Who Replaces Gene?

[ShockerFever]

Top 10 stadium? WSU has a nice large stadium, but it hasn't been top 10 for over 10 years. It is more like top 50. There are a lot of schools that have built nice, new stadiums in the last 10 years. I wouldn't be surprised if KSU is one of them in a few years. WSU had the fourth best stadium in the Valley this past season (Cu, MSU, and Bradley played in bigger, newer and better stadiums).

So what do you want? A new 10,000 seat Eck Stadium to be built every 10 years? I think the facilities suffice for a top tier college baseball program. Yes there needs to be some up-keeping, but tell me what Bradley and MSU's stadiums are doing that WSU's isn't doing, besides drawing less fans than what WSU is getting?

[GoShockers89]

I will see if I can find the link. I do remember that Kstates 2 assistant baseball coaches made a total of $267,000 or something like that (2011). This year the 2 WSU assistant coaches made a total of $240,000. I would assume the Kstate coaches probably make a little more than that now.

If true, that's a pretty small difference. Much less than, say, the $300,000 gap between HCGS and Brad Hill's contracts.

[shox1989]

So what do you want? A new 10,000 seat Eck Stadium to be built every 10 years? I think the facilities suffice for a top tier college baseball program. Yes there needs to be some up-keeping, but tell me what Bradley and MSU's stadiums are doing that WSU's isn't doing, besides drawing less fans than what WSU is getting?

No but a new locker room is very much needed. Other schools are using that against WSU in recruiting. Even Ku claims to have better locker rooms and clubhouse facilities for players. WSU was suppose to get new locker rooms but the improvements were put on hold by the AD a few years ago.

[shoxtop]

How about the recruiting budget? or the operating budget? Will WSU finally decide to spend enough money on baseball to compete with the Kstate and Ku's of the world? Will WSU require the next coach to get 1/3 of the players from Kansas? Will they finally update the locker rooms? Will they try and improve the TV contract? I think these are all just as important as the coaches salary. WSU has proven they will pay a head coach a good salary. They haven't proven whether they will make the other necessary committments to the program. It is embarrassing that a school like kstate spends more on baseball than WSU. And for the long term good of the program they have to find a better conference (even if it is for baseball only).

I sense that a lot of money in the current budget just opened up to be used towards a lot of the things you are requesting. It's tough (asinine?) to throw more and more money at something that has been losing money and interest from fans and donors over the last several years due to poor on(and off)-field performance. Especially for a sport that as much as we hate to admit does not have the upside that the other major college sports have.

And for the long term good of the program they have to find a better conference (even if it is for baseball only).

I agree with the better conference sentiment, for all sports. However, had we been in a better conference the last few years... The dark days of 90's basketball comes to mind...

[ABC]

Top 10 stadium? WSU has a nice large stadium, but it hasn't been top 10 for over 10 years. It is more like top 50. There are a lot of schools that have built nice, new stadiums in the last 10 years. I wouldn't be surprised if KSU is one of them in a few years. WSU had the fourth best stadium in the Valley this past season (Cu, MSU, and Bradley played in bigger, newer and better stadiums).

Do you really believe this? Do you think sharing a stadium is the same as having your own?

[shox1989]

If true, that's a pretty small difference. Much less than, say, the $300,000 gap between HCGS and Brad Hill's contracts.

No it is not huge, but I was shocked. I didn't think there was anyway that Kstate would pay their assistant coaches more than WSU does. Also the gap between HCGS and Brad Hill while huge was $226,356 in 2011 (comparing apples to apples, 2011 salaries: BH $237,554, GS- $463,910).

Also Brad Hill will get a $125,000 retention bonus if he is still coach for KSU in 2015. But still there is a big gap there for head coach. But when Brad Hill signed that contract he hadn't had much post season success (still hasn't had a lot but now has some at K-state). Ritch Price at Ku actually makes a little more than Hill (mainly because Price gets a $500,000 retention bonus every 5 years).

[shox1989]

Do you really believe this? Do you think sharing a stadium is the same as having your own?

I don't think it matters that much to the players. As long as they have nice locker rooms and a nice stadium to play in I don't think most of them care who owns it. I do think that some sharing situations are much better than others. For example, Cu shares their stadium with only the CWS. They pretty much get to use it like it was their own. UNL also has a good deal with the Lincoln SaltDogs. Since the Salt Dogs are an Indy team they dont' start play until the UNL is season is almost completely over. The Most situtation however isn't as good. The AA Cardinals clearly have first dibbs on Hammons Field, causing the Bears to play at wierd times.

[ABC]

Here's the link to the KSU athletic budget: http://espn.go.com/pdf/2012/0503/esp...disclosure.pdf

I was unable to find WSU's budget. It would be more than interesting to see the baseball program budgets of each.

[shoxtop]

So you're saying the players would be just as happy if, instead of upgrading eck in the past, we had given that money to LDS to make it nicer and played there? You've got to be kidding me. On campus vs off campus is a huge advantage.

[WSUwatcher]

Doc, no one replaces Gene. As I've said before, no one in the recent history of college baseball has accomplished what Stephenson has, given the circumstances he had to work with.

Someone FOLLOWS him, and we hope that person is as energetic and hard-working as Gene was earlier in his career and is able to restore the program to where it was from 2004-8 (or from 1988-1993, but that probably isn't realistic at this point, so the 2004-8 period is probably a more reasonable target) and keeps it there. Ideally, whoever it is will be a coach who wants to treat WSU as a destination job -- the main reason for the speculation about people from Gene's glory days; hopefully if that's the choice he'll be more successful than Randy Smithson was on the basketball side.

And then we wait and see. Cliff Gustafson's slide to the finish at Texas lasted only slightly longer than Gene's has, and it took Augie Garrido until his fourth season to right the ship, as he did very well for a while. Let's hope the recovery here is quicker, and that Sexton makes as good a choice and, if necessary, is as level-headed and patient about it as was the case with DeLoss Dodds in Austin.

[shox1989]

If true, that's a pretty small difference. Much less than, say, the $300,000 gap between HCGS and Brad Hill's contracts.

Thanks to ABC finding the link, the 2010-11 figure for the Kstate assistant baseball coaches is $265,289 (pretty close to what I remembered reading last week). The 2012-13 salaries for the WSU assistant coaches is $241,438. The difference is only $24,000 but the KSU figures are from 2 years ago, I would assume they make a little more now, so that the difference today would probably be more like $35,000 (which would be about 15% more than the WSU assistant coaches make).

Not a huge difference, but still was stunning to find out the Kstate assistants make more.

[GoShockers89]

Thanks to ABC finding the link, the 2010-11 figure for the Kstate assistant baseball coaches is $265,289 (pretty close to what I remembered reading last week). The 2012-13 salaries for the WSU assistant coaches is $241,438. The difference is only $24,000 but the KSU figures are from 2 years ago, I would assume they make a little more now, so that the difference today would probably be more like $35,000 (which would be about 15% more than the WSU assistant coaches make).

Not a huge difference, but still was stunning to find out the Kstate assistants make more.

Thank you for following up. In all seriousness, I hope you and the wife come back to the fold after things settle down. I'm sure you are both great and supportive Shocker fans. In the meantime, this is certainly a good place to air your grievances about the move...even though I disagree with many of them.

We're all WSU fans and want what's best for the program. Some of us just disagree on how to get there.

[ABC]

I would love to find a similar document for WSU's budget. I don't know why it is so surprising the KSU assistants is a bit higher than WSU. What is more surprising is that GS makes 2x what Brad Hill makes and their small stadium, given their athletic budgets $12 million profit.

I can't imagine that if KSU's baseball budget is higher, that there is much of a difference.

[shox1989]

Thank you for following up. In all seriousness, I hope you and the wife come back to the fold after things settle down. I'm sure you are both great and supportive Shocker fans. In the meantime, this is certainly a good place to air your grievances about the move...even though I disagree with many of them.

We're all WSU fans and want what's best for the program. Some of us just disagree on how to get there.

If she doesn't calm down, this board will be my only connection to the Shockers. She doesn't want anything to do with WSU right now. She even took down all of the WSU memorabilia we had sitting around the house. Some of which I just bought recently (final 4 stuff). I am little upset right now myself, but I have been preparing for this day for a couple of years. It all just hit her at once a couple of weeks ago.

[shox1989]

I would love to find a similar document for WSU's budget. I don't know why it is so surprising the KSU assistants is a bit higher than WSU. What is more surprising is that GS makes 2x what Brad Hill makes and their small stadium, given their athletic budgets $12 million profit.

I can't imagine that if KSU's baseball budget is higher, that there is much of a difference.

According to the linked KSU Athletic budget, KSU spent $1,590,793 on baseball in 2011. I recall reading something last year that WSU spent around $1.2 million on baseball. If that is right then KSU spends about 33% more (around $400,000) on baseball than WSU. I do wish we could find a budget document for WSU similar to the one we have for KSU to make the comparisons.

It is surprising because I assumed WSU spent a lot more on baseball than Ku and Kstate. I thought of WSU as an "elite baseball program" and Ku and Kstate were not. I thought our coaches were among the best paid (apparently our assistants are not). It is eye-opening to see that these schools really do NOT think of baseball as a "hobby sport". And that WSU has actually fallen behind them in expenditures (except for HC salary and the stadium).