2008 Woodie Awards
$13 million to Zips sports
Athletic director defends his department's budget, saying the Zips have intangible benefits to UA's campus
Mike Rasor
Issue date: 4/26/07 Section: News
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"We have to get a football stadium built," said the University of Akron's athletic director.
"The Rubber Bowl prohibits us with attendance - especially with students," he continued. "The lack of amenities, the deteriorating seats, et cetera. It prohibits us from maximizing revenue."
Having the $54 million on-campus stadium ready for 2009 is a goal held by many at the university, but especially by the fans.
An entirely different contingency among the university community is asking, "Why bother?"
UA subsidized its athletic department $13.1 million last year. That is $13.1 million that could have gone to improve academic programs, they say.
The football program alone lost more than $3 million. No sport came even close to breaking even (see chart on A2).
Also, coaches spent $500,000 last year in recruiting. In layman's terms, the university is paying $500,000 to coax high school students to accept a full-ride scholarship at UA. It's a double whammy.
Rhoades offers several defenses against these points.
Although Akron sports don't come close to paying for themselves, only a handful of the teams at the 119 Division IA schools do.
The national standard is that a university subsidizes athletics with about 5 percent of its total budget. The $13.1 million subsidy is just less than 4 percent of UA's $345 million budget.
Some sports also help by attracting paying students. The track team, which awards only a small fraction of its 90 athletes with scholarships, increases tuition by attracting students to UA, who normally would go elsewhere. That figure could reach $1 million for the track team alone.
"We are, by far, a great bargain with what we bring in and provide," track coach Dennis Mitchell said.
About 200 athletes on campus are without a full scholarship, Rhoades said. Those students pay tuition, but that money is not calculated as athletics revenue.
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