Hogs won't break even

SCOTT CAIN
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

FAYETTEVILLE -- Financially, bowl games usually are a payoff to schools for a successful season.
For Arkansas, playing in the Las Vegas Bowl is an investment, not a dividend.
"We'll lose money on this, so we're taking very few people from the staff," Athletic Director Frank Broyles said.
Arkansas could lose anywhere from $100,000 to $200,000, senior associate athletic director Katie Hill said.
Any losses would be absorbed through the operating budget and possibly an athletic department reserve fund, Hill said.
The athletic department operates on a $28 million budget.
The Las Vegas Bowl payout is $800,000. Arkansas also is taking in money on ticket sales that probably will push revenue to more than $1 million.
From that sum, the school has to pay for team, band and official party travel and for the Las Vegas Bowl tickets it sells and does not sell.
The bowl requires both teams to purchase 12,500 tickets at $625,000. The more tickets the school can sell, the less money it will have to pay.
Arkansas officials have not revealed how many tickets have been sold, a telling sign that sales are sluggish.
"The reality is we will probably not break even on this bowl," Hill said.
Even so, the value of playing in a bowl is immeasurable.
"It's a major financial benefit for the future," Broyles said. "It has a major effect on the extra practice time we get, and it has an extraordinary effect on recruiting. You cannot measure in dollars because some are obvious benefits and some are residual benefits, but they're umpteen."
Playing in Las Vegas allows Arkansas to boast it has participated in a bowl for a third consecutive year, the same number of years Houston Nutt has been coach.
It gives Nutt the chance to win a seventh game this season, which would allow him to tell recruits he has averaged eight victories a year since taking over. That's very important, Broyles said.
The Las Vegas Bowl will be the only college football game on television Thursday.
Arkansas has received a financial break from the SEC.
Under the league's bowl revenue formula, Arkansas ordinarily would keep $600,000 and 20 percent of the rest of the payout and then turn over the rest to be shared among the conference members.
But because the Las Vegas Bowl has a relatively small payout and because the league has a record nine bowl teams bringing in an estimated $27 million, Arkansas has been allowed to keep all of its payout, Hill said.

This article was published on Monday, December 18, 2000

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