April 23, 2009
BG AD Addresses Big Picture
CHN Staff Report
The following is a transcript of comments made by Bowling Green athletic director Greg Christopher, about the Falcons' hockey program. The interviewed was conducted by Dave Horger on Bowling Green radio, and is archived at the Bowling Green athletics web site.
Christopher was responding to numerous questions about the viability of the program going forward, given the budget cuts that are being made. Once news got out two months ago that the program may be in jeopardy, there was a predictable outcry from the hockey community, alumni and fans, given BG's rich history.
Eventually, Christopher was able to get a commitment from the university that the budget cuts would not be severe enough to cause the elimination of an entire sport — at least for this year.
Christopher: I wasn't surprised by (the reaction). I expected it. I would expect it for fans of any sport. And I welcomed it in a way. I'm happy to answer questions — whether it's an e-mail — I've tried to answer each one directly.
I really believe our fans have been incredibly generous already. The last two and a half years I've been here, what I've seen is a very supportive alumni and fan base. Donations to the Falcon Club are up significantly — 30 percent over the last two years.
We made changes a year ago where people can give to specific sports now, so people can give to a specific fund. And combine that with some creative outings — knock on wood, we're doing fairly well. ... The economy has probably affected the big gifts, such as the Ice Arena. Hockey is typically bringing in $50,000 per year in private donations.
Each of our programs have three basic costs — the scholarships, the operating budget and the salary of the coaching staff. Those three things for hockey add up to roughly $1 million. Hockey also has revenue component — ticket sales and fund raising ... and that adds up to $250,000.
Our (overall athletic department) budget is about $16 million per year. That breaks into what I call two basic buckets. About half the money comes from our allocation of the general fee from the students. The other is self generated — ticket sales, fund raising, when people buy cokes or t-shirts. So that gets you to the rough number. We pay back, then, of that $8 1/2 million from the general fee, we're one of the university's general customers, so to speak — we pay for the scholarships, the room, board and tuition, dining and residence fees, for all of our student athletes.
I don't think the situation we're facing as an institution is any different than what other campuses are facing. Your margin for error is probably a little greater if you're at the BCS level — the larger schools — because their revenues are greater. But even the larger schools have been public about it. Ohio State was in the red. Stanford is openly talking about cutting sports.
We were asked to develop various budget models, and they each had components to them for how we would be cutting. That's no different than last year, it just wasn't as public. Once it became known what our target needed to be, and we didn't have to go to the far end of those models, we knew we could absorb those cuts. But it is going to be painful. We will have a smaller athletic department staff, and that's unfortunate. And we will have operating cuts within each of the 18 sports as well. And we'll have to look at how we travel, or how far we travel — and frankly our scholarship allocation as well.
We're going to try to least negatively impact our student athletes. That's our top priority. But the reality is, some of these changes are going to impact the student athletes.
Our head coaches are the CEOs of their sports — that's how I view them. It's our job to put them in position to be successful. But each coach may have a different outlook on how to manage their program. If coach 'A' says I'll take my cuts in the recruiting budget, whereas coach 'B' says we'll take it in travel, we have to let the coach have input on how to manage their budget.
Scott (Paluch)'s our coach. I haven't even had a chance to talk substantively about our season. We've talked over the last week, but it's been focused on our budget. ... But it's been so crazy, we haven't had a chance to sit down and do our year-end review. ... I want to sit with him and peel back the onion on the program, and then we'll move forward.
If you go back in time, December 2007, when the university announced roughly $200 million in capital projects that would move through the system in various places, $8 million was for arena. We would raise $4 million — and their $4 million was intended to help infrastructure. That was unfortunately put on hold. Now, we're going to have to hopefully, this spring, see where that stands. But I also know that the last few months this discussion has brought up — this institution needs to sit down with the community. Especially on the ice arena piece. The arena is used widely by the community. And it will have to be the community and the university sitting down together to see what the best course for the future is. The arena is run by recreations. We rent the facility.
I don't know if it matters what department runs the facility. At the end of the day, the people using it will be very similar. It's probably just everybody being on the same page.
There's the ice arena piece, and there's the inter-collegiate athletics piece. The ice arena — we need the community's input, involvement and support. I don't want to speak for rec sports, but when the time's right, and when they set up whatever process they're going to, we need to include the community. ... On the other piece, this is not as much a hockey issue as it is a budget issue for the entire department. We are unique, and I think some people forget just how unique. BGSU is one of only 13 schools in the country that has football, hockey and both basketballs at the Division I level. And that's fragile. Of those 13, only three are as wired as we are — Miami, Western Michigan and BG. And Miami is wired a little differently because of their endowment situation. So the support we need on the intercollegiate athletic side, they're already doing. They support the team, come to the games, support us through the Falcon Club — and we need that to continue. But I do think the institution — the board, the president and myself — will need to look at the future, and decide what does this institution want intercollegiate athletics to look like.
That fund raising is ongoing. ... Even when I interviewed, (they) said my priorities would be fixing Anderson Arena (basketball), and the hockey arena. The first step was to take whatever studies had been done, bringing in an architect and give us a range of options — renovating Anderson, renovating the Ice Arena, building one facility under one roof. We looked at everything. We ultimately went forward with what we did — the new arena (for basketball) and renovating the Ice Arena — based on a number of factors. One facility became too expensive. And of the two facilities, the Ice Arena was one we felt we could renovate and get it to a level that was acceptable (more so) than Anderson. The two facilities were then sitting on the shelf as far as options — then Stroh stepped up with their gift (for the basketball arena). At that time, we said we had to move forward with the Ice Arena as well. That's when administration committed to an $8 million project. So we knew then we'd have to approach the hockey community at some point (for donations). One of my priorities, we knew we'd have to engage — we crisscrossed country talking to former hockey players. We (put) out trial balloons on how they feel. The feedback was interesting. Some wanted a new facility, others said, "No, we just invested $800,000 for lockers, we need to renovate, make it the Wrigley Field of arenas." But we used that time to try to cultivate relationships with players and fans. Once we knew what direction we were going, we went forward with solicitations for gifts. It's really simplistic to think you go at it with a bake sale approach, but you have to start with the top 12 donors. The Stroh Center, we haven't gone through the lower level donors. Same with hockey. We've spent significant time with the people who can make the impact. To date, we have half a million in commitments ... but until someone tells me otherwise, we're going to continue to go forward.
Falcon FrenzyJun 11 2009, 9:51 am
This article shows the administration has a definite and specific understanding of what's needed to continue and promote Bowling Green Hockey. I assume with the recent alumni gift to establish the basketball program's new Stroh Center that all resources, efforts, and finances towards improving and/or rebuilding the BG Ice Arena will take top priority. Bowling Green's sports legacy is ice hockey; not football or basketball.
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