Director of Athletics Kevin Saal

[Kung Wu]

That would be MUCH less than my $500/game. The athletic department must be struggling bad to risk this PR crapfest over 120k

Big donors give a lot more than just the face value of premium seats.

[ABC]

I apologize, I thought most of group was on some kind of academic scholarship. My mistake.

Well, when I was WuShock, I got a $100 per semester scholarship; and that was when tuition was ~$600 per semester. I would highly doubt that has changed much.

[shock]

Big donors give a lot more than just the face value of premium seats.

I hope so. I would think floor seating for MBB would be worth at least $250k per season as a whole.

[atlwsu]

My daughter was a cheerleader in collage. She played high school ball. She found out it paid $100 per semester so he signed up. She was also Class VP which paid ~$5,000 per year. She went to a small private liberal arts school in North Georgia.

She was playing BB in pickup game with boys one day. The girls coach asked her to come out for the girls team. She suited for a few games and decided it was too much time away from her other duties. It was 20 years ago.

[shockrah]

From KWCH:

https://www.kwch.com/2024/11/08/wichita-states-game-day-changes-spark-outrage-among-cheer-dance-teams/

[Kung Wu]

[shock]

Saal nailed it. Decisions of the head vs decisions of the heart. An AD willing to make smart financial decisions during tough times is exactly what we need, especially if we are currently facing a $7m budget deficit.

[RoyalShock]

Now that I see where half will still be on the floor, and we're not the only ones in our conference who has done something similar, I can't fault Saal for the decision.

[ShockTalk]

I wonder if people that will be sitting there will have to sign injury waivers from hard flying balls to players flying out of bounds. How many times have you seen cheerleaders scramble to try and not get hit. To think of it, how might other teams react if one of their players got hurt due to the seating being there?

[shockerfan]

Now that I see where half will still be on the floor, and we're not the only ones in our conference who has done something similar, I can't fault Saal for the decision.

Outside of Memphis and ECU everyone else that responded doesn't do anything similar. And Memphis even warned of backlash lol.

[1972Shocker]

Saal highlighted the growing financial pressures facing college sports, including the rising costs of NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) deals, scholarship funding, and the increasing need for schools to generate additional revenue.

“We’ve got about $7 million that we’re going to need to come up with to remain competitive here in the next nine to 10 months,” Saal said. “We’re going to have to make some incredibly difficult decisions and certainly not communicating that this is the least of those difficult decisions but at the end of the day, we’ve not cut funding.”

---

In the past 5 years the annual audited WSU-ICAA financial statements for their June 30th fiscal years were completed on 9/25/19, 9/28/20, 9/23/21, 10/04/22 and 10/10/23. Perhaps this $7 million funding need has something to do with the fact those statements have not been released yet for fiscal 2024. It is possibly they are not quite done yet, but it could be they are done and ADKS simply doesn't want them publicly posted as they have done in the past. I hope that's not the case. I don't think a lack of transparency will help.

We may have a lot bigger problems to worry about than where the cheer and dance teams sit. I feel bad for them, it's not any of their doing, but the confluence of the Gregg Marshall fiasco (followed by the Isaac Brown fiasco), Covid and the burgeoning unrestricted legalized pay-to-play environment now prevalent in collegiate athletics not to mention the ease of watching games from the comfort of your favorite easy chair, and its a perfect storm that is extremely challenging. How long can the dam hold back the floodwaters.

[RoyalShock]

Obviously, they won't equal $7 million, but buyouts coming off the books will help. Just not soon enough.

$1.17 million to Brown, ending in April of 2026.
$1.25 million to Marshall, ending in November 2026.

Those feel like a long way off. It would help if at least Brown would get a job already.

[BAShocker]

“…make some incredibly hard decisions…” I hope it isn’t too hard, but…

when I heard that, it brought back some painful Perkins memories. I sure hope it’s not anything near that, which I can’t imagine with the push for Women’s soccer in the coming years.

Hoping that comment was intended to be a push for more donations…which would make the most sense to me.

[Dan]

Obviously, they won't equal $7 million, but buyouts coming off the books will help. Just not soon enough.

$1.17 million to Brown, ending in April of 2026.
$1.25 million to Marshall, ending in November 2026.

Those feel like a long way off. It would help if at least Brown would get a job already.

Brown wouldn’t sniff a million a year if he were to get a job. He cares more about “the bag” than he does being a coach.

[shock]

Outside of Memphis and ECU everyone else that responded doesn't do anything similar. And Memphis even warned of backlash lol.

I think you are taking that out of context.

However, Memphis officials warned that any changes to the spirit squad’s seating arrangement would likely lead to strong fan backlash.

sounds to me like if they monkey with where the squad sits fans might be upset, meaning the fans whose view is obstructed by the cheerleaders. I doubt the other 10,500 fans will be too upset by where any one is as long as the squad is still at the game.