Here's three takeaways from Ross Bjork's May 5 media teleconference...you can listen to the entire event through the link below.
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Q: A follow up to what John Sharp said about the plan to deploy the season and play in front of fans. How are y'all handling that and reacting to it?
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That's been our thought process all along. We know that there's a lot of steps that we have to take to get to that point and we're following all the guidance of our leadership here on campus and the health officials working with the SEC. I really appreciate his confidence in our planning and preparation. The data really is sound for Texas and gives us good planning to go off of. So, I really appreciate his confidence and President Young with his leadership and confidence, as well. I am grateful of him making that declaration and now we know that. I told you guys once may 1 hit that I thought that was a pivotal date to see where we go from here. So I think the timing was great, and I really do appreciate his confidence and how everything is unfolding.
How much more optimistic are you now about the potential of at least having a college football season than you may have been a month ago when all this kind of started hitting the haywire?
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We're seeing great signs around our communities. I know here in Brazos County our number of cases went up today, but you look at the number of people in the hospital, you look at how many people have recovered exceeds the number of active cases. So there's some really good data. I think we're all optimistic. The leadership of our university at the system level, the campus level talking about opening classes in the fall, gives us great optimism, and we can start really planning around that. A lot of people say hope is not a strategy. In this case, hope is an attitude, and we need to have a positive attitude. We're using hope as well, but that gives us some guideposts to say, we can start planning accordingly. So we're optimistic. We're planning like we're going to play. I think there's great data in terms of how our healthcare system is holding up here in the state of Texas, and we hope those trends continue as we do reopen. We know that as we do reopen, we'll have to monitor this very closely and follow all the news out there. But I'm optimistic and very hopeful that we're going to play and we're going to play a full season. We want fans in the stands. And that's how we're looking at this whole thing for us following up on that.
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Q: With the announcement by Missouri and Kansas of renewing their football series, the border showdown. Has there been any movement, any overtures, any discussions, since we last beat you over the head with this about Texas or anything like that?
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No there hasn't. I responded to a Twitter post yesterday morning just to provide some levity I think to the conversation. But there's been nothing formal, nothing official. We haven't moved any conversations, and our position remains the same that we're focused on other things right now. If that happens, let's make it happen in the college football playoffs.
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It does seem like it would be a way to raise at some point millions if y'all need to do that and if they needed it...
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Well, if schedules get adjusted and that's our only option. I think there's 11 FBS teams in Texas, right? So who knows what would happen.
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Q: How important is it for the other sports to have a football season that starts on time and just to have a complete football season in order to everything else to play out as normal?
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Football is the economic engine here at Texas A&M for our athletic program. All of our sports are impacted by the football program. We have 102,000 seats, and we sold 85,000 season tickets last year. Just in tickets and donations last year, that number was $85 million. That's more than half of our operating budget. So it's a big impact. And we recognize that our other coaches and student athletes recognize that. We try to give them the same experience, as the football student athletes though. That's our approach; we want them to feel appreciated and understand the commitment that A&M provides them. Everyone realizes that the economic driver, really for our community if you really boil it down from an economic impact standpoint, football is an economic engine, and the vitality of our communities relies heavily on football.
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Just to be clear, that you said, over half the budget is from ticket sales for football games?
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Ticket sales and annual fund donations. Our operating budget is usually in the in the $150 million range. So last year between just season tickets and single game tickets and donations, it was around $85 million in those two categories.
Again, fans can access the entire teleconference audio in its entirety by clicking here.
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1. Deploying the football season.
Q: A follow up to what John Sharp said about the plan to deploy the season and play in front of fans. How are y'all handling that and reacting to it?
Â
That's been our thought process all along. We know that there's a lot of steps that we have to take to get to that point and we're following all the guidance of our leadership here on campus and the health officials working with the SEC. I really appreciate his confidence in our planning and preparation. The data really is sound for Texas and gives us good planning to go off of. So, I really appreciate his confidence and President Young with his leadership and confidence, as well. I am grateful of him making that declaration and now we know that. I told you guys once may 1 hit that I thought that was a pivotal date to see where we go from here. So I think the timing was great, and I really do appreciate his confidence and how everything is unfolding.
How much more optimistic are you now about the potential of at least having a college football season than you may have been a month ago when all this kind of started hitting the haywire?
Â
We're seeing great signs around our communities. I know here in Brazos County our number of cases went up today, but you look at the number of people in the hospital, you look at how many people have recovered exceeds the number of active cases. So there's some really good data. I think we're all optimistic. The leadership of our university at the system level, the campus level talking about opening classes in the fall, gives us great optimism, and we can start really planning around that. A lot of people say hope is not a strategy. In this case, hope is an attitude, and we need to have a positive attitude. We're using hope as well, but that gives us some guideposts to say, we can start planning accordingly. So we're optimistic. We're planning like we're going to play. I think there's great data in terms of how our healthcare system is holding up here in the state of Texas, and we hope those trends continue as we do reopen. We know that as we do reopen, we'll have to monitor this very closely and follow all the news out there. But I'm optimistic and very hopeful that we're going to play and we're going to play a full season. We want fans in the stands. And that's how we're looking at this whole thing for us following up on that.
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2. Renewing the football rivalry with Texas.
Q: With the announcement by Missouri and Kansas of renewing their football series, the border showdown. Has there been any movement, any overtures, any discussions, since we last beat you over the head with this about Texas or anything like that?
Â
No there hasn't. I responded to a Twitter post yesterday morning just to provide some levity I think to the conversation. But there's been nothing formal, nothing official. We haven't moved any conversations, and our position remains the same that we're focused on other things right now. If that happens, let's make it happen in the college football playoffs.
Â
It does seem like it would be a way to raise at some point millions if y'all need to do that and if they needed it...
Â
Well, if schedules get adjusted and that's our only option. I think there's 11 FBS teams in Texas, right? So who knows what would happen.
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3. Football's impact on the overall athletics budget.
ÂQ: How important is it for the other sports to have a football season that starts on time and just to have a complete football season in order to everything else to play out as normal?
Â
Football is the economic engine here at Texas A&M for our athletic program. All of our sports are impacted by the football program. We have 102,000 seats, and we sold 85,000 season tickets last year. Just in tickets and donations last year, that number was $85 million. That's more than half of our operating budget. So it's a big impact. And we recognize that our other coaches and student athletes recognize that. We try to give them the same experience, as the football student athletes though. That's our approach; we want them to feel appreciated and understand the commitment that A&M provides them. Everyone realizes that the economic driver, really for our community if you really boil it down from an economic impact standpoint, football is an economic engine, and the vitality of our communities relies heavily on football.
Â
Just to be clear, that you said, over half the budget is from ticket sales for football games?
Â
Ticket sales and annual fund donations. Our operating budget is usually in the in the $150 million range. So last year between just season tickets and single game tickets and donations, it was around $85 million in those two categories.
Again, fans can access the entire teleconference audio in its entirety by clicking here.