Springfield Business Journal_2021-03-29

April 26 Ed u c a t i o n June 28 B a n k i n g & F i n a n c e May 24 To u r i s m CEO ROUNDTABLE SECOND QUARTER deals to switch associations or confer- ences? McDonald: For us, the NAIA has been the right level. I do a lot of research: You look at costs, you look at travel distances, you look at dues. It’s a constant process of looking at numbers and looking at ways to possibly improve, but there’s no definite steps toward anything presently. Moats: We certainly aren’t looking to go anywhere else, but the landscape of Divi- sion I, there is going to be some movement and there already has been some move- ment with our (football championship subdivision) schools in terms of moving to different conferences and looking at that and seeing if it lines up with what the mission of their institution is. My stance on this has always been, we have to do the best we can do here and what makes us marketable. Bray: We are very happy with the Great Lakes Valley Conference. It’s a great fit for us and we’re not looking to move. Revenue drivers Temple: What are the biggest revenue driv- ers within your programs, and what are some of the loss leaders? Is there anything you’re considering cutting? Moats: We’re not considering cutting any- thing at this time. We’ve done that analysis a couple years’ back and really our focus continues and remains to be men’s bas- ketball, football and women’s basketball. Those are our revenue drivers, along with donations and seat assessments that go along with those three particular sports. All the revenue buckets we have to en- hance. Our biggest donor is the university – that’s who subsidizes us the most. We look at all those revenue buckets as areas we have to improve on, which is really ticket revenue – that’s the biggest thing. I say it all the time, if you want to help us, you need to be a season ticket holder. It doesn’t mean you have to give $1 million. Bray: We are an enrollment-driven institu- tion and help drive numbers through ath- letics – probably very similar to Dennis. We have 28 sports, 502 student-athletes and so that tuition revenue, that room and board revenue, is critical to the financial stability of Drury University. That’s our main revenue driver. McDonald: A lot of folks when they think about college athletics, they think some- one gets a scholarship and it’s exciting and great, and it really is. But if we have a high scholarship individual, they may be at 100% tuition, but our estimation for the entire athletics program may be some- where around 65%-67% tuition discount. So, the driver, when you think about that, you think about what’s left to pay for the average student-athlete at Evangel. They are students at Evangel and that drives our total revenue and it assists the univer- sity in its total revenue. We’re about 500 student-athletes as well, with very few full scholarship athletes. It’s not about ticket sales at games for us, although we do bring in some. It’s about the student and the student enrollment and the tuition. Sports developments Temple: We’re seen an influx of youth sports developments around town. [Editor’s note: See “Game Changers” story on Page 9.] How does that impact your programs? Bray: All three of us serve on the Springfield Sports Commission, so we are involved through that entity with these types of developments and certainly promoting them to get into Springfield to attract those types of events. When you can bring in large-scale soccer tournaments or large- scale lacrosse tournaments or basketball tournaments, those are major revenue drivers in the Springfield community with hotel nights and restaurants dollars. McDonald: That’s exactly the same for us. Moats: We’ve got the high school basketball championship going on right now, which is great for the community, great for our institutions to have all those families and cities come here to look at our institution, our city and our facilities. From a com- petitive standpoint, if we’re able to host a championship that Evangel is playing in, I think that’s a competitive advantage for Evangel. Bray: We traditionally host the Pink and White Lady Classic, which is a great high school girls basketball tournament usually right around Christmas in the O’Reilly Family Events Center. That’s a great op- portunity to get high school aged girls that play basketball to come to our campus and experience Drury. Even if they don’t come play for the Lady Panthers, they may want to enroll as a student and be a fan. Things like that definitely help from an institu- tionwide recruiting perspective. McDonald: We do host a number of dif- ferent types of events, but right now one of our main areas of pursuit is facilities improvement. We’re hard on the trail of raising funds to improve our Ashcroft Center and continue to improve our outdoor facilities. We probably would be hosting more things once we get to that point of improvements. One big event that comes into Springfield every year is the homeschool basketball tournament. That is several hundred basketball teams scattered throughout this entire area. Our coaches are paying attention to that and if there are some great athletes that are at NAIA level play, our coaches will know about it. Moats: I know the sports commission is really working hard, and Lance Kettering, who is in charge of that, is doing a great job. But we also need to have a little bit of help from the community to have these facilities because a lot of that falls back on the institutions, on Evangel and Drury and Missouri State. Sometimes we just can’t do all the things the sports commission wants to do because we don’t have the facilities to do it. Our first and main responsibility is our student-athletes that compete and use those facilities. We all want to be good community partners, but it also helps to have additional facilities so we can bring those events and championships here to help economically. McDonald: It is something that is absolutely a need in Springfield. There was a time when our facilities in Springfield were absolutely top of the line, and time takes its toll. There’s a lot of improvement that needs to happen and a lot of new facilities. Being in the central United States, you would be surprised at how many organiza- tions want to be right here in Springfield, Missouri, playing their event. But they are looking for certain things to move their championship tournament. It’s critically important for the city of Springfield to pursue youth athletics and athletic facili- ties. Bray: I would also add that one could make a strong argument that we’re falling behind other communities in this area. It’s more than just sports. It’s economic activity, bringing people in to experience all the wonderful things about Springfield when they travel in to watch their son or daugh- ter play a sporting event. It’s generating revenue through hotel nights and gas sta- tions and restaurants. Sports is a vehicle to help make a great impact on Springfield. Changing the game Temple: You all mentioned some changes you’ve made in the past year that you hope to continue going forward. How has the past year spurred innovation to revamp programs or address challenges? Moats: We were so reliant on the actual game itself. Who thought we weren’t go- ing to have a game? I think we really tried to take a look at the digital component from a sponsorship standpoint and how we interact with our fans. There will be some other things when we have time to sit down and have two seconds to think about it after the spring gets done. As I mentioned before, recruiting from the sense of our folks don’t have to be out as much. I think that’s a good thing. Bray: We host an auction every October. It’s a great revenue driver for the athletics de- partment but it’s also a great social event for all of our fans and supporters. We couldn’t do that this year and so we had to get creative. We did a virtual auction, and it was a tremendous success. Next year, when things are back to normal, what can we do to blend an in person and virtual event? We were able to reach support- ers of Drury athletics across a number of states and a couple of different countries. It broadened beyond a local event. McDonald: One thing we learned in our conference, especially, is how to com- municate better with each other. We developed a conference task force that included athletic directors and train- ers. We are going week by week to make decisions. The process of communica- tion has been really strong, and I think we developed some closer friendships through that. Excerpts by Christine Temple, ctemple@sbj.net , and Michelle Higgins, mhiggins@sbj.net. SPRINGFIELD BUSINESS JOURNAL · 11 MARCH 29 -APRIL 4, 2021 SPORTS & BUSINESS UP NEXT: Education April 26 Supporting Sponsor