1997: Price for WSU to start football again: $11 million
Twenty months ago, Wichita State University president Gene Hughes reversed his field and left open the possibility for a revival of a Shocker football program that has been dead for 11 years.
The price tag is in: $11 million.
That’s what it will cost to fund Division I-AA football and three equivalent women’s sports over a five-year timeline, according to a consultant’s report obtained by The Wichita Eagle. Projected revenues for the first three years of football competition would leave about $8.8 million unfunded during the five-year period.
For the first time, WSU has an educated guess of what it would cost to bring back football. According to the report, the earliest WSU could play is 2001.
The report was commissioned by a 29-member Athletics Program Enhancement Committee (APEC) formed by Hughes last December. The first order of business was to determine how much money and time it would take to start a new program. The committee now tackles its second assignment _ fund-raising.
“One thing we’ll do for sure is bring this thing to some kind of closure,” said George Fahnestock, a member of the committee.
APEC hired David Welle and his Minneapolis-based Conventions, Sports and Leisure firm to conduct the second study. In upcoming weeks, Welle plans to develop and test ticket and donation packages within focus groups and through surveys with WSU alumni and other Wichitans.
Raising that kind of money wouldn’t be easy. Revenue from tickets, away-game guarantees and radio-TV contracts are projected to net only about $750,000 a year.
The other $8.8 million would have to come from Shocker Athletic Scholarship Organization donations - which currently total $1.2 million annually - as well as large donor gifts and endowments.
“My guess is that it’s right where I would have expected it,” John Dreifort, chairman of the WSU History department, said of the $11 million price tag. “My concern is that it’s just the beginning. I fully expect we’d be spending $20 million to keep that wolf away from the door.”
Personal seat licenses, where fans pay to reserve their seats over a long-term period, would likely be the focus of an intense marketing campaign aimed at not only raising money but filling seats.
Once APEC figures out a way to pay for four sports, it will take a recommendation to Hughes: Go for it or punt.
“My thinking is whatever (Welle’s) report suggests, whether it says we can do it or we can’t, we’re going to do it anyway,” Fahnestock said. “That’s certainly how I would hope we would proceed.”
The information contained in an 88-page report,”Considerations for Athletics Program Enhancement at Wichita State University,” was written by Carr Sports Associates, a Florida consulting firm that specializes in marketing and management of collegiate athletic programs. It was hired by APEC in May. Bill Carr, the firm’s founder, is former athletic director at the University of Houston.
In his report, dated Sept. 3, Carr does not conclude whether WSU should bring football back to campus. The firm’s only charge was to provide an analysis of what football and three women’s programs - crew, soccer and swimming - would cost to start and operate annually.
Football is the only one of the four sports in which WSU has competed before. The football program was suspended after the 1986 season by former President Warren Armstrong, who cited huge financial losses ($840,000 that year).
In a February 1996 speech to university faculty, Hughes for the first time said he would entertain a study of football’s return. Ten months later, when forming the committee, he put forth three tough parameters: Gender-equity laws must be followed, the athletic department cannot operate at a deficit, and increases in state and student-fee funding cannot be anticipated.
Once those conditions were met, Carr’s report projects that starting four sports at WSU would enlarge a $6.2 million athletic department by 50 percent. The number of student-athletes would double, and 36 new staff members would need office space.
A newly refurbished Cessna Stadium, where the dominant color is no longer rust, would get a workout.
“In a general way, I think football is an important part of campus life for a successful institution,” athletic director Bill Belknap said. “But I don’t think unsuccessful, uncompetitive programs help you much.
“The secret in having athletic programs is not just having programs, but programs that are successful. Those are the programs people want to support. You don’t have to look much past Kansas State to see that.”
The I-AA Way
If APEC follows Carr’s report, you won’t see the Shockers playing at the level of K-State or Kansas. Division I-AA football means games against teams such as Southwest Missouri State and Western Illinois.
Division I-A has 112 members and is made up of the 10 largest conferences, plus independent schools such as Notre Dame.
Division I-AA has 118 members, but there are two factions within the division. A little more than half play scholarship football, while the others play low-cost football. Low-cost programs do not award football scholarships and generally have much smaller budgets than their I-AA scholarship counterparts.
At no time in APEC’s existence has low-cost football been an option.
Carr’s model for WSU is similar to one he produced for the University of South Florida in 1991. Six years later, that program is playing its first season.
The model is based on a five-year timeline for all sports, though each sport would start in a different school year. Football would come first, in 2001, followed yearly by crew, soccer and swimming.
The women’s sports would be added to keep WSU in compliance with Title IX, the 1972 federal law banning gender discrimination at all schools that receive federal funds.
Carr’s football model has WSU organizing and promoting a marketing campaign in both the current school year and 1998-99. In 1999-2000, WSU would hire a head coach ($80,000 annual salary, plus benefits) and assistants who would begin recruiting.
Meantime, about $1.2 million would be spent on practice facilities, coaches offices and more renovations to Cessna Stadium, which has already undergone $3.1 million in repairs.
In the “practice” year of 2000-2001, coaches would award more scholarships and begin fall practices. The only games would be intrasquad scrimmages.
By fall 2001, WSU would have 40 players on scholarship, plus walk-ons, as it began its first season of I-AA competition. A year later, WSU would hand out a maximum 63 scholarships, funded entirely by booster contributions.
Total football expenses through two seasons: almost $7 million.
“I don’t think Wichita people are going to spend $3 million a year to offset expenses,” said Tom Devlin, founder of Wichita-based Rent-A-Center and a top WSU athletic donor. “I don’t think I would be doing it.
“I love our basketball program and I personally think we ought to be putting that money into basketball and have a chance to go to the NCAAs and make a profit in a sport.”
Two years ago, an NCAA study reported 84 percent of Division I-AA football programs lost money, an average of $632,000.
Some of Carr’s figures make I-AA appear more expensive than it is. For example, the report bases expenses on scholarships that cost $7,500 for Kansas students and $15,000 for out-of-state students.
Belknap would not address specifics of the report, saying it’s incomplete without Welle’s report. But he did concede that 1997 costs for scholarships are $7,123 for Kansans and $13,725 for out-of-staters.
But even those costs may be high, since figures are based on a student enrolled in 32 credit hours per year. NCAA rules require student-athletes to complete only 24 hours per year to retain their eligibility.
Factoring eight fewer credit hours per scholarship, Carr’s projected costs for 109 new scholarships drops from $1.2 million to $973,125. Costs do not reflect inflation.
No way for I-A?
One of the Hughes’ mandates for APEC is to determine what level of football should return to WSU, if it’s determined to be feasible.
To remain a Division I athletic program, NCAA rules would require WSU to play football at either the I-A or I-AA level.
In April, three months into WSU’s study and a month before Carr was hired, APEC’s executive committee decided the scope of a consultant’s study should be limited to I-AA, scholarship football.
Minutes of an April 23 APEC meeting show Dan Foley explaining the executive committee’s decision. Division I-AA was reasoned to be the “logical beginning for bringing football back,” and limiting the focus would hopefully reduce the cost of a consultant’s services.
After discussion, APEC approved narrowing the focus of a consultant’s report to I-AA.
Neither Carr nor APEC has studied I-A costs, but WSU could play at that level in its first year through a complicated process that doesn’t often work.
Though I-A football is certainly a more expensive proposition - four times more, in 1995 - more I-A schools make money at football than I-AA counterparts (67 percent to 10).
When football at Wichita State was suspended in 1986, WSU was playing as a I-A independent, financial suicide for any school except Notre Dame.
Conference USA and the Western Athletic Conference would be the two conferences most likely to look at the Shockers, should they pursue I-A status. Belknap said no official talks have occurred, though there have been informal discussions with athletic directors from both leagues.
“It just seems silly to me when they’re projecting two million of revenue and 11 million of expenses and it’s not even big-time sports,” said Devlin, also known for developing Flint Hills National Golf Club.
“It’s kind of what I did at Flint Hills. I knew we didn’t need a so-so golf course. It had to be either dramatically better, a major-league course, or why do you do it?”
Kirk Seminoff covers Wichita State sports. He can be reached at 268-6278, or by e-mail at kseminoff@wichitaeagle.com
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What WSU football could cost
Football’s returns to WSU would cost about $11 million; that’s to fund the sport and three women’s sports over a five-year timeline. Revenues from football would reduce that cost to about $8.8 million.
1999-2000: The Prep Year
Hire a head coach and staff. Recruiting begins with 15-20 scholarships. Fund-raising is in full swing.
Expenses: $1,562,500
Revenues: $0
Deficit: $1,562,500
2000-01: The Practice Year
No competition, only fall practices and intrasquad scrimmages. Additional 15-20 scholarships awarded. First spring practice.
WomenOs sports: Prep year for crew
Expenses: $1,678,850
Revenues: $0
Deficit: $1,678,850
2001-02: The First Year
Football gains varsity status, joins Gateway Conference. Plays 11-game schedule, 15-20 new scholarships awarded.
WomenOs sports: Prep year for soccer, crewOs first year.
Expenses: $2,172,000
Revenues: $754,000
Deficit: $1,418,000
2002-03: The Second Year
WSU has full I-AA complement of 63 scholarships.
WomenOs sports: Prep year for swimming, soccer and crew competing.
Expenses: $2,717,200
Revenues: $754,000
Deficit: $1,963,200
2003-04: The Third Year
WomenOs sports: Swimming, soccer and crew competing.
Expenses: $2,900,000
Revenues: $754,000
Deficit: $2,146,000
Source: “Considerations for Athletics Program Enhancement at Wichita State University,” Carr Sports Associates
This story was originally published December 10, 2015 at 12:42 PM with the headline "1997: Price for WSU to start football again: $11 million."