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(Tenured Radical)

Monday, May 21, 2007

Three Ways of Looking
At A Sports Fiasco


I


'There is, however, one reason for optimism here: the very irrationality of the existing system. The peculiar turn intercollegiate sports has taken over the past 40 years seems pretty clearly to be the product of historical accident and interest-group politics run amok, rather than the true preferences of the stakeholders in the enterprise or the deep-seated ideals of those with power. In such a case, change that seemed impossible ex ante can sometimes come quickly and relatively painlessly if only a critical mass of people are willing to demand it.'


This excerpt is from a long, terrific essay about college sports by Barbara Fried, in a magazine called Change, part of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Here's another excerpt:

'[Some have] suggested that athletic preferences might add slightly to the socioeconomic diversity of the student body. Self-studies subsequently undertaken by Amherst, Williams, and Middlebury, however, found otherwise. Athletes in all three schools were both wealthier and less ethnically diverse than the rest of the student body. That trend, if anything, is likely to be exacerbated in the future, as the increasing professionalization of college athletics forces a steady, and very costly, professionalization of athletics in high school and even earlier. These days, it is not uncommon for parents to spend as much as $30,000 a year on private trainers, equipment, travel with elite club teams, marketers, etc., to position their kids as athletic recruits. At that price, athletic preferences will become just one more edge in the admissions game for the already most-privileged kids.'


Which reminds me to link to an article one of my readers, superdestroyer, sent to me the other day about a school, Georgetown Prep, just down the block from my house:



II



Entrenched as the most prominent athletic powerhouse among Washington area high schools, DeMatha finally plans to catch up with some of its peers when it comes to sports facilities. The Hyattsville Catholic school hopes to break ground next year on a $9 million convocation center that includes a gymnasium and is in discussions to have artificial turf practice and game fields installed at off-campus sites.

The improvements merely will keep DeMatha in step with many of the region's private schools, which are in the midst of a spending spree to build top-flight athletic facilities that would be the envy of many colleges. And the building boom is not limited to traditional athletic powers; it includes less well-known schools seeking to enhance their reputations.

After all, if Georgetown Prep in North Bethesda can spend $23 million for the Hanley Center for Athletic Excellence, why shouldn't Annapolis Area Christian School, which is fielding a football team for the first time this fall, build a 25,000-square-foot indoor practice facility?

Counting projects recently completed, those under construction and others planned for the next few years, area private schools are spending in excess of $150 million on new sports facilities. This does not include wish lists on long-range master plans for several schools.

"It is unbelievable, my goodness," said Al Hightower, co-athletic director at St. Andrew's Episcopal School in Potomac and a 23-year veteran of local scholastic sports. "And who says there is a downturn in the economy?"

Administrators cite several factors for the construction boom, among them heightened competition to attract students, the standard set by many colleges that in recent years have built expensive student recreation centers, and the lower maintenance costs associated with artificial turf fields, whose versatility and sturdiness reduce the number of canceled games and practices.

Officials cite another reason as well: What was sufficient 40 or 50 years ago no longer is considered adequate in a modern era of heightened expectations among parents, students and alumni.

"I think there are reasons that make sense for why we're seeing it," said Peter Roby, director of the Center for the Study of Sport in Society at Northeastern University. "You hope it's needed, that it's a timely addition and improvement as opposed to trying to keep up with the Joneses. Unfortunately, I think some of it is, 'Because prep school "X" has it, we need to do the same.' That certainly is what you see more of at the college level."


... Public school systems, in general, simply lack the money that private schools can accumulate through tuition dollars and alumni giving to undertake expensive capital improvements to their athletic facilities.

Private schools also view modernized sports facilities as a valuable tool to help them lure students.

"The competition for people is unbelievable and if you don't have stuff, forget it," Pallotti Athletic Director Steve Walker said. The Laurel school opened a $5 million gymnasium in 2004.

Foxcroft, an all-girls school in Middleburg, is building a state-of-the-art field house. National Cathedral, another all-girls school in Northwest D.C., has a 45-foot climbing tower in its $26 million Agnes Underwood Athletic Center that was built underground and opened in 2002, just ahead of the start of the building boom.

At Georgetown Prep and many other schools, officials determined that older athletic facilities no longer were keeping pace with demand. There are more teams (varsity, junior varsity, freshman) competing in more sports. More practice space is needed and a gym that seats only a few hundred spectators no longer is adequate.

"Frankly, we grew out of [the old field house] 25 to 30 years ago with the number of activities we had on campus," Georgetown Prep Athletic Director Dan Paro said. Talking about the Rev. William George, the school's president, Paro said: "Having not done anything in 40 years, one of his goals was to build something that will not be outdated in 10 or 15 years. His goal was trying to reach into the future; we have an opportunity to do this once."

Georgetown Prep moved its baseball field and reworked its nine-hole golf course to accommodate space for its new facility, which includes a gymnasium with space for 1,000 spectators, a 50,000-square-foot field house with an indoor track, a wrestling room with bleachers, a pool that can host races measured in yards or meters and a 6,000-square-foot weight room. There's also a snack bar that serves crab cakes and a big-screen television and leather sofas for students to relax.

As part of its upcoming project, St. John's plans to construct a baseball clubhouse, with a team locker room, coaches' offices, a press box and a VIP suite that can be used at football and baseball games. The cost: $1.5 million.

"In the private school market, everything seems to trickle down from the colleges after a few years," Brach said. "I think schools having dedicated space for their premier programs is going to be a growing trend."

Other schools are mimicking colleges with their recreation centers, such as Severn School's $12 million field house, which is scheduled to open Jan. 1. The $10 million Herndon Kilby Student-Athletic Center at Annapolis Area Christian, set to open in August, includes a 25,000-square-foot indoor practice area, similar to the ones many college athletic departments build for their teams....



And finally, there's this...


III


...which a reader, Bill, sent me this morning, and which looks forward to the world these recruits will join when they go to college:


Outsourcing, that common practice of big business, is flourishing in big-time college sports, including at the University of Minnesota.

The Gophers' new $288.5 million publicly funded campus football stadium is now up for commercial grabs. Advertising signs, corporate sponsorships and luxury suites are set to be sold at TCF Bank Stadium. But those lucrative sales appear likely to be conducted by Missouri-based Learfield Communications, not by university employees.

Such outsourcing is a trend sweeping the nation. College athletic departments, in search of revenue certainty, get sizable upfront payments from the likes of Learfield, who then sell, sell and sell some more in hopes of turning a profit.

"On the one hand, it's commercialism run amok," said B. David Ridpath, a Ohio University professor of sports administration who follows the business of college sports. "On the other hand, these athletic departments are in business to make more revenues in their never-ending college sports arms race. Companies like Learfield are helping in that process."

Learfield already controls the Gophers radio network and sells sponsorships, signs and suites at other Gophers arenas. Negotiations for a long-term deal that would cover TCF Bank Stadium are in progress. Learfield operates on 30 other Division I college campuses. Other firms that compete with Learfield for athletic department clients control the marketing and broadcast rights on dozens of other campuses.

Kentucky-based Host Communications, Learfield's top rival, has guaranteed a total of $240 million over the next decade for the marketing rights to three athletic programs: Arizona, Texas and Kentucky.

This marriage of commercial interests and college sports is creating cozy bedfellows. For instance, the U athletic department's lead representative in negotiations with Learfield for rights to TCF Bank Stadium is associate athletic director Tom Wistrcill.

Just 13 months ago, Wistrcill was a Learfield employee.

Gophers athletic director Joel Maturi says there's no conflict of interest.

"Tom is loyal to the University of Minnesota, is good at what he does and his experience at Learfield actually provides us with an understanding of the industry we would not otherwise have," Maturi said.

It happened at Oregon State, too, where the Learfield rep jumped to that university's athletic department.

"These companies have an immense amount of power," said Ridpath.


How it works

Learfield's relationship with the Gophers began in 2003 after Maturi arrived on campus to reorganize his department and balance its budget, which stands at $56 million annually.

Learfield has been on the college scene since 1975, when it first established a radio network for University of Missouri football. Since then, its services have expanded to, essentially, matchmaking corporate sponsors with athletic programs. Learfield develops regional radio networks and integrates on-air advertising with stadium signs, game program ads and, in some cases, selling suites, as in Williams Arena.

Learfield has similar deals with other Division I programs, including Wisconsin, Iowa and Penn State. Learfield recently signed with Wisconsin its biggest announced deal, a 12-year, $76 million arrangement. Since 1994, Learfield has taken on more Badgers business so that it now handles all of the sponsorship marketing, except suites at Camp Randall Stadium.

"This is a business that has to be self-supporting," said University of Wisconsin senior associate athletic director Vince Sweeney. "But we don't have the sales expertise or staff that Learfield does. It's what they do and not what we can do. That's a good reason why we outsource."

When Learfield took over marketing responsibilities for the Gophers, it upped the sales staff and now has six full-timers plus general manager Greg Gerlach, a former Minnesota Wild marketing exec.

The money works this way: Learfield gives an athletic department cash. In Minnesota's case, for this current year, it's $3.2 million for sponsorships, signs and arena suites and another $1.5 million for rights to control and sell ads on the radio networks.

After plunking down that $4.7 million, Learfield goes out into the marketplace and sells ads for the Gophers radio games, for coaches' radio shows, for daily reports on stations statewide, for signs and sponsorships in Mariucci and Williams arenas ... and keeps all it brings in, until total sales reach a threshold of about $7.5 million annually.

Then the U and Learfield split the surplus.

Since 2003, according to Wistrcill and Gerlach, Learfield hasn't reached the revenue-sharing threshold.

But Learfield has boosted Gophers sponsorship and broadcast revenues from about $3.6 million in 2003 to about $5.8 million this past year.

The real gold mine could be TCF Bank Stadium.

A feasibility study conducted by the university during planning for the stadium projected annual suite, luxury seating and in-stadium sign revenues at $3.7 million.

Learfield's Gerlach said that he hopes to nail down a deal this summer to get rights to market the stadium's inventory. From Gerlach's point of view, having the ability to sell all components of Gophers sports -- from women's basketball to suites at TCF Bank Stadium -- would provide blanket brand identity for a sponsor.

"We want that, and the school wants that," he said.

Cautionary note

But university central administrators are being more cautious.

University Chief Financial Officer Richard Pfutzenreuter said before he signs off on any Learfield-TCF Stadium deal he wants to be assured "we're getting full market value."

One issue is the negotiating role of Wistrcill, who was hired by Maturi.

"I haven't seen any conflict myself," said Pfutzenreuter. "I think Wistrcill knows exactly who he's working for. It's the University of Minnesota."

Said Wistrcill: "There could be the appearance of [a conflict] ... Others could say, 'Hey, here's a former Learfield employee negotiating a deal with Learfield. What's going on?' That's why other people [in the central administration] are involved. ... I'm going to do what's best for the university."

But Pfutzenreuter said that, if a tentative deal is struck with Learfield to market the new stadium, "I'm likely to say I want an independent assessment."

Suites could be the stumbling block. In Madison, for instance, Learfield will pay the Wisconsin athletic department about $4.9 million this year, or $100,000 more than Minnesota.

But Wisconsin doesn't allow Learfield to sell or capture the lucrative Camp Randall suites, which generate revenues of about $3.8 million per year.

Wisconsin's Sweeney said selling luxury seating to boosters and corporations is a development and fundraising task.

"Our core business is sitting down with donors or potential donors," he said. "That's not something we want to outsource."