September 25, 2009|By Jeff Barker | Jeff Barker,jeff.barker@baltsun.com
COLLEGE PARK -- The University of Maryland would consider eliminating sports teams if necessary to safeguard its athletic program's economic health, an internal report says.
The report, overseen by the athletic department and adopted by director of athletics Deborah Yow and a campus advisory group, outlines a series of goals and initiatives designed to guarantee the program's stability beyond the recession and a recent series of budget cuts. A section titled "Financial Stability" offers three methods for keeping the program on track during the next five years - cut expenses and find new revenue, scale back selected sports, or eliminate an undefined number of teams.
In an interview, Yow said dropping sports would be a last resort but that Maryland must examine all scenarios.
"This is a matter of due diligence, to look at every possible way to generate revenue or cut expenses, especially at a time of recession," Yow said. "There is no imminent decision to cut or tier sports, but we are going to study it."
The report also highlights establishing subscription Web video sites for some games and coaches' shows; improving the academic performance of men's basketball players and the graduation rates of athletes admitted under special circumstances; and new efforts to promote sportsmanship, including incentives to discourage students from directing boorish chants at Maryland opponents during games.
The document was released Aug. 28 at about the same time Yow, for the first time in her 16 years as athletic director, submitted a budget smaller than the previous year's.
The athletic department recently reduced the roughly $55 million budget by an additional $1.3 million because of a shortfall in football season-ticket sales and anticipated declines in men's basketball season-ticket sales, "which we attribute largely to the economy," Yow said.
With the university as a whole in a budget-cutting mode, the athletic department's large budget makes it an obvious target for some cuts. "There have been requests from students, faculty and staff that things within the athletic budget should be cut," said Steve Glickman, the Student Government Association president.
Some of those requests appear on a Web site established by the university to solicit suggestions on ways to save money.
But Glickman said "I can't imagine" teams getting axed. And Joel Cohen, the student government's press secretary, said that while he primarily attends men's basketball and football games, "all the sports are important."
Large athletic departments such as Maryland's depend heavily on ticket sales, merchandise and concessions. Some universities have resorted to eliminating athletic teams. The University of Vermont dropped baseball and softball this year. The University of Washington dropped men's and women's swimming.
Maryland has 27 teams - 15 for women and 12 for men. The average number of teams at the Atlantic Coast Conference's eight public universities is 22. The report emphasized Maryland's commitment to Title IX, the federal gender equity law.
Yow, who has been steadfast about preserving sports, said of cutting teams: "You can't have a five-year strategic plan and ignore that as a possibility."
Eliminating teams is usually a last resort at universities and typically follows a series of belt-tightening measures. "A given sport is the last thing to go," said Rodney Fort, a University of Michigan professor of sport management.
There is no clear pattern for discerning which sports are dropped.
Athletic departments might consider a variety of factors, including how competitive a sport is, what sorts of facilities it has and even weather and geography, said Mike Cross, a Princeton University athletic administrator who writes a college athletics blog called ultimatesportsinsider.com.
"Look at Vermont, which dropped baseball," Cross said. "Playing that sport at that time of year in the upper Northeast makes it far tougher than playing in North Carolina or Virginia."
The Baltimore Sun reported last month that Maryland's football budget was cut more than 3 percent and the team planned to travel by bus at least one way for games at Wake Forest, North Carolina State and Duke. Football supporters subsequently raised enough money so the Terps can fly round trip to at least two of the games.
All of Maryland's teams except men's basketball and football operate at a deficit. The report says the school, which has added competitive cheerleading and women's water polo in recent years, has balanced its athletic department budgets each year since 1994 and reduced its inherited $51 million debt since then to $6.8 million. Maryland has won 18 national championships in the past 15 years, including in field hockey in three of the past four years.
