.

The only sport at URI that can support itself, and most of the others too, is men's basketball. Just like PC, URI has to do all it can to maximize revenue in that sport.

The sooner Dooley and Thorr and co. realize this, the better. Football is the big money pit. Drop it, and the other sports at URI will improve. I know [sorry Obram] this isn't a popular opinion, but URI has to do it, or all sports here will continue to suffer.

section(105) · Unread post by **section(105)** » 11 years ago

If I heard it right in the Chafee SOS address, URI(and the other state funded schools)must cut expenses to aviod tuition increases.... as a "match" to an increase in state funding............

seanmc94 · Unread post by **seanmc94** » 11 years ago

How does Deleware do it...gambling revenue!

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 11 years ago

Sports gambling [legal] may be coming to all states near you soon....there is more money spent on that in this country than slot machines....by a lot......

As soon as the politicians realize that there is a ton of money to be made by making sports gambling legal everywhere, not just Nevada, it will happen. New Jersey is leading the way here.

Whether it's right or moral or whatever, it won't matter. The pro sports leagues and the NCAA are fighting it, but it looks like it might be a losing battle.

Everybody does it anyway, why not make it legal? Why should Vegas get all the dough? 300-500 BILLION a year by most estimates.

OBRAM · Unread post by **OBRAM** » 11 years ago

You may as well kill all sports if you kill football. College Football is a sport that is growing in interest and basketball has been in a decline for 15 years across the county. The biggest crowds in Kingston the last few years have been for football games. Basketball has become very defensive and not exciting to watch, and the last minutes of the games drag on forever, and it seems like those trends are just getting worse and I have been a URI basketball season ticket holder for decades. Basketball needs fixes, limit fouls at the end of the game, and maybe get rid of 3 point shot except for the last two minutes of each half, but that will never happen.

Unread post by **ATPTourFan** » 11 years ago

Wow, OBRAM, I usually lean with you on this, but not on that last post there.

Unread post by **TruePoint** » 11 years ago

Katherine Gregg. What else do you need to know? She is from the "I'm not doing my job if I'm not making someone's life worse" school of journalism. It's pretty much impossible to report without making some editorial decisions - just the act of choosing a subject necessarily contains bias. But her bias is simply towards creating controversy rather than any particular set of views, which in my mind makes her about as bad of a person as you're likely to find.

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 11 years ago

Believe me Obram, if URI could find a way to support at least a competitive football program at the CAA level, I would be OK with that.

But, a program that wins on average 2-3 games a year just doesn't cut it. At some point it just doesn't make sense to continue the futility. URI, I'm sure, knows what they're up against financially, in order to make the NECESSARY improvements to the facilities and talent level, in order to get to that competitive level.

Yes, they were getting there a couple of years ago, but could they have stayed there, and even gotten better? The facilities are still way substandard compared to the rest of the CAA, that shows no sign of changing. The SADC, when it's finally ready, isn't anywhere near enough. The stadium is a joke.

The ONLY way out, imo, is take advantage of the coming BB successes, and resulting increased revenue derived from that. Some of that money has to go to football, if URI truly wants to "fix" the problem, according to Dooley. Otherwise, stick a fork in football.

BFC · Unread post by **BFC** » 11 years ago

OBRAM wrote:You may as well kill all sports if you kill football. College Football is a sport that is growing in interest and basketball has been in a decline for 15 years across the county. The biggest crowds in Kingston the last few years have been for football games. Basketball has become very defensive and not exciting to watch, and the last minutes of the games drag on forever, and it seems like those trends are just getting worse and I have been a URI basketball season ticket holder for decades. Basketball needs fixes, limit fouls at the end of the game, and maybe get rid of 3 point shot except for the last two minutes of each half, but that will never happen.

Yeah, FCS football is so huge right now, it's all anyone wants to talk about.

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 11 years ago

Yeah, FCS football is a big money maker.

For who?

What's the percentage of schools that actually make money on this, even winning programs?

It's not high, that's for sure.

I mean, URI doesn't HAVE to make a profit to keep football. But how much are they losing? WAY too much, both literally and figuratively.

Rhode_Island_Red · Unread post by **Rhode_Island_Red** » 11 years ago

OBRAM wrote:You may as well kill all sports if you kill football. College Football is a sport that is growing in interest and basketball has been in a decline for 15 years across the county. The biggest crowds in Kingston the last few years have been for football games. Basketball has become very defensive and not exciting to watch, and the last minutes of the games drag on forever, and it seems like those trends are just getting worse and I have been a URI basketball season ticket holder for decades. Basketball needs fixes, limit fouls at the end of the game, and maybe get rid of 3 point shot except for the last two minutes of each half, but that will never happen.

The only college football growing in interest is the BCS cartel. Nothing else matters.

OBRAM · Unread post by **OBRAM** » 11 years ago

I did not say FCS football makes money, I said interest was growing. Just look at the FCS playoff attendance.
What do you want to aspire to be like, Georgetown, Nova, or Butler? They all have football at the FCS level. Or do you want to be like a Hofstra or Northeastern?

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 11 years ago

URI football would draw if they were winners. It's the same everywhere. What would URI need in attendance to minimize the financial losses? 15,000 a game? 20,000? Impossible.

To become winners, URI will have to spend millions on the football plant, and increase spending on recruiting and coaching.

Tell me how they will do that?

Would the increase in revenue justify the cost?

BFC · Unread post by **BFC** » 11 years ago

New Hampshire, the football program that's always mentioned as the one we should aspire to be like, was in the FCS playoffs. Their average home attendance this year was 7,745 for 5 games, (including the homecoming game which was double the average of the other 4). Their playoff game was at Wofford (attendance: 6,346). I'm sure North Dakota, Montana, and some other FCS programs have huge attendance numbers but given the FCS has zero TV revenue, you have to have huge attendance to put a dent in the costs.

OBRAM · Unread post by **OBRAM** » 11 years ago

URI has a budget of over $700 million, Athletics cost $5 million (8-3 in revenue). That is less than 1%, if you ask me the problem is a University commitment, not the cost. Politically, no administrator in charge wants to see his name in the front page for spending money on Athletics in the tuff economic times even though the taxpayer is not paying. When calculating URI basketball cost the Ryan Center cost is never part of the equation, just like the Dunk cost are never part of the State of RI budget problem equation. Football is an easy scapegoat. It does not matter that URI football facilities are worse than most High Schools in RI, and to fix them up to High School level would not cost that much when you consider the total URI budget.

gorhody89 · Unread post by **gorhody89** » 11 years ago

OBRAM wrote:Well, UNH football attendance per game is more than URI basketball per game.

There are only 4 or 5 home football games, people know there are only a few so they make a point to go while basketball there are triple the amount of opportunities...The seasonal attendence for URI basketball or UNH basketball is much higher than the seasonal attendence for UNH or URI football...I am sorry but nobody cares about FCS football it is a fancy word for Division 2

BFC · Unread post by **BFC** » 11 years ago

But 3 times as many home games, a quarter of the scholarships, a little bit of TV revenue, and if you get the right coach there's a $1 million pot of gold at the end of the rainbow just for being one of the 60 best teams in the country.

gorhody89 · Unread post by **gorhody89** » 11 years ago

In addition to everything BFC just said having a basketball program that makes the NCAA on a regular basis attracts more students to apply to your school allowing you to pick higher quality students. Having a successful FCS football program does not attract anyone.

RF1 · Unread post by **RF1** » 11 years ago

Why should URI have a football program? That should only be for private colleges with more money like Bryant and Brown or the other 47 state flagship universities (only Alaska and Vermont don't have football at their state university). Rhode Islanders that go to URI need to understand their place in life. They should not have the same experience as others. They are 2nd class persons and should just accept this.

rodfromcranston · Unread post by **rodfromcranston** » 11 years ago

To put football on an equal basis with Delaware et al, you'd need a major upgrade
in that dump of a high school stadium called Meade.
Who's going to get that accomplished?
We were good, when the world was flat, and UConn and UMass were on
our level, and facilities were comparable.
Right now, it's just putting good money after bad, and down a black hole.
Kill it or cure it.

Captainron@ · Unread post by **Captainron@** » 11 years ago

rodfromcranston wrote:To put football on an equal basis with Delaware et al, you'd need a major upgrade
in that dump of a high school stadium called Meade.
Who's going to get that accomplished?
We were good, when the world was flat, and UConn and UMass were on
our level, and facilities were comparable.
Right now, it's just putting good money after bad, and down a black hole.
Kill it or cure it.

The latest NCAA figures show that only 22 schools turned a profit on college football last year. All were BCS schools. What was the attendence during Bob Griffins days here? Seemed to be pretty packed and that was with the old seating...

BFC · Unread post by **BFC** » 11 years ago

At some point you have to acknowledge the environment we are in and adapt. The type of money needed to compete in football even at the FCS level would require people who don't care (General Assembly, Board of Regents, average RI taxpayer/voter) suddenly caring. The Board of Regents is not going to ok allocating more money out of the general university operations budget to football because it would be unpopular. The General Assembly is not going to put forth a bond to build a respectable football stadium because it would be unpopular. Even if the value of a good FCS football program wasn't in question, which in my opinion it is, the popularity contest winners are not in the business of doing unpopular things until they have absolutely no other choices.
Yes, in an ideal world, URI would have a great football program, but in this world we have a football liability just to say we have football, and no way to address it other than a school slogan and the hope that the next global billionaire is a URI football fan.

rodfromcranston · Unread post by **rodfromcranston** » 11 years ago

Attendence was fine during Bob Griffin's time.
The team was fun to watch and always competitive.
That was 25 plus years ago, and the main stands are a quarter of a decade older,
and remain unchanged.
They dolled up the stands near the Ryan Center. That's about it.
The team is a long way from the product Griffin usually put on the field.
This year was rock bottom, with not much hope of improvement.
URI football is becoming what UNH basketball has been. Season upon season
of endless losing, coupled with apathy as a result of that losing.

gorhody89 · Unread post by **gorhody89** » 11 years ago

URI loses about 2-2.5 million dollars every season on the football program...Is just saying that we have a team worth that amount of money when it could be spent on basketball, baseball, and other sports?

OBRAM · Unread post by **OBRAM** » 11 years ago

Well, what I gather from messages on this thread is that URI should put more money into basketball and forget football. I say we have been doing that for the last 12 years. I think the current move to the NEC was basketball related. How does the Athletic Dept pay for Baron's buy out, by cutting football scholarships. Even the money from football 1-A games like at Syracuse in 2011 don't go to football but into the General Athletic fund, which mean basketball. Build a Ryan Center and charge the students an Athletic Fee to pay for it, and destroy the football west stands, the practice facility, the field house, all for basketball and people wonder why football is not successful. Even Monmouth puts more into their football program than URI.

gorhody89 · Unread post by **gorhody89** » 11 years ago

OBRAM the status quo of the football team is not acceptable...The team should either be funded correctly or cut, and since URI has a serious lack of funding from the state and is barly getting by as it is there is no way to fund the team properly to be competative and improve the facilities. Money does not just appear out of thin air, look at the schools endowment compared to other schools its not close. There is no way I would take money away from basketball and put it into the football program because even a 6 win basketball season is more relevant than anything accomplished in FCS football...

Keaney.Blue · Unread post by **Keaney.Blue** » 11 years ago

URI is a bottom feeder in the second tier of D1 football. Our facilities are at D3 levels, and alumni interest in the sport is flagging at BEST.

And let's consider a best case scenario for URI football - we upgrade facilities, improve recruitment, and become a solid contender in the CAA. Attendance could be 5000 - 6000 per game. Is that worth millions in investments?

That $2.5 million/year could've been used for better facilities for our marquee program which would've put us in a much better position in this conference realignment. Let's be honest with ourselves - URI basketball is the face of our athletics department and that will not change. Let's drop an obviously failing sport (much like we did gymnastics and men's swimming in 2007) and use the saved resources on our successful endeavors like baseball and basketball.

RhodeIslandBred · Unread post by **RhodeIslandBred** » 11 years ago

Keaney.Blue wrote:URI is a bottom feeder in the second tier of D1 football. Our facilities are at D3 levels, and alumni interest in the sport is flagging at BEST.

And let's consider a best case scenario for URI football - we upgrade facilities, improve recruitment, and become a solid contender in the CAA. Attendance could be 5000 - 6000 per game. Is that worth millions in investments?

That $2.5 million/year could've been used for better facilities for our marquee program which would've put us in a much better position in this conference realignment. Let's be honest with ourselves - URI basketball is the face of our athletics department and that will not change. Let's drop an obviously failing sport (much like we did gymnastics and men's swimming in 2007) and use the saved resources on our successful endeavors like baseball and basketball.

Couldn't agree more.

gorhody89 · Unread post by **gorhody89** » 11 years ago

Keaney.Blue wrote:URI is a bottom feeder in the second tier of D1 football. Our facilities are at D3 levels, and alumni interest in the sport is flagging at BEST.

And let's consider a best case scenario for URI football - we upgrade facilities, improve recruitment, and become a solid contender in the CAA. Attendance could be 5000 - 6000 per game. Is that worth millions in investments?

That $2.5 million/year could've been used for better facilities for our marquee program which would've put us in a much better position in this conference realignment. Let's be honest with ourselves - URI basketball is the face of our athletics department and that will not change. Let's drop an obviously failing sport (much like we did gymnastics and men's swimming in 2007) and use the saved resources on our successful endeavors like baseball and basketball.

I agree with everything that you just except for comparing the football program to the peanuts that were saved with the 4 sports cut in 2007. Also those sports were far from failing.

OBRAM · Unread post by **OBRAM** » 11 years ago

Keanyblue that is just the attitude we have, that's why football does not succeed. It hurts to think basketball is our marque program when we have put so much money into it in the last 12 years. Why we should not have a gymnastics which was a very good program or swimming is sick to me. Out best swimmers and gymnists can go to Florida instead, don't even think about the State University. Are you sure you are not in the General Assembly, you sound like one of our RI centric deep GA thinkers. Why would we want to be like North Dakota State, or Delaware or UNH, when we can be more like , like, well I can't think of any state school that wants to be like you say we should be. A two sport pony with baseball (which has been successful) and basketball. Even Stony Brook and Albany has higher aspirations for their programs than the two sports program that you want.
You say football alumni interest in the sport is flagging at BEST, well it maybe, but where have you been, look around the Ryan Center, it looks like a crowd that is half asleep and almost as old as the crowd at a PC basketball game, a result of to many basketball game between opponents that nobody really cares about.
URI may end up in the CAA for all sports, who will be left in the A-10 if the worst case situation comes thru?

BFC · Unread post by **BFC** » 11 years ago

UNH is a reason not to invest in FCS football. Yes, they have a decent stadium and a good team but even people in New Hampshire don't care. It doesn't really matter anyway, we can talk about having a college football utopia in Kingston all we want, no interest, no support, no resources, no point.
I know it's my attitude, taxpayers would fund a $40 million football stadium tomorrow if it wasn't for my attitude.

gorhody89 · Unread post by **gorhody89** » 11 years ago

OBRAM I honestly have no interest in being anything like North Dakota State...

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