Mal Meninga back from fact-finding mission QRL State of Origin supercoach Mal Meninga has just returned from a fact-finding trip to the United States, and for the first time in his football career confessed to being intimidated by an opponents size. But the opponent in question here was not a rival centre, it was the massive Texas A&M University and their incredible football department. A recent report said in the 2013 budget year, Texas A&M made $740.6 million dollars. In donations. Yes. Donations. From that astronomical figure, around $272 million went to the universitys athletic department. Aside from that, the Aggies as they are known had a yearly operating revenue of $87 million. From that, the football department had an operating expenditure of $78 million. All of those figures are in US dollars and, just as a reminder, are for college football teams. Not the NFL. Texas A&Ms home ground is called Kyle Field, a 106,000-seat stadium on the unis campus. During Meningas visit, the main grandstand was in the process of being torn down, ready for redevelopment, which will be completed before the start of the new season. Does that make them the biggest university football in the US? No. The Aggies arent even the biggest in their state. The University of Texas Longhorns hold that honour. In 2013, their athletic department made nearly $166 million. But aside from leaving with a reminder of what a small fish Australia is in the world sporting pond, Big Mal also left with a number of new ideas he hopes to bring to the Maroons preparations for next year, as well as some new thinking for rugby league administration in Queensland. Michael Westlake -
Posted on: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 05:00:01 +0000
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