Essay Senior Associate Director of Business Operations & University of Wyoming Men’s Basketball Team Case Study – Management Assignment Help

Assignment Task

BACKGROUND  
At the University of Wyoming (UW) the 2010-2011 academic year budget for the Athletics Department  was approximately $23 million.1 These funds were used to cover expenses such as staff salaries, student  scholarships, team travel, recruiting, equipment, game management costs, facility maintenance and other  operating expenses of the various intercollegiate teams. While approximately $9 million of the budget  was provided by the university, a large portion of the remaining expenses were covered by the Athletics  Department itself through ticket and concession revenues generated from sporting events. Some teams,  such as football, and both men’s and women’s basketball, had loyal fan bases which provided significant  revenues for the department.

 
Overseeing the financial operations of the Athletics Department was the Athletic Planning Committee  (APC), which was consisted of approximately 20 members from the university community including the  vice-president of administration and the controller. The APC met quarterly, with specific topics of  discussion depending on the time of the year. With the 2009-2010 academic year coming to a close, the  next meeting would include the discussion of projected costs and revenues associated with various  intercollegiate teams.  
  

MEN’S BASKETBALL AT UW  
The UW Men’s Basketball team competed in the Mountain West Conference (MWC), along with teams  from eight other universities. Each team in the MWC played every other team in the conference twice per  year, with one game on each team’s campus. In addition, UW could host additional games against teams  from other conferences, with the number of these home games ranging between eight and 10. If a  tournament were hosted, UW could sell also tickets to three additional weekend games. Overall, UW  usually hosted between 16 and 21 men’s basketball games per year.  

BILL SPARKS  
As Senior Associate Director of Business Operations in the Athletics Department, Bill Sparks’  responsibilities included establishing ticket prices for the home games of the intercollegiate teams, and  providing revenue forecasts based on those ticket prices. Each year Sparks presented his forecasts at APC  meetings.  
With the next meeting of the APC approaching, Sparks tried to estimate the revenues that the Athletics  Department could expect from the men’s basketball team in the upcoming year. It was already decided a  season ticket would be priced at $164, and individual game tickets would sell at $12, a mark-up of 20 per  cent. At these prices, Sparks was fairly confident the number of season tickets sold would be roughly  equal to the previous year. He believed the number of individual tickets sold per game would continue to  depend on such factors as day of the week of the game (weekday or weekend), opponent (conference rival  vs. non-conference team), and the performance of the UW team that year. Revenue projection was  difficult due to the number of undetermined home games. In addition, revenues from single-game tickets  and concessions were random.  
Sparks reviewed data from the four most recent men’s basketball seasons (see Exhibits 1 and 2),  pondering the best way to forecast total revenues for the upcoming season.