I had a friend (Ole Miss fan) ask me about firing Croom and hiring Mullen yesterday. Basically, his question was if the buyout we are having to pay Croom was financially hurting us? It made me think. Look at the number of fans we have at the games now. If we had Croom, attendance would be down probably 10,000. If you take 10,000 fans at $40 per ticket, then that is $400,000 per game. In 7 home games, that equals $2.8 million. That doesn't include concessions, parking, hotel, restaurant, etc. for the additional 10,000 fans. Heck, could we have financially afforded to keep Croom?
Economics of coaching
- Thread starter Buford T. Justice
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Not trying to be a jerk, but this was talked about a lot last October and November. I think 10,000 is a conservative number for attendance. More importantly, the season ticket sales would have been nowhere close to what it was, and as you mention all the residuals add up as well. Croom was killing our program, plain and simple. Fan interest, even for those who regularly went, was at an all time low because we knew there was no way we were building anything successful unless you were a complete moron like MRob71.
28-32,000 season tickets if Croom was still here and there would have been 40,000 for the Georgia Tech game.
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">That was a in and about way of slamming state. You haven't figured out how Ole Miss People thinks yet? We got two Ole Miss Alumni in my department and that's how they slam us. People forget that we got the same ESPN contract as they did. We get a share of post season play as they do. We have rich boosters and one died and left money to the school and from what I have heard it was a bunch of money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> One thing they do have that we don't is a bunch of unethical lawyers and some doctors.</span>I don't even get into that type of conversation with Rebels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span> In this climate of big TV contracts Croom's buy out is nothing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span> If the attendant numbers posted here are even remotely correct we are better off with out Croom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> Don't get me wrong I like Ole Miss people and like the guys in my department but the rivalry is strong and you as I know that the bashing is going to happen and you got to learn when the Rebel fan is in stealth mode. They are a sneaky bunch of people, kind of like the Germans when they bombed Pearl Harbor.</span></p>
I'm sure Byrne thought about it also. However, at that time it was speculated that ticket sales would increase with a new coach. Now it has been proven. What everbody discussed has been shown that financially we made the right move. Hindsight being 20/20, we did the right thing financially.
Since Croom is now employed again are we able to reduce his payoff by the amount he is now making? This is often done in such cases.
and i don't remember anyone mentioning those specifics. but you're right, usually, we would be able to reduce the buyout payments by the amount of his current salary.
i believe coach o's buyout payments would cease as soon as he took any other coaching job. he negotiated for a lump sum of 1.4M instead of the 1.7M over two years (my figures may be off), and then promptly took the saints DL coaching job. if i remember correctly, if he had taken the job (which paid a couple hundred thousand), he would have forfeited the entire buyout. instead, he took the job soon after taking the lump sum, and raked in the cash.
i believe coach o's buyout payments would cease as soon as he took any other coaching job. he negotiated for a lump sum of 1.4M instead of the 1.7M over two years (my figures may be off), and then promptly took the saints DL coaching job. if i remember correctly, if he had taken the job (which paid a couple hundred thousand), he would have forfeited the entire buyout. instead, he took the job soon after taking the lump sum, and raked in the cash.