Money in Sports = Money Lost

TOLEDO, Ohio - Money in college athletics might as well be chalked up as money lost. Outside of the largest programs in the country, the slumping economy only adds to the budget struggles of mid-sized schools like Toledo and BGSU.

"I believe there's been belt-tightening probably within every family in the United States, every business in the United States and certainly every campus in the country," said Greg Christopher, BGSU's athletic director.

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MORE: Athletics score points for local economy
Kristen Rapin, The Toledo Free Press
a FOX Toledo News media partner

 

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For Bowling Green, that means eight staffers laid off or not replaced. At UT, that number's nine. But even before the economy hit the skids, both schools struggled to make ends meet.

"Of the 120 schools, I believe only about 15 or 20 revenues outpace expenses, and those, as you can imagine, are the larger institutions," Christopher said.

That said, Toledo was able to have numbers in the black in the 2008 fiscal year thanks to multimillion dollar donations that helped renovate Savage Arena and build the Fetterman Training Center which is currently under construction.

But when you break down the numbers by sport, there's no such thing as a sport that makes money.

Toledo football pulls in the most revenue, but the net loss is nearly $3.5 million. Men's basketball loses over $700K. Women's basketball loses over $900K.

"We make every attempt not to live in the red," Toledo Athletic Director Mike O'Brien said. "We want the black number at the end of the year, and we have, on occasion, but it's very difficult, there's no question about it.

"When you're non-BCS and you do not have the revenue as far as conference dollars, bowl dollars, that type of revenue, then you just have to be as creative as possible."

That's where Toledo and Bowling Green coaches come in. They're not just in charge of x's and o's. They also have to cross the t's and dot the i's, as they work within a budget.

"People don't really understand that being a college basketball coach is so much more than basketball," UT men's basketball coach Gene Cross said. "You really are the CEO of the program.

"Everybody always wants more and you have to learn how to do more with less, and I think that's a good motto to have.

"We purposely scheduled down a little bit so we only took one flight this year as opposed to last year or years before."

BGSU women's basketball coach Curt Miller added, "You might have to get a larger guarantee by some of the big power conference schools out there to make the trip worthwhile, or have a team when you go on the road throw in some hotels to help you with the expense of hotels. Any little thing can help."

Both coaches say the economy hasn't hurt recruiting yet, but for Cross, he's one of the rare coaches to still have a media guide describing a program's history to hand out to potential targets. Toledo still prints media guides for football, both basketball teams and women's soccer. All the others are on disc, something new this year to save more money.

"It gives them something tangible to hold on to and to look at to reference throughout the year and hopefully we can keep these and have the necessary funding to help putting these out," Cross said.

(Part 2 continues next Saturday, Nov. 21, breaking down the numbers at BGSU while also updating the BG hockey situation and to talk about more adjustments that are being made in the struggling economy.)