Baseball Is NOT DEAD at Furman

[FU Hoopla]

Why does UTC not have baseball?

Masterful deflection...

What is the reason for UTC though?

[Sad Din]

here ya go... but thats not the question. The questions is.. why wasnt baseball successful when it was at FU

https://www.chattanoogan.com/2022/7/14/ ... o-UTC.aspx

[FU Hoopla]

here ya go... but thats not the question. The questions is.. why wasnt baseball successful when it was at FU

https://www.chattanoogan.com/2022/7/14/ ... o-UTC.aspx

Why UTC no baseball was MY QUESTION

[FU Hoopla]

Does bringing FU baseball back mean we need to add a women's team? Does anyone have a real answer to that, and if so how much money would that cost FU athletics?

If its just more money going out the door with no return then its hard to see justification.

I need to see some facts to make up my mind, maybe I have missed the facts being shown and if so please point me in the right direction.

Personally I like the idea of all investment going into Basketball and Football as they offer the most return, until someone convinces me otherwise that would be my view.

[Affirm]

Does bringing FU baseball back mean we need to add a women's team? Does anyone have a real answer to that, and if so how much money would that cost FU athletics?

If its just more money going out the door with no return then its hard to see justification.

I need to see some facts to make up my mind, maybe I have missed the facts being shown and if so please point me in the right direction.

Personally I like the idea of all investment going into Basketball and Football as they offer the most return, until someone convinces me otherwise that would be my view.

THIS HAS BEEN DISCUSSED AD NAUSEUM YEARS AGO.
Does bringing FU baseball back mean we need to add a women's team? Affirm believes the answer would be YES. We would need to add some women's sports, maybe more than just one. Examples could be beach volleyball, field hockey, and swimming. Title IX would be the legal reason, although general fairness would be the real reason. Does anyone have a real answer to that, and if so how much money would that cost FU athletics? It would cost probably $2,000,000 per year. That is an off the top of Affirm's head estimate presently, and it might differ greatly from estimates that Affirm wrote on UFFP during the 2020-2022 time frame. The estimate is comprised of a the cost of a few added athletic scholarships for baseball and for the balancing women's sports; plus coaches' salaries for baseball and for the balancing women's teams; plus operations expenses. Previously, Affirm suggested that baseball coming back could be achieved if benefactors would endow funds to support baseball plus those necessary balancing women's sports; and Affirm estimated that the money for the endowment would need to be many millions of dollars.

If its just more money going out the door with no return then its hard to see justification. It would mostly be more money going out the door, weakening support for the sports we already have; although proponents of baseball returning will argue that it would bring in money by a large number of the players supposedly coming to play and paying their own way, no scholarship for most of them Please note that baseball never achieved much at Furman, or at least Affirm has not been shown evidence to the contrary. How many times did we win the SoCon tournament? One? How many times did we win the regular season championship? Five? Over many decades of trying.
I need to see some facts to make up my mind, maybe I have missed the facts being shown and if so please point me in the right direction. Affirm expects that others will give you a different, opposing view.

Personally I like the idea of all investment going into Basketball and Football as they offer the most return, until someone convinces me otherwise that would be my view. Affirm agrees with you completely, other than to state an opinion that Men's Basketball's return is potentially much more significant than Football's return.

[Sad Din]

here ya go... but thats not the question. The questions is.. why wasnt baseball successful when it was at FU

https://www.chattanoogan.com/2022/7/14/ ... o-UTC.aspx

Why UTC no baseball was MY QUESTION

haha. SD gives up

[FU Hoopla]

Does bringing FU baseball back mean we need to add a women's team? Does anyone have a real answer to that, and if so how much money would that cost FU athletics?

If its just more money going out the door with no return then its hard to see justification.

I need to see some facts to make up my mind, maybe I have missed the facts being shown and if so please point me in the right direction.

Personally I like the idea of all investment going into Basketball and Football as they offer the most return, until someone convinces me otherwise that would be my view.

THIS HAS BEEN DISCUSSED AD NAUSEUM YEARS AGO.
Does bringing FU baseball back mean we need to add a women's team? Affirm believes the answer would be YES. We would need to add some women's sports, maybe more than just one. Examples could be beach volleyball, field hockey, and swimming. Title IX would be the legal reason, although general fairness would be the real reason. Does anyone have a real answer to that, and if so how much money would that cost FU athletics? It would cost probably $2,000,000 per year. That is an off the top of Affirm's head estimate presently, and it might differ greatly from estimates that Affirm wrote on UFFP during the 2020-2022 time frame. The estimate is comprised of a the cost of a few added athletic scholarships for baseball and for the balancing women's sports; plus coaches' salaries for baseball and for the balancing women's teams; plus operations expenses. Previously, Affirm suggested that baseball coming back could be achieved if benefactors would endow funds to support baseball plus those necessary balancing women's sports; and Affirm estimated that the money for the endowment would need to be many millions of dollars.

If its just more money going out the door with no return then its hard to see justification. It would mostly be more money going out the door, weakening support for the sports we already have; although proponents of baseball returning will argue that it would bring in money by a large number of the players supposedly coming to play and paying their own way, no scholarship for most of them Please note that baseball never achieved much at Furman, or at least Affirm has not been shown evidence to the contrary. How many times did we win the SoCon tournament? One? How many times did we win the regular season championship? Five? Over many decades of trying.
I need to see some facts to make up my mind, maybe I have missed the facts being shown and if so please point me in the right direction. Affirm expects that others will give you a different, opposing view.

Personally I like the idea of all investment going into Basketball and Football as they offer the most return, until someone convinces me otherwise that would be my view. Affirm agrees with you completely, other than to state an opinion that Men's Basketball's return is potentially much more significant than Football's return.

Makes sense, and the big picture makes it appear that it would come at great cost once everything is factored in without yielding many true benefits overall..................

[apaladin]

Benefits to adding baseball would be numerous. Publicity, name recognition, positive to the Greenville community. playing bigtime teams, bringing in actual revenue etc. If you’re talking cost then elminate any of the other sports that bring nothing to the table. Don’t believe we would have to add a womens sport. Currently 7 mens sports and 9 womens 16 total. Wofford has 9 mens with baseball and 10 womens total 19. Their male/female ratio is close to FU. It woukd not be that costly to bring back baseball, facilities are there which would be the most costly.

[Affirm]

Benefits to adding baseball would be numerous. Publicity, name recognition, positive to the Greenville community. playing bigtime teams, bringing in actual revenue etc. If you’re talking cost then elminate any of the other sports that bring nothing to the table. Don’t believe we would have to add a womens sport. Currently 7 mens sports and 9 womens 16 total. Wofford has 9 mens with baseball and 10 womens total 19. Their male/female ratio is close to FU. It woukd not be that costly to bring back baseball, facilities are there which would be the most costly.

Yes, benefits to adding baseball would be numerous, but Affirm's opinion still is that the benefits would not outweigh the costs.
"Publicity, name recognition, positive to the Greenville community. playing bigtime teams,"
Maybe so, but not that much of any of that - there's only so much of it to go around in a state that includes Clemson, USC, CCU, plus numerous other less-achieving baseball schools; and next door to a state that includes ECU, UNCW, Campbell, UNC, NCSU, Duke, Wake Forest, Charlotte. I mean ... really ... how much publicity and name recognition benefit is there to go around?! Focus on the sports that we actually can and do excel in especially in the context of the fact that we do not have unlimited resources.
"positive to the Greenville community. playing bigtime teams"
OK, Affirm does suppose it does bring in some additional business to Greenville hotels and restaurants when teams from out of the area come here to play and stay overnight - but that is relatively small amounts for said hotels and restaurants, Affirm thinks.
"bringing in actual revenue etc. "
Maybe brings in some revenue but probably not any profit.
"Don’t believe we would have to add a womens sport. Currently 7 mens sports and 9 womens 16 total."
Affirm still thinks that we would have to add 1, 2, or women's sports if we bring back baseball with what spots for 30 some players? Affirm thinks we would have to add an approximately equal number of spots for women's sports Maybe field hockey and beach volleyball would do it. It would probably be legally required, but even if somehow not legally required, it still would be the right thing to do in regard to equity.
... Note:
Poor Wofford won 40 games this year.
No NCAA Tournament berth.
How sad.
Doubtful that the returns of "publicity, name recognition, positive to the ... community. playing bigtime teams, ... etc" was all that gratifying for them in the context of such a "great season".
Affirm respects apaladin's opinions.
Affirm acknowledges that Affirm's comments are opinions.

[FU Hoopla]

Benefits to adding baseball would be numerous. Publicity, name recognition, positive to the Greenville community. playing bigtime teams, bringing in actual revenue etc. If you’re talking cost then elminate any of the other sports that bring nothing to the table. Don’t believe we would have to add a womens sport. Currently 7 mens sports and 9 womens 16 total. Wofford has 9 mens with baseball and 10 womens total 19. Their male/female ratio is close to FU. It woukd not be that costly to bring back baseball, facilities are there which would be the most costly.

apaladin, if we're talking about dropping other men's sports like Tennis for example to add baseball sure go ahead, but do you really see the University doing that? I don't.
Also I don't think total teams is what drives whether we have to add a women's team, I think its total scholarships going towards both or maybe even total players for teams towards both, either way I also don't think the Wofftard model is a good example to follow as their Basketball and Football programs have become an absolute mess, just look at the two coaches they had to settle on hiring because the money has dried up.
What was the financial bottom line on Baseball the last couple years of its existence at FU?
Plus what will the cost of adding women's teams be if that is indeed the case, as that will surely be a decent loss that you have to add to the Baseball equation.

[Davemeister]

The worst thing about not playing baseball is trying to explain the "why" to people from other schools.

[FurmAlum]

Title 9 has gotten out of hand. A private school should be able to have as many sports as they damn well please.

[Sad Din]

Good to see the ole field is being put to good use

[apaladin]

Good to see the ole field is being put to good use

Makes me sick. How much did it cost to replace the outfield fence?

[Sad Din]

Good to see the ole field is being put to good use

Makes me sick. How much did it cost to replace the outfield fence?

Beleive Harker put in the fence. Its not a fence, its padding