EDITORIAL: U-M’s New President Should Reverse the Over-Hype and Commercialization of U-M Football

MICHIGAN FOOTBALL AND U-M Athletic Director Dave Bradon’s efforts to “brand” U-M football have been criticized in the local, state and national media. Thanks to policies implemented by Mr. Brandon, a former CEO for Domino’s Pizza, student ticket sales have dropped by a over third, to 13,000. One national sports writer opined: “Fans are fed up of paying steakhouse prices for junk food opponents, then sitting through ads for $9,000 corporate receptions at Michigan Stadium.  The more they cater to TV, the more fans get turned off.”

There was outrage when the Athletic Department announced that single-game tickets for the 2013 football season would be sold using a new dynamic pricing system. With “dynamic” ticket pricing launched in 2013, a ticket with a face value of $54 can be sold for as much as $1,000.

In 2009-10, Michigan paid $33 million to about 275 athletic department employees. Today, Michigan’s athletic department employs 336 people who are projected to earn $44 million in pay, including $19 million in coaches’ salaries. In 2012 five top earners in Brandon’s department took home a combined $7 million in wages and benefits. Football coach Brady Hoke was paid $2.6 million, basketball coach John Beilein was paid $2 million and Dave Brandon took home $840,000.

Dr. Schlissel comes to Michigan from Brown by way of UC-Berkeley. He has said: “I like sports. I’m not a rabid sports fanatic, but I look forward to sharing that part of Michigan’s culture.” During a January press conference, Dr. Schlissel talked about using the athletics program to draw attention to other university undertakings, especially academics.

We believe that Dr. Schlissel will have to lead with firm resolve in order to reverse Mr. Brandon’s increasingly unpopular, over-commercialization of U-M’s football program. From an embarrassing  Department of Education investigation into the Brendan Gibbons’s scandal, $1,000 tickets and junk food opponents, to plummeting student ticket sales, U-M football has become over-hyped and over-priced.