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NASA Glenn’s budget goes up $14 million, but includes the possible elimination of 22 local jobs — P. 5 Will downtown Heinen’s have enough space in unique setup at former Cleveland Trust building? — P. 6
Measure is costly one for MAC
A HOME WITH A VIEW A look at new luxury living in Beachwood
Cost of attendance is being added to athletic departments’ growing list of expenditures When the Power 5 conferences passed a full cost of attendance measure during the NCAA’s annual convention last month, it was viewed as a necessary benefit for collegiate athletes. After all, what’s another few million bucks for 64 football programs that, according to a CNN Money analysis, combined to bring in $2.8 billion in 201314? But for the 12 universities in the Mid-American Conference, paying for the full cost of attendance — essentially a stipend for each athlete that is estimated to be worth $2,000 to $4,000 annually — is another sizable expense for athletic departments that already are relying on their universities for at least 70% of their budgets. “It’s difficult for them to generate additional income on their own,” said Todd Turner, the president and founder of West End, N.C.-based College Sports Associates, which is doing an assessment of Kent State’s athletic programs. “The television dollars aren’t there for them, their stadiums are smaller. You don’t have to be a math whiz to figure it out. They’re all challenged.” Turner, a former director of athletics at four prominent NCAA institutions (the University of Connecticut, North Carolina State University, Vanderbilt University and the University of Washington), says only about “20 to 23” collegiate athletic departments in the nation generated more money than they spent last year.
Change comes with a cost In the MAC, producing enough revenue to cover the increasing costs of salaries, scholarships and operating expenses is every bit as big of a challenge
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SHALE IS SUFFERING Declining oil and natural gas prices have led to plenty of regional cutbacks By DAN SHINGLER dshingler@crain.com
Remember the good old days, when a shale drilling story in Ohio usually was about some company coming here and spending billions on mineral rights leases or midstream processing plants and creating jobs like they were penny candies? Most do; it was only last year. How things have changed. More than six months of declining oil prices, along with low prices for the Utica shale’s natural gas, have turned things around — and turned the almost daily shale news from good to bad.
“There hasn’t been a shortage of bad news for about the last two months now,” said Shawn Bennett, executive vice president and spokesman for the Ohio Oil and Gas Association. Or, as another industry insider put it, anonymously: “This is really starting to suck.” Those were the reactions of many in or attached to the industry last week, as Youngstown’s bright and shiny new steel mill announced it would be closing for three weeks starting in “mid-February.” Its owner, France-based Vallourec Star, said it was responding to a slowdown in demand for the steel tubing the plant makes for drillers — a softening that oc-
curs less than three years after the $1 billion facility opened. At the same time, TMK IPSCO, a Russian-owned steelmaker, said it would cut up to 75 people as it slowed down work just across the Ohio River in Beaver County, Pa. The moves often are a last resort by companies that have been desperately hoping things would turn around quickly. Vallourec had already reduced its production schedule, renegotiated some supply contracts and cut its use of outside contractors, but it wasn’t enough. “The economic realities we are facing require additional action,” the company See SHALE, page 13
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ALSO INSIDE: NEWSPAPER
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STAN BULLARD
By KEVIN KLEPS kkleps@crain.com
MIDDLE MARKET Businesses in this segment account for nearly 40% of the jobs in the state ■ Pages 15-19 PLUS: ADVISER ■ CHALLENGES ■ TAX TIPS ■ & MORE
Entire contents © 2015 by Crain Communications Inc. Vol. 36, No. 6