1996: The challenge ahead – Gene Hughes puts WSU’s athletic future in hands of community

Wichita State University President Gene Hughes issued some hefty challenges Thursday.

He wants the community to raise $25 million for renovations, improvements and additions to Levitt Arena.

He wants $3.4 million - half from private funds, half from a mill levy - to renovate a dilapidated Cessna Stadium.

He wants $2 million more in private money for another round of Eck Stadium enhancements and $750,000 for a softball stadium.

And the shock of the day: Hughes said he’s willing to bring back a football program, as long as the money is raised beforehand.

The total price tag: Nearly $32 million.

“The university and the community need to buy into a plan which will enable us to move forward very soon,” Hughes told WSU faculty and staff during his State of the University message.

“The future of the entire Shocker athletic program lies in the balance - and as long as I’m president of this university I want that balance to be in favor of a strong, competitive Division I program.”

Using an “If you build it, they will come” analogy, Hughes said each athletic project is separate but important to a program he deemed vital to the university’s interests.

“Athletics is not, and never will be, the most important mission we have as a university,” Hughes said. “But a high-quality athletic program . . . can be one of the most valued centerpieces of the university.”

The most expensive project is the $25 million athletic complex that would expand, renovate and refurbish 41-year-old Levitt Arena.

HOK, a Kansas City architectural firm, has a plan that calls for an indoor practice facility for all sports; expansion of the concourse level to include more restrooms and concession stands; new, theater-type seating; air conditioning; new coaches offices; weight and conditioning facilities; an administrative wing, including a Hall of Fame area for major contributors, and possibly a new wood floor for the arena.

“I think it’s clearly a challenge to the people who have the means to support this,” WSU athletic director Bill Belknap said. “I hope the reaction will be that the president has laid it on the line to do what he wants to do.”

The complex, which would be expanded to the south and east of the arena, would be built in phases, and Hughes twice emphasized the money would come from private donations.

“My concern is that if we do not attempt this project, the athletic programs of Wichita State University will become something less than we and the residents of this city would like to see and support in the future,” Hughes said.

Attendance at men’s basketball games this season is the lowest since the early 1960s; the Shockers are about to wrap up their seventh consecutive losing season. Hughes did not specifically mention Coach Scott Thompson on Thursday, but has said he will make a decision about Thompson’s future after the season ends Tuesday.

Resolving concerns about the basketball program are likely to determine how effective Hughes will be at selling his proposal to the community.

Quite a bit cheaper is a plan to renovate Cessna Stadium, which was built in 1969 but left for dead after the football program was discontinued in 1986. Since then, there has been little maintenance done on the structure, which has turned into an eyesore on 21st Street.

“Levitt’s a priority, but Cessna Stadium’s a necessity,” said Gary Austerman, president of the Shocker Athletic Scholarship Organization, the athletic department’s main fund-raiser.

More than a year ago, Hughes announced a plan to tear down the stadium’s steel structure, leaving about 12,000 seats. But that was blocked last year by the Kansas Legislature, which told WSU officials to get more public input.

Hughes said the $3.4 million figure is more than the $2.5 million recommendation from last fall’s task force because the previous figure did not include repairs and renovations to the interior of the stadium, such as locker rooms. He wants half to come from private donations, half from the university’s 1.5-mill property tax levy.

“I know that mention of use of mill levy funds will immediately raise the hackles of many,” Hughes told the faculty in Wiedemann Hall. “...Please hear me out. There are times when unpopular decisions have to be made because the politics of the situation demand them. Such is the case in this instance.”

Hughes said he hoped to keep funds for university programs intact by reducing a position in the Board of Trustees’ operations - a savings of about $70,000 - and asking the city and county to take a smaller draw from the mill levy budget. Hughes wants the fund-raising to be done by March 1, 1997.

“Cessna Stadium is a community facility, it belongs to the people of this town,” said Don Anderson, a member of the “Save Our Stadium” group that opposed the tearing down of the steel structure.

“It has been allowed to deteriorate to the point now where it desperately needs attention. I am convinced the community will utilize that facility.”

To that end, Hughes said, he will turn control of the stadium over to University Relations, WSU’s public-relations office.

If, and only if, the stadium is usable again, Hughes said he would entertain the possibility of a football program. It has been dead since the end of the 1986 season, when former president Warren Armstrong killed it due to increasing financial debt and lack of interest in the community.

In his speech, Hughes acknowledged that the death of football came quickly and without a chance for the community to save it.

Now, Hughes said, “I believe that alumni and other supporters should be given a chance to show us if there is community support for a football program at WSU.”

Hughes estimated it would cost $750,000 to start a non-scholarship program. But part of that money also includes the cost of starting new women’s intercollegiate programs - probably soccer, crew and bowling - to balance gender-equity requirements.

Hughes also said that the more money raised, the higher level of football WSU could enter. He estimated it would cost $5 million yearly for Division I-A, the highest level of college football, and between $2 million and $3.5 million for competitive I-AA.

Thursday, Hughes got rid of his reputation for not being interested in football.

“I’ve been a little closer to it, maybe, and I think he got a bad rap,” Austerman said. “He came in and did some business analysis. He’s a fan; I know he’s a fan. He made some early decisions and people took it more negatively than he intended.”

Throw in the cost of a small football program and WSU has a $31.9 million wish list. How much is pie-in-the-sky thinking?

“I think the money is out there. We haven’t had a plan,” said George Fahnestock, a long-time SASO member. “From what it sounds to me, he’s ready to get with it.”

This story was originally published December 10, 2015 at 12:30 PM with the headline "1996: The challenge ahead – Gene Hughes puts WSU’s athletic future in hands of community."