theblueram wrote: ↑4 years ago
Rhody83 wrote: ↑4 years ago
URI is capped at 30 games. You get 27 games + MTE. They only have 3 tournament games because they couldn’t find a date that worked for both URI and Siena.
How the hell are we limited financially when a year ago we were offering DH $2+ Million a year in comp? WTF is that? So we now can't spend $100k for a buy game since we are getting $500k/yr in NCAAT credits?
Edit.... It's $1 million/yr. We one a game in both tournaments.
The terms of the contract offer mentioned here -- which was made after the 2017-18 season -- would have been implemented after the 2019-20 season.
So, essentially, Dan Hurley would have been forced to wait a full season for any raises or enhancements. They were not immediate. URI did not have the full cash amount on hand. That came on the back of the previous extension where there were also no enhancements offered.
Thorr Bjorn was creative enough to make the pre-UConn offer and willing to spend the next year attempting to raise funds to fulfill the contract. He took a big swing. Had he been able to make a similar offer after the first NCAA appearance, this might have ended differently.
Also, remember this -- a large portion of contracts at URI are paid through gate receipts. When those gate receipts fall short, the money has to come from somewhere. That was why the athletic department partnered with the URI Foundation. It was basically a loan guarantee to protect against short attendance. They were spending on what amounted to a credit card. If they had missed the NCAAs in 2016-17 or 2017-18 -- well, let's not think about that.
As far as how the NCAA credits and buyout are being spent currently -- I'm not sure. And I do plan to ask Thorr about it once the Red Sox season is done and I can turn my full attention back to the beat. But I might suggest that other programs who have made the NCAAs multiple times and would like to do so again have successfully mined other resource streams -- increased attendance, higher ticket prices, more incoming cash from donors, additional development and marketing staff, etc.
Hurley's best and worst quality was one in the same -- he wasn't afraid to be an agitator. He acted like he was bigger than URI and bigger than the job. He leveraged the school every chance he got through his agent, his name, other offers, etc. But it worked quite nicely for all parties. I'm not sure who the lightning rod will be here going forward, but that seems to be what's required.