Gateway: NDSU won’t pay travel subsidies

[Go_Herd]

Figured start another thread due to the length of the other one.

From the Fargo Forum this morning,  Online site it's free to register.

http://www.in-forum.com/Sports/articles/157304

NDSU won’t pay travel subsidies
Jeff Kolpack, The Forum
Published Wednesday, February 21, 2007

North Dakota State will not be willing to pay Gateway Football Conference teams a travel subsidy to Fargo.

It’s a change of heart from Monday’s Gateway expansion meeting in St. Louis when NDSU President Joe Chapman said he was open to the concept after being approached by one school during the meeting about the idea.

The conference took no action with NDSU and South Dakota State. The league’s presidents are expected to reconvene by teleconference in early March to further discuss NDSU and South Dakota State.

As of Tuesday, NDSU took the subsidy concept off the board.

“We’ve re-evaluated that a little bit,” Taylor said Tuesday. “We talked about it this morning and to get into a subsidy is something we’re not interested in. For them to say something like pay us 30 grand for four years … we would probably have to say no.”

The Gateway is primarily a bus league with three teams – Western Illinois, Southern Illinois and Illinois State – in one state. Three others – Indiana State, Missouri State and Northern Iowa – are an adjacent state from Illinois.

Youngstown State, located on the eastern border of Ohio just a few miles from Pennsylvania, is the oddball.

The closest school is Indiana State at 425 miles.

NDSU’s reluctance to help pay travel costs, however, wouldn’t stop the Gateway from divvying part of an initiation fee toward travel, Taylor said. The amount of the fee hasn’t been specified but Taylor said he wouldn’t be surprised if it was in the neighborhood of the $250,000 NDSU is obligated to pay the Mid-Continent Conference.  (Read More)

I wonder if that will throw a monkeywrench into things or probably the Gateway will just make our initial entry fee larger. Does anyone else think that it is too high to pay $250,000 to get into a conference that is just football only. I mean we paid $250,000 to get into the Mid-Con which will sponser most of our athletics, and not just one sport, football, like the Gateway. Anyway we go I know that our presidents and AD have the universities in mind and will do whats best for them.

[SD-STATE]

Re: Gateway: NDSU won’t pay travel subsidies

250,000 is a large chunk of money if you look at it as one sport compared to everything else as in the Mid-Con. I think it is a bit different, because of the fact it is football. Travel costs of a football team and say a basketball team are much different. Many times different. A typical traveling roster for football is 50-60 players, any other sport is anywhere around 15 to 20 at most. I've heard that our trips to California for football cost upwards to 40-50,000 dollars. That is why I can see an entrance fee for the Gateway being about as much as the Mid-Con. I'm still not sure that subsidies should be paid on top of that, but I will defer decision to more knowledgeable people.

[bisonbacker]

Re: Gateway: NDSU won’t pay travel subsidies

250,000 is a large chunk of money if you look at it as one sport compared to everything else as in the Mid-Con. I think it is a bit different, because of the fact it is football. Travel costs of a football team and say a basketball team are much different. Many times different. A typical traveling roster for football is 50-60 players, any other sport is anywhere around 15 to 20 at most. I've heard that our trips to California for football cost upwards to 40-50,000 dollars. That is why I can see an entrance fee for the Gateway being about as much as the Mid-Con. I'm still not sure that subsidies should be paid on top of that, but I will defer decision to more knowledgeable people.

Fair question here, assuming your numbers are close to correct on the cost to travel. Why then do the Gateway teams and others always throw out the 100k figure when they talk about coming to play us?

[SD-STATE]

Re: Gateway: NDSU won’t pay travel subsidies

Fair question here, assuming your numbers are close to correct on the cost to travel. Why then do the Gateway teams and others always throw out the 100k figure when they talk about coming to play us?

I do not know, haven't heard that large of number. Maybe, they think they might have to make two trips to the dakotas some years. I believe I'm pretty close on my estimate of the per trip costs. 100,000 seems way to high, unless there is a guaranteed money added on to that.

[bisonbacker]

Re: Gateway: NDSU won’t pay travel subsidies

I was just over on the saluki board and one guy quoted their AD as saying it would cost them 75k to travel out to just one of us each year. Who know's they throw these figures around and maybe it's all just posturing. I'm just kinda sitting back now and taking it all in. What happens happens and we have no control over it anyway. I trust our Presidents and AD's to do what's right. I just hope in the end what's best for everyone is what actually happens whether that be the Gateway or the Great West.

[SD-STATE]

Re: Gateway: NDSU won’t pay travel subsidies

I was just over on the saluki board and one guy quoted their AD as saying it would cost them 75k to travel out to just one of us each year. Who know's they throw these figures around and maybe it's all just posturing. I'm just kinda sitting back now and taking it all in. What happens happens and we have no control over it anyway. I trust our Presidents and AD's to do what's right. I just hope in the end what's best for everyone is what actually happens whether that be the Gateway or the Great West.

75k, wow, they must travel large and in charge.

[EQguy]

Re: Gateway: NDSU won’t pay travel subsidies

What I find most funny is that the Bison are now announcing that they will not pay when they have been paying out their rear ends lately to teams that are coming to Fargo. Word I am hearing is that they were offering teams 50K plus charter expenses. This had to come back to bite them (and us coincidently) sooner or later. It just looks like sooner.

By the way, if I remember right the Cal Poly trip was the most expensive that SDSU took and it ran right around 80k. I believe that this was mostly due to the fact that Poly's airport is a small/regional airport. I have no idea what types of airports these other teams are flying from but I do find it hard to imagine they would spend more than 60k to get to either of us.

[Bison_Dan]

Re: Gateway: NDSU won’t pay travel subsidies

What I find most funny is that the Bison are now announcing that they will not pay when they have been paying out their rear ends lately to teams that are coming to Fargo.  Word I am hearing is that they were offering teams 50K plus charter expenses.  This had to come back to bite them (and us coincidently) sooner or later.  It just looks like sooner.

By the way, if I remember right the Cal Poly trip was the most expensive that SDSU took and it ran right around 80k.  I believe that this was mostly due to the fact that Poly's airport is a small/regional airport.  I have no idea what types of airports these other teams are flying from but I do find it hard to imagine they would spend more than 60k to get to either of us.

It not that hard to understand that NDSU pays more, you first have to convince the school that's it's okay to come up to Fargo for a butt whipping. - We also draw more fans and don't always believe what you read on boards.

[EQguy]

Re: Gateway: NDSU won’t pay travel subsidies

Word I am hearing is that they were offering teams 50K plus charter expenses.

This wasn't heard on a message board. Its pretty solid source information

[BearsCountry]

Re: Gateway: NDSU won’t pay travel subsidies

What I find most funny is that the Bison are now announcing that they will not pay when they have been paying out their rear ends lately to teams that are coming to Fargo.  Word I am hearing is that they were offering teams 50K plus charter expenses.  This had to come back to bite them (and us coincidently) sooner or later.  It just looks like sooner.

By the way, if I remember right the Cal Poly trip was the most expensive that SDSU took and it ran right around 80k.  I believe that this was mostly due to the fact that Poly's airport is a small/regional airport.  I have no idea what types of airports these other teams are flying from but I do find it hard to imagine they would spend more than 60k to get to either of us.

SIU is the hardest spot to travel to in the Gateway. Its out in the middle of nowhere.

[BTownJack]

Re: Gateway: NDSU won’t pay travel subsidies

Western Illinois in Macomb has got to be a close 2nd. That is also a down out in the middle of nowhere. Not like Brookings and Fargo are much different though.

[1stRowFANatic]

Re: Gateway: NDSU won’t pay travel subsidies

Sounds like good negotiating to me.

Gateway: You need to pay $x to join. Our travel costs will go way up so pay us more; $x + y.

SDSU/NDSU: But you would have to travel where ever you go so we should just pay you $x.

Solution will probably be, pay an initiation fee in between 'x' and 'x + y'

[JimmyJack]

Re: Gateway: NDSU won’t pay travel subsidies

Sounds like good negotiating to me.

Gateway: You need to pay $x to join. Our travel costs will go way up so pay us more; $x + y.

SDSU/NDSU: But you would have to travel where ever you go so we should just pay you $x.

Solution will probably be, pay an initiation fee in between 'x' and 'x + y'

I'm sure that's right. Look at the public statements. Dr. Oien notes that payments are a normal part of the process. NDSU AD the next day says they won't pay. Looks to me like SDSU and NDSU are working strategically to stake out an advantageous position in the negotiations. This is business, after all. I certainly wasn't expecting some sort of group hug at the meetings this week. They'll work it out, and if it makes sense for NDSU/SDSU and for the Gateway, it'll happen. If not, we still have a conference that will soon be growing and adding some more good competition.

[SD-STATE]

Re: Gateway: NDSU won’t pay travel subsidies

I'm sure that's right. Look at the public statements. Dr. Oien notes that payments are a normal part of the process. NDSU AD the next day says they won't pay. Looks to me like SDSU and NDSU are working strategically to stake out an advantageous position in the negotiations. This is business, after all. I certainly wasn't expecting some sort of group hug at the meetings this week. They'll work it out, and if it makes sense for NDSU/SDSU and for the Gateway, it'll happen. If not, we still have a conference that will soon be growing and adding some more good competition.

One could take all this a different way, NDSU and SDSU are not exactly on the same page as to what each school is willing to do. Might be a sign of some philosophical differences. Maybe a parting of the minds and to each his own.

[Jacks02]

Re: Gateway: NDSU won’t pay travel subsidies

Fair question here, assuming your numbers are close to correct on the cost to travel.  Why then do the Gateway teams and others always throw out the 100k figure when they talk about coming to play us?

I do not know, haven't heard that large of number. Maybe, they think they might have to make two trips to the dakotas some years. I believe I'm pretty close on my estimate of the per trip costs. 100,000 seems way to high, unless there is a guaranteed money added on to that.

I've heard the 100k figure a few different times in the past when talking about chartered flights to California, Utah, Montana, etc.  Gotta remember there are alot more people on the trip than the 50 players.  You have coaches, trainers, equipment managers, equipment, etc..  Then also the cost of per diem for all the players coaches and a possible overnight stay (yeah you have that too with bus trips, but its still in addition to airfare).  I'm guessing the number for a chartered trip is much closer to 100k than it is to 50k for a long distance football game.