Why Fred Glass is safe [Record IU revenue per Indy Star]

[HoosierFaithful]

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/college/indiana/2019/02/08/indiana-university-athletics-report-record-revenues-expenses-2018/2815129002/

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BLOOMINGTON – IU athletic director Fred Glass used to refer to the profitable revenue streams opened by Big Ten television contracts and NCAA distributions as “the cavalry over the ridge” as IU, poorer than many of its peers, tried to “hold down the fort” financially.

Such metaphors aren’t necessary anymore.

IU athletics reported revenues of almost $123 million in the 2018 fiscal year, according to its annual NCAA financial report. That marks an all-time high in one-year revenue for Indiana, and it’s more than double the $61 million-plus the department reported in 2009, the year Glass took over.

In total, IU’s athletic department reported $122,933,136 in revenues and $116,277,652 in expenses last year, according to documents obtained by IndyStar via a records request. Both numbers are record highs, and substantial increases on Indiana’s 2017 totals.

 

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Glass’ department coupled that with almost $10 million in royalties and licensing revenues. And contributions, which have increased every year since 2012 and last year clocked in at almost double what they were 10 years ago, were reported at nearly $25.5 million.

 

Emphasis mine.  The landscape of college sports is changing with mega-huge TV deals raking in $$ -- but Glass is proving that he can do more beyond that.  Money talks and Glass is running a good department, even if results on the field don't always show it.

If the sports programs continue to not deliver (and that is not a concession I am willing to make -- I think they're doing fine), do you know what an athletic program needs more than anything else?  Cold, hard cash.  Buy-outs, new contracts, expensive coaching searches.  Glass has the ability and the connections to raise serious money for IU and he's showing it.

[BobSaccamanno]

The licensing deals and contracts with adidas are very par for the course.  This would be happening on practically autopilot with or without Fred.   It's part and parcel of any B1G athletic department. 

Michigan, as one example, makes more, without even getting into football attendance revenue.

If you want to see how much contributions have the potential to go up, see what happens if either basketball or football ever meet expectations on Fred's watch.  

Same thing with the capital projects.  B1G money plus needs spell out what needed to be done.  There is no magic Fred is working that is making IU excel more than, say, if Chris Reynolds were running the department.

[BobSaccamanno]

Here is a link to IU's $54 M deal with Adidas.

https://money.cnn.com/2015/08/18/news/indiana-university-adidas-deal/index.html

As a sanity check, here is a link to Michigan's $174 M apparel deal

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/college/university-michigan/wolverines/2016/04/26/michigan-nike-contract/83533954/

You might not expect IU to be at UM's level because of their football brand, but the point is that Fred isn't working any special ingenuity.  

[IUCrazy2]

Glass is a beneficiary of the Big Ten Network and someone changing the rules on naming buildings at the school.  As soon as the Cook's, Simon's, and Nunn's were told they could have buildings named after them, the money poured in.  We could have done that years ago but the admin hamstrung us on that.

I also take issue with us being ok.  I disagree with that vehemently.  We are mid to bottom half of the conference in the 2 revenue generating sports.  As Bob pointed out, Michigan's licensing deal was triple what we got.  They are currently near the top in the 2 revenue generating sports.  Fred is small potatoes in comparison.