The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/575020
THE BUSINESS OF MICHIGAN ATHLETICS BY JOHN BORTON G aining an athletic director who could hire Jim Har- baugh then hiring the for- mer Bo Schembechler dis- ciple came at a hefty price. However, most agree the alternative would have proven far more costly. Furthermore, the moves paid for themselves faster than anyone could have anticipated. Michigan Interim Director of Ath- letics Jim Hackett reported a projected $7.9-million budget shortfall to the University of Michigan Board of Re- gents in June, due mostly to buyouts for former head coach Brady Hoke and former AD David Brandon. Hiring Harbaugh and his staff also bumped up the red numbers pro- jected at that time. But when the final tally came in for the fiscal year just past, everything looked considerably better, Hackett assured. "By the time the books closed, it was only a $100,000 loss," he said. That's a far cry from $7.9 million, and Hackett assured there wasn't any poor bookkeeping involved in the initial projection. He cited get- ting Brandon's settlement back when Toys 'R' Us signed the former AD as its new CEO. "Mainly, it was the advanced foot- ball ticket sales, which exceeded every- thing that was in the budget," Hackett explained. "If you take 107,000 times eight games, we have 856,000 to sell. We have fewer than 2,000 seats remain- ing for sale. That was just great news at the end of the year." In other words, the much-dis- cussed "Harbaugh Effect" began taking hold long before his first team stormed the field in September. It proved a useful reminder that when strong, Michigan football pays for itself and a whole lot more. Hackett stressed that in going after Harbaugh, Michigan could no lon- ger afford to "experiment" regarding football coaches. In this case "could not afford" can be counted in dollars and cents. U-M sold out its lucrative foot- ball suites quickly following Har- baugh's hiring. Season tickets soon followed, with Michigan cutting off sales at nearly 90,000 on July 21. It sold 17,899 student season tickets, up from 11,597 the previous year. Frequent turnover in the football offices at Michigan isn't the estab- lished pattern, Hackett pointed out. In this case, he felt a change was jus- tified. "The assets here in this world are the people," Hackett said. "When you have to pay off unfinished con- tracts, you've got to be healthy fi- nancially to do that. If you have a strategy of firing coaches every two years, this would be a failed idea. "Michigan's history is the other way. It's more aberrant to have us get rid of somebody. The Schem- bechler era ran 40 years. It was the opposite. Michigan avoided all those charges." Hackett, who retired as CEO of the Grand Rapids-based office furniture giant Steelcase before taking the AD chair in Ann Arbor, hopes to trim