Are non revenue or Olympic sports about to become fulltime fundraisers
- Thread starter dunkej01
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That was a fascinating and depressing article. Stanford simply does not want to have these 11 sports -- and fundraising isn't enough. Nor are they willing to merely listen to high-powered alumni -- including the current Ohio State president who is a former US Cabinet member, and pro Hall of Fame athletes.
Anyway, the answer to the question is: yes, and surprising that it is taking this long.
One of my closest friends lived the "raise funds or die" situation 15+ years ago, as an Olympic sport head coach at a mid-Atlantic D1 private school. He was given no endowment or budget, and was billed for everything except for employee benefits -- billed for the phone, the school van ... everything.
Just like Stanford, the school gave him no professional fundraising assistance or training. He was completely on his own. (And if he wanted to host some alumni for a fundraiser, he had to rent the space.)
D1 varsity athletes shouldn't have to stay 4 to a room in the $30/night Hotwire special Red Roof Inn, an hour from the event. And their head coach shouldn't have to live in his parents' house. But that's how he kept the program on life support for a few years.
Eventually he left for a demotion -- assistant coach job at UC Santa Barbara. Lived in a converted garage for more than my current mortgage. And that program had lots of weird challenges (including practices in a public facility 45+ min away that had to be scheduled in advance). But at least he could afford to live on his own.
Again, this was 15+ years ago.
For PSU Wrestling, thank goodness Coach Lorenzo did so much heavy lifting years ago.
Anyway, the answer to the question is: yes, and surprising that it is taking this long.
One of my closest friends lived the "raise funds or die" situation 15+ years ago, as an Olympic sport head coach at a mid-Atlantic D1 private school. He was given no endowment or budget, and was billed for everything except for employee benefits -- billed for the phone, the school van ... everything.
Just like Stanford, the school gave him no professional fundraising assistance or training. He was completely on his own. (And if he wanted to host some alumni for a fundraiser, he had to rent the space.)
D1 varsity athletes shouldn't have to stay 4 to a room in the $30/night Hotwire special Red Roof Inn, an hour from the event. And their head coach shouldn't have to live in his parents' house. But that's how he kept the program on life support for a few years.
Eventually he left for a demotion -- assistant coach job at UC Santa Barbara. Lived in a converted garage for more than my current mortgage. And that program had lots of weird challenges (including practices in a public facility 45+ min away that had to be scheduled in advance). But at least he could afford to live on his own.
Again, this was 15+ years ago.
For PSU Wrestling, thank goodness Coach Lorenzo did so much heavy lifting years ago.
That's what I call dedication! I don't know many people who would go to those extremes.
Which, sadly, does not bode well for some of the lower-tiered sports supported by football, basketball, etc. at many schools.
True, and he loved the sport and the kids he coached. And he did feel the responsibility to take care of everyone else before himself.
There were some other circumstances: he was an inexperienced assistant promoted as an emergency hire when the previous head coach quit just before the season started. Also, it was a newer program, so there were no alumni over 40 (therefore no wealthy donors).
Still, the lesson from his saga is that many school admins are content to let lower-tier sports wither on the vine. Some are also bad-faith actors, willing to abuse the coaches' love of the sport. The solution is to endow the program -- fully if possible, but at least enough to avoid the crosshairs. It's not an easy solution, especially if the school is not willing to help with fundraising resources. But it's still the solution.
Related to the general point: remember that Maryland joined B10 to bail the school out from $100M football debt. While still in the ACC, Maryland chopped several sports. Wrestling was on the chopping block despite a ton of ACC success. Kerry McCoy is the only reason that program still exists.
See also: Trev Alberts killing the Nebraska-Omaha wrestling program while the team within hours after winning the national title, for the pipe dream of basketball going D1.
See also: Boise State's president killing the wrestling team to start baseball (partly as a personal preference, partly because he idiotically thought it would get football into Pac-12), and then killing baseball after playing 14 games.
Olympic sports are the collateral damage of school admin hubris and stupidity, and must prepare accordingly. Athletic and academic success and good will won't save the sport. Money will.
See also: Trev Alberts killing the Nebraska-Omaha wrestling program while the team within hours after winning the national title, for the pipe dream of basketball going D1.
See also: Boise State's president killing the wrestling team to start baseball (partly as a personal preference, partly because he idiotically thought it would get football into Pac-12), and then killing baseball after playing 14 games.
Olympic sports are the collateral damage of school admin hubris and stupidity, and must prepare accordingly. Athletic and academic success and good will won't save the sport. Money will.
I like the sound of the European club model that is mentioned in the SI article. You’d get a lot more post-high school participants, like that kid that was in Retherford’s graduating class, he seems to pops up every now and put up a pretty decent showing.
My kids experienced this club model in Germany and Switzerland and upon return to the States we had to pay to have them play. Part of the problem in the states are facilities and the cost of using those facilities. Most of those European clubs have fields they have own for years, in Germany our village had a premier field at the stadium with a club house, garages and full kitchen in a village of less than 5k people. In Switzerland we lived in a larger Village next to Basel (Riehen) here they had the stadium, a full turf field, and multiple grass fields, plus they had a track which supported the track program. My oldest ran on track team for awhile and they had fund raisers. Another interesting thing was shirts were supplied by club, washed between games and distributed before games, each parent took turns washing the uniforms. Back here in states we purchased uniforms to tune of thousands on top of the club fees. The Europeans also has sponsorship of their clubs through local business which was displayed around the field and on uniform (usually 1 or 2).
I like the idea of self funding the sports and endowing the scholarships. Not sure where PSU sits with all this, but I gotta expect some sports will be cut if revenue does not increase. Beaver Stadium brings in a ton of money, but is aging and needs infusion of $ to bring it up to standard. The BJC is too big for the BB programs and only gets filled with Wrestling matches (OSU was amazing last year). Sandy is a great leader, but one of her shortcomings is fund raising, already hampered by those pissed about BOT treatment of Joe PA.
Basil Switzerland you say, any chance you're still on good terms with my favorite tennis player and the Greatest ever for an autograph?
Your story is the content I didn't know I needed today.
Also, blow up the NCAA and let wrestling take care of wrestling. We'd be set back for a time period, but the obnoxious over-governance and bureaucracy of these organizations that truthfully don't give a damn about us is sooooooooo 2000's. How many college institutions REALLY, EQUITABLY care about wrestling? Few and far, I'm sure... And only until that wallet or checkbook hurt again.
There is no group that I trust more than wrestling people to govern and push our sport forward.
you may be right. If the formerly D1 wrestling became a club of many clubs, it might actually grow numbers.
I could see schools with former wrestlers or just fans of the sports were the school dropped it going in on a team. Where it is the next evolution of the arms race. We obviously would be well positioned in this scenario but so might others that are currently sitting in the annual top 20. Or heck even the D2/D3 schools with long traditions.
With all the work that beat the streets and now the RTCs. You can wrestle on battle ships, sky scrappers, mid town, etc, etc.....Gym space is all over from HSs to YMCAs, to College campus's.
Heck look at the growth of Young Guns. This could be expanded and it could be the sPitt/YG RTC....
I see a day when "clubs" start doing there own channels for youth teams and its a whole thing... Fans still want to watch and in the new age of COvid why not make some streaming $$$ and fund your club.
Interesting thought and why i buy RAE tokins when I have left over bar/dinner cash from the week.....
The problem is that in the US, the clubs are pay to play which excludes athletes of lesser means. At least the k-12 school sports models provides access for all. The pay for play clubs have already made high school soccer irrelevant in the big picture. I fear that wrestling will soon be the same way, dominated by pay for play, year round clubs like Young Guns.
Does this also mean women's sports will have to fundraise also? I would think if the school sponsored some sports and not others it would be ripe for a discrimination lawsuit. So would it be sponsor yourself for everyone?
If that happened to high school wrestling I am not sure it is a horrible idea. I live in Maryland, the high school matches are unwatchable, it seems every meet has 3 to 5 forfeits, sometimes they have double forfeits. My local high school, my wife is an alum, I can look at her yearbook from the 80's and they had a full varsity, JV and something they called Varsity B. Now they have about the same number of wrestlers as weight classes. It is sad and I have even discussed the quality of the wrestling.
I’m not saying we should eliminate hs programs, but if people are willing to donate to college wrestling programs then they’d probably donate to local clubs, and I like the idea of soliciting sponsors from local businesses.
I also agree with Akren that wrestling should play up wrestlers’ success in mma. That’s how bjj got so popular here so quickly, right?
I never wrestled but my boys did. I love the sport as they do. We all have the subscriptions for viewing and attend Pitt and Penn State matches. NCAAs is a must do. That is us.
On the flip side are the guys that wrestled elementary, junior high and high school yet post high school would never set foot in a gym to watch a match again. It is those people we need to transition from athletes to immediate fans. I always attend WPIAL championships. It's a shame it doesn't sell out the event even though this area is a hot bed. Great wrestling occurs at the tournament but seats are always available.
Fans buy tickets, make donations and build community. We need to build demand.
As to clubs, I'm not sure how they would work. I'd worried you would have a handful of New York Yankees but a bunch of Pittsburgh Pirates. Nice to have a team but 20 years of losers doesn't build a fan base.
Its always about the funding. My son's college team was twice on the chopping block. Decades ago they were saved by a lawsuit, the most recent save was alumni who were always there, stepping up to help build a better endowment.
We are blessed that Penn State for years had such great support and leadership and continue to move forward. Let's hope they always have teams to wrestle that are not as blessed.
On the flip side are the guys that wrestled elementary, junior high and high school yet post high school would never set foot in a gym to watch a match again. It is those people we need to transition from athletes to immediate fans. I always attend WPIAL championships. It's a shame it doesn't sell out the event even though this area is a hot bed. Great wrestling occurs at the tournament but seats are always available.
Fans buy tickets, make donations and build community. We need to build demand.
As to clubs, I'm not sure how they would work. I'd worried you would have a handful of New York Yankees but a bunch of Pittsburgh Pirates. Nice to have a team but 20 years of losers doesn't build a fan base.
Its always about the funding. My son's college team was twice on the chopping block. Decades ago they were saved by a lawsuit, the most recent save was alumni who were always there, stepping up to help build a better endowment.
We are blessed that Penn State for years had such great support and leadership and continue to move forward. Let's hope they always have teams to wrestle that are not as blessed.
