Dr. Pepper wrote:
This should be another warning to all D-1 Track & Field programs. You have to generate support from the alumni and the local running community to bring in $. If you don't think marketing to those groups is important, you will be out of a job. If you think the booster club will take care of that, think again. Like all endowments, it will take time to build the fund, but start now. Very few programs have alumni that can write big checks every year.
Every track/xc coach in the country needs to print out the above, highlight it, and hang it in their offices.
Looking back, my college coach wasn't the best training-wise (we did okay, but could've done better), but he was brilliant in that, the week he arrived on campus, he started a track/xc endowment fund. He was a finance guy and had done some fund raising for non-profits, and even back in the early 90s he could see the writing on the wall that programs had to become as close to self-suffienct as they could.
Flash forward and the team is almost at that point. The endowment fund pays for uniforms, travel to overnight meets, per diems, equipment, and clothing. The school pays the coach, runs the training room, and provides infrastructure (track, locker rooms, etc.) and pays for non-overnight meets. The team is now the best-funded team on campus, and it is never brought up when discussing which teams to cut to make budget.
Coaches need to get on the horn TODAY with alumni. Start the fund. Show you're making progress. Having an athlete qualify for the Olympics in the 1970s is great for tradition, but it's all about income and expenditures TODAY.