In The Game |
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If the people of Wyoming want UW to stay in Division I-A, they have two choices: to help the University of Wyoming become more competitive – thereby cementing UW’s membership in the Mountain West Conference – or permitting UW to muddle along at or near the bottom of the conference and risking possible ejection of UW from the conference and Division I-A. As Dubois has said, “If the state wants to have a Division I-A program, we should be prepared to be competitive and not be seen as an institution that let the game get away from it.” Elements of the plan include strategies to restore competitive excellence, improve academic success, gender and ethnic equity, private fundraising, marketing, and facilities. During his presentations, Dubois has focused on just two parts of the plan – competitive excellence and facilities, centering on the four sports that tend to have highest visibility within the conference and nationally – football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, and volleyball. Restoring competitive excellence has four essential elements, with associated annual cost of $2.62 million:
The cost of other operational elements of the plan – Ensuring Academic Success, Promoting Student Athlete Welfare (including sports medicine), Improving Private Funding, and Marketing (including to the 10,000 UW alumni who live in the Denver area) raises the annual operational needs to about $3 million – nearly $2 million below what would be required to get UW to the Mountain West Conference average. Facilities enhancements are divided into the essential and the desirable. Essential is a $5.5 million structural repair to War Memorial Stadium – that must be accomplished by fall 2004 – to prevent the ultimate collapse of the upper west stands and further structural deterioration. If the upper west stands become unusable, UW would no longer meet the NCAA Division I-A requirement for football stadium seating capacity and could be dropped from I-A and the Mountain West Conference. Desirable enhancements, with a one-time cost of $25 million, include:
The plan suggests that costs could be borne by various funding sources, including major gifts and sponsorship agreements; increases in ticket prices and concessions; development of corporate suites; increases in student athletics fees; revenues from tuition; and state appropriations. Dubois has told Wyoming residents that the Board of Trustees’ decision on the future of UW intercollegiate athletics could be based in large part on public sentiment – whether people care about the division in which Cowboys and Cowgirls play and whether they care about UW’s ability to be competitive. He also encourages residents to send him their comments on the plan. University officials will review comments received at public meetings and through email and incorporate them into the next iteration of the plan, which trustees are scheduled to review in September. One outcome of that meeting could be a legislative request of about $3 million to cover the operational costs needed to achieve competitive excellence. During Dubois’ talks, he reminded people that UW had not requested any money for athletics during at least the past seven years. To read the entire plan and submit your comments by e-mail, go to the UW Web home page (www.uwyo.edu) and click on the icon for Draft Strategic Plan for Athletics.
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