Penn State to raise the price of football season tickets

[Trash Can]

Originally Posted by Internet Superman

Penn State University is a State Owned University.

So yes my tax payer dollars is paying his salary. The University is subsidized by the state and not the state being subsidized by the University.

The university is subsidized by the state, but the football program is entirely self-sufficient. Technically, JoePa is an employee of the state. But take a look at the 2008 data. How can you say his employment is a cost to the state?

A look at Big Ten football revenues, expenses - Big Ten Blog - ESPN

Iowa FB revenue comparisons with Iowa State, Notre Dame, Big Ten « Doc’s Office

Penn State FB Revenue — $53,766,038
FB Expenses — $16,537,705
Men’s recruiting expenses — $534,741

Football generates a ton of money - approximately $36M in additional revenue for the university to use as they see fit - money that wouldn't otherwise exist. If the program was losing money, I could see where one could argue that his salary comes from tax dollars, but that's hardly the case here.

Originally Posted by Internet Superman

The reason why there is so many unemployed people in this country today is because the old people refuse to retire!

They ought to make a 70 year old cut off. Once you turn 70 - you must retire, regardless of occupation.

Why do you sound so bitter? There are many factors that affect the unemployment rate, but that's a topic for a different thread.

As others have mentioned, if the tickets don't sell, the prices will come down. You're not impacted anyway. So relax, spend your money where you wish, and enjoy something other than CFB on Saturday afternoons.

[FlyerNation]

Sour grapes by the Internet Superman for sure, but if anyone really thinks Penn State is a top tier football program, then they are just kidding themselves.

[Johnny C]

Originally Posted by FlyerNation

Sour grapes by the Internet Superman for sure, but if anyone really thinks Penn State is a top tier football program, then they are just kidding themselves.

Define "top tier".

PSU manages to get into the top ten most years and goto a bowl game. I would call that a pretty successful program - even if they aren't winning national championships. The system doesn't really allow you to do much more than that without a playoff.

You have hundreds of schools playing football and only two of them get to the national championship game. Does that mean the other programs are failures? I agree that PSU is not amoung the elite programs fighting for a championship every year (see Florida, Texas, USC, ect), but they still have a pretty good football program up there. Consistently a top 25 program.

[FlyerNation]

Originally Posted by Johnny C

Define "top tier".

PSU manages to get into the top ten most years and goto a bowl game. I would call that a pretty successful program - even if they aren't winning national championships. The system doesn't really allow you to do much more than that without a playoff.

You have hundreds of schools playing football and only two of them get to the national championship game. Does that mean the other programs are failures? I agree that PSU is not amoung the elite programs fighting for a championship every year (see Florida, Texas, USC, ect), but they still have a pretty good football program up there. Consistently a top 25 program.

You defined top tier sufficiently.

[Honest Bob]

Some people seem unable to grasp how a payroll is managed.

You do not take money from one program to pay the salary for a person.

The state pays the salaries, the school collects the revenue for the tickets sold at the football games. The school makes its direct money selling hot dogs and hamburgers and soda pop. Usually the reason why so many places are now outlawing tailgating. - The loss of revenue.

The indirect revenue comes from the sales of merchandise which has a name or a school logo on it. That number also goes into the millions of dollars.

But you have to remember that a University of that size has many sports events and most of them loose money. The only sports event that makes money is football. So no - Joe PA's salary does not come directly out of the gate proceeds from the football games. It comes from the state of Pennsylvania and the millions of residents who pays taxes.

How do you lower taxes so the state can pay for more programs to actually help the residents of Pennsylvania who is paying the taxes? Get rid of the high salaries!

You never heard of people in business telling on other people who misappropriated money and scam artists who steals from the public, like you do today. The main reason why you did not before was because that was how America did business. Now that business is bad, people are telling on each other and those people are now getting into trouble for their actions.

If a coach is so good, why wouldn't they move up into Professional Football where they could justify their high salary. Football at the college level is not intended to be a professional sport, but just someplace where you can showcase your talents. We send our children to go to school to get a education, not to watch or play football. Somebody here has lost the true meaning of going to school.

How many people do you figure the state could hire to do other work if they did not have to pay out MILLIONS of dollars per a year to these football coaches? Especially when the average wage of a tax payer outside of the cities is about $24,000 a year.

[Ex-Ithacan]

Hey Trash Can, I wouldn't try to argue with this..... person. He obviously has some issues with Penn State football and JoePa. Who knows, he may have tried out for the team at some point and not made it.

[pcity]

Internet Superman- With your suggestions, the PSU football program would decline and no longer be profitable. Then the state would end up contributing MORE money to the college, not less.

You can't just cut a salary and expect that money will be turned into pure profit. You have to look at the money that person brings in to the organization.

[Trash Can]

Originally Posted by Internet Superman

Some people seem unable to grasp how a payroll is managed.

You do not take money from one program to pay the salary for a person

Some people do not seem to grasp the concept of budgets.

The state sends a fixed amount of money to the university. This becomes part of the budget, just as tuition, student fees, etc are. Football provides an additional source of revenue. No football = smaller budget. Pretty straight forward.

It's the university's responsibility to determine how the budget will be spent - not the state. JoePa signed a contract with the university - not the state. The university obviously feels his pay is well-within their budget.

Given the huge windfall football provides to the university's overall budget, cutting the football budget (i.e. coaches salary) would be akin to cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Originally Posted by Internet Superman

If a coach is so good, why wouldn't they move up into Professional Football where they could justify their high salary. Football at the college level is not intended to be a professional sport, but just someplace where you can showcase your talents. We send our children to go to school to get a education, not to watch or play football. Somebody here has lost the true meaning of going to school

Again, you're showing your lack of knowledge here. JoePa was offered jobs in the NFL, but turned all of them down.

HickokSports.com - Biography - Joe Paterno

We send our kids to college to get an education. However, an education is not solely earning a degree. Life experiences, social skills and networks, and other opportunities in college are all part of one's education. Football merely provides a mechanism for some to earn that education.

By the way, how about a source to back up some of your claims? Your credibility is severely lacking on anything you directly (or indirectly) post as factual.

Originally Posted by Ex-Ithacan

Hey Trash Can, I wouldn't try to argue with this..... person. He obviously has some issues with Penn State football and JoePa. Who knows, he may have tried out for the team at some point and not made it.

Yeah, I know. I thought this thread was dead and feel like banging my head against the wall.

Originally Posted by pcity

Internet Superman- With your suggestions, the PSU football program would decline and no longer be profitable. Then the state would end up contributing MORE money to the college, not less.

You can't just cut a salary and expect that money will be turned into pure profit. You have to look at the money that person brings in to the organization.

Exactly!