image credit www.footballfanatics.com
We’re big fans of Andy Staples of SportsIllustrated.com and wanted to bring you some news he just posted about the economics of A&M leaving for the SEC. Keep in mind the Perryman Group did this study entirely from the perspective of Baylor to try and force the Aggies to stay in the Big 12…
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
August 15, 2011
Numerous benefits for participating universities as well as local and state economies are clearly obtained through participation in large athletic conferences. The Perryman Group (TPG) recently quantified the economic impact if Texas A&M leaves the Big 12 Conference.
If Texas A&M leaves the Big 12, but the rest of the conference remains intact, the decrease in business activity in the state would include losses of $217.2 million in output (gross product) each year and 3,050 jobs. This reduction in economic activity also results in lost tax revenue to the State and to local governments. The Perryman Group estimates that State fiscal revenue would be reduced by $28.2 million per year if Texas A&M leaves the Big 12, but the Conference survives. Losses to local governments would be $13.1 million per year.
If Texas A&M leaves the Big 12, leading to other realignments and the dissolution of the Big 12, the reduction in business activity in the state is even larger. Losses in total spending could be expected to top $1 billion, while output (gross product) falls by $589.5 million each year. In addition, 8,329 jobs would likely be lost. Tax revenue losses to the State and to local governments would also be larger. The Perryman Group estimates that State fiscal revenue would be reduced by $53.2 million per year if Texas A&M leaves the Big 12 and the Conference dissolves, while local governments lose $22.6 million per annum.
These losses in home game expenditures, major conference games, media contracts, and visitor spending are net of impacts Texas member schools would continue to generate through activity in other conferences. Negative effects would be particularly notable if the balance shifted in the Texas representation relative to other states.
“Schools in the premier conferences also realize notable benefits such as national media exposure and lucrative media contracts, and the presence of four schools in a premier conference is important to Texas’ ability to capitalize on the potential economic stimulus of college athletics,” said Dr. Perryman.
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Raju Kansagra
Perryman is a Baylor grad who works with and (at times) on behalf of Baylor. Mark White (former Texas Gov. & Baylor grad as well) has been going around with these same numbers from Perryman. Baylor got into the Big 12 due to pressure from Texas politicians and doesn’t want to end up outside of a BCS conference when this new round of realignment plays out.
CanDone: I couldn’t agree with you more about the points you made.
And just exactly how would there be a loss of revenue in any way? I predict that all of the Texas schools will have exactly the same number of home games that they did before any type of realignment. Therefore the revenue from hotels, etc. should be pretty much the same. If anything there might be a spike in revenue in the short term from SEC fans in Texas wanting to see incoming teams playing A&M.
I smell an economic rat here. And what about the economice benefit of new members being added to the Big 12 to replace A&M. Could it be that Mr Perryman slanted his numbers to favor Baylor…Hmmmm…
Publish the complete assumptions of the study if you want to prove it is unbiased.