Just the difference in concession stand sales for one game between the Dinardo years(half empty stadium) and now would more than pay those raises. A winning LSU football program brings in huge money for LSU and the state. If you have a money making business and stop investing in the things that make it successful you probably won't be making money long. JMO
another good point. a successful athletics program brings in a lot of business to the city and area on game weekends. more business equals more money in the government tax coffers.
In my opinion, from a publicity standpoint, this is a bad time to be giving raises. However, you can't let bad pub affect the proper business decision. I would have tried to get the coaches to agree to some sort of guaranteed raise or deferred compensation due to the sensitivity of the issue right now. If they wouldn't do that, I would give them the raise. Obviously Miles negotiated this on his contract renegotiation so we have to do it.
Kind of like my employer saying that our "management" has qualified for a "bonus" but the company lost hundreds of millions last year. They always say that the "bonus" is part of their compensation package and that the "bonus" is "at risk". Since we lose hundreds of millions every year I am not sure what "risk" they are talking about. Then again, they don't know either, it just sounds good to Wall Street pundits
One thing I can say about Les is he has always been very dedicated to and taken care of his coaches.....even when it was clearly time for them to go. he's a class act and would never throw any of them under the perverbial "bus".
