The following are excerpts from our interview with Purdue Athletic Director Mike Bobinski during his Oct. 23rd appearance on 'Gold and Black LIVE.'
GoldandBlack.com: Take us through your experience since March.
Bobinski: It has been the strangest eight-plus months. You have to deal with what presents itself on a day-by-day or sometimes hour-by-hour basis. There have been so many twists and turns and blind alleys and hope for this and maybe not that. It's been a very unique set of circumstances.
The watchword for all of our folks from day one has been flexibility, resiliency, and adaptability. That's the only way you get through something like this. Being able to adjust on the fly, and I think we've done the best job we can do of trying to live that out every day and I'm really proud of the way our people have reacted and responded
GoldandBlack.com: How concerned are you about nine games in nine weeks?
Bobinski: it’s a heavy load for sure, but our guys have been off duty for a long time, you'd like to think that we can find a way to get through that without too much of a strain. Talking to Coach Jeff Brohm about that from the get-go, he's not overly concerned with it. There have been years when that's likely happened given the placement of byes and those one by seasons. Other teams have had to deal with this before and since everybody's doing it there should be no advantage or disadvantage in the midst of the Big Ten.
GoldandBlack.com: If some tests go sideways on you, there's really nowhere to put that game if it has to get called off. Is it conceivable that teams will just play fewer games than other teams?
Bobinski: There is absolutely the possibility that because there is no room for a cancellation and reschedule, the game is off. That's just that's just the reality of this. I think the buffer that we have in the Big Ten is first of all, our daily testing program I believe is really, really good.
Goldandblack.com: When Purdue travels to Illinois, how will that work in terms of numbers
Bobinski: The player travel squad limits are the same as they've been in every other year;74 players can travel. I think all of us have looked at our travel rosters (and travel party) and really tried to make them as lean as possible. The less people you have to be concerned with, the less people you have to worry about testing and keeping virus free..
GoldandBlack.com: From a business perspective how do you monetize an empty stadium?
Bobinski: You can't. There tis literally almost zero revenue generated from game day activities. It will have some modest concession opportunities available for the people that are there, but that's, 900 people.
The good news is that because we're playing, we'll have some ability to recapture media rights dollars. We’ll have some sponsorship opportunities, and I think our folks have done a great job of working within the guidelines to provide really good visibility for the folks that we're fortunate to count as sponsors, but everything else that usually goes into a game day is gone by the wayside. We're still dealing with a significant shortfall.
GoldandBlack.com As a result, can you contextualize how much of the media money you expect to be able to recoup through the retool season.
Bobinski: That's still in process in terms of conversations with our media partners but Fox, BTN, ESPN for the football side of things, those conversations are underway. I think we're in long term partnerships with all those folks and, and they're good healthy partners of ours and so we'd like to believe it'll be a decent outcome but not yet.
GoldandBlack.com: What keeps you going? What do you do to relax?
Bobinski: That's a great question. Yeah, it is not easy, because you are literally on high alert 24 hours a day right now because things happen and can happen when you least expect it, or at least would prefer it to happen. Fortunately, I've learned over the long period of time that I try not to overreact to circumstances or let them really take a toll and so I just try to stay as level as I possibly can. I think that's an important thing for others in our department to see, if I if I'm going to start uncontrollably swearing, I'll be behind the closed door.
We've tried not to do dramatic things or take drastic action and I think that's sort of filtered through our organization in a good way. For me, I keep telling myself, hey this is a temporary condition. That’s why I refuse use the term, and I hate to even say it, “new normal” because this is not normal. This is not the way we're going to live our lives for all time, and I just keep reminding myself of that. You can do anything for a short period of time. That’s why I try to just get up every day and say we're going to find a way through this one and then the next one and the next one and ultimately this is going to clear up.
GoldandBlack.com: Is there further determination on where that ninth game on the schedule will be played?
Bobinski:. So, we know that the championship will be in Lucas Oil Stadium (on Dec. 19) . I believe that they let us know that Friday night is available. We are looking at options and in places where we know that we'll have great playing conditions. I presume that those conversations are happening now at the conference office level, we just haven't gotten that to the front of our of our agenda as ADs yet.
GoldandBlack.com: What's it been like figuring out a basketball schedule here? I’d imagine that’s been no small task either.
Bobinski: No, no, it has not been. The resolution that the presidents passed when they reinstated football was that other sports would be permitted to compete, based on adherence to the guidelines established by the medical subcommittee so really that that group was really on the clock. I think we've gotten there (as a conference)., We’re going to play the 20 games on the men's side, we're going to go up to 20 this year on the women's side. It’s a matter of all of us piecing together what the rest of our schedule is going to look like. I think from our perspective, on the men's side at least, I think we're down to maybe one game that we're looking for at this point so we're in pretty good shape. I think on the women's side, with the cancellation of their multi-team event down in Florida, they've got some more work to do but we're hopeful we'll get those schedules filled out here relatively soon and at least know what we're aiming for.
GoldandBlack.com: What are some of the steps and thought processes in terms of trying to balance things financially the best you can over the next period of time?
Bobinski: It's been a moving target as to what that number is and what the gap really will be, and it remains a moving target. We’ve from the beginning tried to express our desire to keep this to a one-year problem, so that it doesn't become something that's an anchor we carry with us for multiple years.
So we took lots of aggressive action, we've reduced expenses and in every conceivable way, we've taken personnel actions that to my reading are amongst the most aggressive in the country in terms of the level of action we've taken and with pay reductions.
And then beyond that, we're looking at all sorts of other opportunities, including our More Than A Game campaign. That's probably been the most visible. I'm really pleased with the response. To date, we've raised over $5 million in that effort but we've got a goal of $18 (million).
The Purdue family and community has been really supportive to this point and I'd like to think they're going to continue to do so. But it's important to us. I don't want this to cause us to be non-competitive in the years beyond when we get when we get past this fire.
GoldandBlack.com: Any idea yet if you're going have fans at basketball games this year?
Bobinski: The Presidents have not yet dealt with that. Our hope is that that will be left to local decision making, but that's not been determined yet. If we do have fans, it will be significantly reduced. It will be way different than the usual Mackey Arena experience, but I'm hopeful we can do that.
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