How much does Columbia spend trying to get you to trek all the way up to 215th Street?

How much does Columbia spend trying to get you to trek all the way up to 215th Street?

Yesterday, the Columbia football team pulled off a surprising (and not particularly notable) win against Brown in the last game of the season. Senior staffer Betsy Ladyzhets reflects upon the past season by examining how much money the CU Athletics department spent on promoting the team – and whether or not that investment was at all worth it – in Bwog’s latest Back of the Envelope calculation.

  • Facebook posts and the people Athletics pays to develop them: $50 per game
  • Promoting tweets and Facebook posts: $50 per game
  • “Pump-up music”: $10 per song x 24 songs per game = $240 per game
  • Free T-shirts: ($15 per shirt x 12 per game) + ($25 per T-shirt cannon x 2 per game) = $230 per game
  • Free beer (at “Beer O’clock”): $1.50 per beer x 2 beers per person x 150 people per game = $450 per game
  • Gift cards to local restaurants: $15 per gift card x 3 gift cards per game = $45 per game
  • Complimentary tickets (for football players, cheerleaders, band members, etc.): $10 per tickets x 40 comp tickets per game = $40
  • Roaree’s slick dance moves: Roaree is paid $20 per hour x 4 hours per game = $80 per game

All of the above costs are spent each home game; this brings the total home game cost to $50 + $50 + $240 + $230 + $450 + $45 + $40 + $80 = $1,185. There were five home games this semester, so the cost of all home games is $1,185 x 5 = $5,925.

Now, examining costs from the semester over all:

  • Cost of all home games: $5,925
  • That one pep rally that nobody went to: = $300 for free food + $400 for gift cards + $100 for excessive blue and white balloons = $800
  • Free home schedule shirts:  $15 per shirt x 500 shirts = $750
  • New jerseys for the team: $1,500
  • Advertising around campus: $500
  • Stipend for the Cheerleaders: $2,000
  • Stipend for the Band: $2,000

Thus, Athletics’ total promotional cost for the semester is: $5,925 + $800 + $750 + $1,500 + $500 + $2,000 + $2,000 = $13,475. Guess we know where all of those donations from alumni are going.

So, is this spending worth it? The football team won three games this season, which is admittedly more than in the past three seasons combined, but still is not particularly impressive. Most students clearly don’t think so – at last weekend’s game against Cornell (the last home game of the season), the Cornell side of the bleachers was more packed than the Columbia side.

Plus, most of the students who come to football games either already are fans of the football team (and thus unaffected by promotional tactics) or are cheerleaders or in the band (and thus are mandated to be there regardless of promotional tactics.) We can assume that Athletics’ pandering has gotten at most fifty additional students to attend games.

Therefore:

  • Cost for each student: $13,475 / 50 = $269.50
  • Glory brought to Columbia: minimal.

The field where not much happens via CU Facilities