As an alumnus, but as a letter-winner on the soccer field, I thought everything was sufficiently fine at Maryland. I see my team on Fox Soccer all the time, and, at the same time, I see that the (since I graduated) new Kehoe track/ Ludwig soccer facility looks nice, and you just assume the business people in the athletic department are handling things appropriately for these non-revenue sports.
But this is embarrassing. As I mentioned on the other "this cut might happen" thread, I was friends with Mark Coogan and other guys on the track and XC teams, and I feel for all those ever involved in the program. It is shameful for the athletic department to be so poorly mismanaged over the years (from the letting Bobby Ross go days, to post-Len Bias tragedy, to present day Ralph Friedgen not agreeing to retire, then fired, and still receiving upwards of $2 million salary), and then to resort to cutting the least expensive operating-cost-sports to solve their own mismanagement and poor decisions relating to the most expensive sports and athletic venues.
You have to be deluded if you don't realize that football has never mattered at UMd, and the university was duped by sports industry types to believe that massive expansions were going to result in "build it and they will come," butts in seats business philosophy.
The Comcast Center had a better leg to stand on, since basketball has obviously been more successful over the years, but if they were truly using business sense and a forward-thinking educational institution, they probably could have figured out how to convert the historical Cole Field House into a more modern facility, and saved millions (a la Lambeau Field, or Soldier's Filed, other historical landmarks that, tourists or alumni would visit just to "be there again."
This is what happens when you listen to developers, marketers, builders, and business people instead of listening your own history and gut. I know Div. I college sports is portrayed to be big time business, but Maryland has never been in the SEC or Big Ten mold for massive support for athletics through thick and thin.
It has been traditionally a commuter school in a very saturated, expanding urban/suburban market.
I also have a law degree, and studied Sports Law classes dealing in among other things, Sports Venue financing, and could probably dig up lists and spreadsheets indicating a continuum of desirable cities for sports venue expansion, relocation, revitalization, etc.
The Baltimore-Washington DC metro area just has too many sports entertainment options. It was a poor decision to ever believe that dumping money into new/expanded facilities is going to pay off. MD is competing with the Redskins, Wizards, Orioles, Ravens, Nationals, DC United, and every other college in the area for the business or law firm luxury box lease, season ticket seat purchase, and just "what are we doing on a random day" walk up ticket purchase. An alumnus simply does not have x dollars set aside annually specifically earmarked for a UMd season ticket. He or she weighs all the other entertainment options, and if a business, who wins the luxury box battle is dependent on which university or pro sports team impresses clients more.
UMd have never won that battle, and should have accepted their place, and expanded or renovated facilities under a more reasonable, well thought out plan.
I know that doesn’t really help, because it is all past-tense mismanagement and listening to the wrong people for advice on the department’s philosophical direction.
Now people make great points above about the single distance runner (1 guy on 3 teams) fuzzy math costing the athletic department 3 x $67k, or what does the $67k really represent - an average cost for all athletes (obviously football and lacrosse are more expensive per athlete) or an actual cross country/swimmer male cost per year?
This report is just a shell game; it won’t solve any systemic economic woes for the athletic department or university. It will take the heat off the departmental heads in office, then will be revisited when the numbers presented don’t seem to work out the way they reported.
You can reach the Athletic Director Kevin Anderson (his email not currently available in the Terps website for some reason) via his Executive Administrative Assistant Denise O'Rourke at
dorourke@umd.edu
, phone 301-314-7075, or -0013.