Posted on 06/23/2020 12:15:27 PM PDT by blam
Football program generated $175.5 million in 2015-2016 fiscal year
University of Alabama football means more to the city of Tuscaloosa than just bringing notoriety to the school and the state with a handful of national championships.
The team also brings in significant cash flow and it could mean a major loss should the college football season get canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. Mayor Walt Maddox told reporters on a video conference call that not having a season could result in about $2 billion in lost revenue.
“It would be economically catastrophic for Tuscaloosa if there is no football season,” Maddox said, according to CBS42. “Even a mitigated football season with restricted attendance and number of ball games would have dire economic consequences.”
Maddox said the city was losing $600,000 per week when the campus was closed due to the pandemic.
“It’s about a hotel owner being able to pay his or her employees. It’s about a restaurant being able to pay their small business loan. It’s about a family trying to make their mortgage payment. It’s more than just a game,” he said, according to WBRC-TV.
According to the University of Alabama’s economic data, the impact on Tuscaloosa was projected at nearly $2 billion for the 2015-2016 fiscal year. The football program generated $175.5 million of those funds, including about $25 million per game.
Maddox said the city has $42 million in reserves for a year should the season get canceled.
“It’s important to wear your masks and practice social distancing so we don’t even have to entertain the possibility. If we can regain a football season this becomes a bump in the road. If we lose this football season this becomes a sinkhole,” he said.
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at foxbusiness.com ...
Shania Oh-Mia!
They are doing everything to make their game appeal to a young and woke crowd that is ultimately going to reject them in favor of eSports and soccer anyhow.
I can...uhh.....certainly see why she feels like a woman.
Personally, I hope it destroys the entire industry, especially those who we damn well know are going to be 'kneeling' to the communists that want to destroy our way of life.
Interesting. Maddox is a radical leftist who ran for governor against Mawmaw Ivey. The guy makes my skin crawl.
Saban got on to the students for leaving at half time instead of staying the whole game. If Alabama was winning 35 to 6 at half time the students would go ahead and leave and start partying on campus. He said to the effect, ‘we will sell the tickets to real fans who will stay the whole game.’ He also got on to the fan base for mot showing up for every game. The upper decks would have empty seats for some of those Division-2 teams that Alabama schedules every year. It’s hard to get excited when Alabama is playing Western New Mexico State University.
That’s why I really wouldn’t enjoy being a Bama fan. It’s like “wake me up in December”.
I wish this Fox journalist knew the difference between notoriety and fame. He says the football program brings notoriety to Tuscaloosa—he should say fame.
Notoriety is fame for a bad reason. So many people misuse this word.
Mutt Lange is an idiot.
With no college football, the players will have plenty of extra time for the Topology and Quantum Field Theory classes (sarc). At least at the service academies all players must take calculus and freshman chemistry in their first year. Yet still they are competitive.
That’s irrelephant
but it’s true that in Alabama the Tuscaloosa.
Well met, it is good to find people with a refined sense of humor and an appreciation for the Classics!
The shutdown was bad enough but this phase 8 gazillion start is the coup de grace. A LOT of businesses are going to disappear.
Maybe the athletes' salaries and political influence would then take a dive toward normalcy commensurate to their truly learned professional business and technological equivalents (and vice versa).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.