Finishing in black big win for UH
| • | Dobelle taking portion of UH athletic surplus |
| • | Dobelle mum on overall UH plan |
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist
They do not hang banners in arenas or award trophies for it, but coming up with a budget surplus in college athletics is becoming quite a feat in its own right.
If NCAA President Cedric Dempsey's prediction holds up, only 18 percent of the schools that participate at Division I, the highest level of college athletics, will have finished in the black this just-concluded fiscal year.
To put the task in perspective, the University of Michigan, home to The Big House that, at 107,501 seats is the largest college football stadium in the country, has operated at a deficit the past two years.
Consider the University of Virginia projects to have a $47.4 million operating deficit by 2010. Or, closer to home, San Jose State of the Western Athletic Conference is projecting a $1.2 million deficit this year.
Yes, the tide of red ink is regularly lapping the shores of major college athletics. Which is why reports that the University of Hawai'i, the most geographically challenged school in the country, is claiming a $361,596 surplus, pending final audit, and planning to turn money back to the campus. This is both remarkable and worth a longer look.
The first thing you should know is that most universities, UH included, don't keep their financial ledgers the way businesses do. The capital costs of basketball arenas and debt service on football stadiums are usually passed onto taxpayers or students.
"When you get past the creative accounting, I'd be very surprised if more than a couple of institutions beside Notre Dame are really managing a profit," said Murray Sperber, author of "College Sports Inc."
The Fighting Irish manage it because they are the only one of 113 football-playing Division I-A schools with their own national television contract, a five-year deal with NBC that pays a reported $8 million per season.
At UH, which is fortunate to have a $1.2 million local TV contract with KFVE, the notion of turning a true profit, while laudatory, is somewhat misleading because the athletic department receives $1.4 million in state general funds to help maintain facilities, underwrite supplies etc. While that is less than one percent of the state appropriation to the Manoa campus, it is still a form of assistance, as are the 310 tuition waivers.
"It is becoming harder and harder (to make money) if you are operating the 14 or 15 teams required for Division I," said Rick Burton, director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon.
Indeed, of the 19 sports UH operates, just four pay their own way. And those 15 who don't, many of them necessary for Division I membership, cost a combined $3.4 million.
The time is coming when the most noteworthy accomplishment in college sports won't be winning a national championship as much as just balancing the athletic department checkbook.
