49er Football...

Same ol' same ol'...



49ers still punting

49ers still punting

Hurdles: Start-up costs, area's sports landscape, alumni contributions
DAVID SCOTT AND STAN OLSON

Entering their first basketball season in the Atlantic 10, the Charlotte 49ers appear to have landed in the only place that can harbor them: A Division I league with major basketball aspirations and less lofty goals for its football-playing schools.

It is a complex mix in which the 49ers hope to fit. As Charlotte -- one of six non-football playing schools in the 14-team Atlantic 10 basketball membership -- moves forward, school officials say they are content to do so without football, a sport with high start-up costs that is unlikely to make money soon.

"I don't think that question is high on my list," said UNC Charlotte chancellor Philip Dubois. "... It's not a high priority on the radar; it's behind academics and other aspects. It's a pretty low intensity item."

When conference realignments recently swept through college sports, Charlotte and Saint Louis grabbed a lifeline thrown by the Atlantic 10. Without football programs, the 49ers and Billikens were stranded in Conference USA -- which had lost five schools to the Big East but wanted to remain a league in which football was still a priority.

"There's no question that a lot of things drove the recent rash of changes in conference affiliations," said ACC Commissioner John Swofford, whose conference started the ball rolling when Virginia Tech, Miami and Boston College departed the Big East for the ACC.

"Football had a lot to do with that. And if you have football, your potential options are greater than if you don't."

Without football, Charlotte wasn't a fit for the Big East, a Division I-A football league (which is why it grabbed Cincinnati, Louisville and South Florida from C-USA) that also includes basketball-first schools with Jesuit traditions (why it took Marquette and DePaul).

So it headed to the Atlantic 10, which also is a 12-team Division I-AA football conference. But nine of those schools don't play basketball in the league.

Five of the A-10's basketball schools also play football in other leagues.

Adding football has long been a topic of discussion at Charlotte, which has a living alumni base of 70,000 (20,000 in Mecklenburg County) and seldom fills 9,105-seat Halton Arena for its men's basketball games.

"The alums who address (football) are a fairly consistent bunch and sometimes vocal about it," said David Dunn, UNC Charlotte's vice chancellor for university relations and community affairs. "But they're a minority in the scheme of things.

"We have a savvy alumni group and they understand that if football were to exist ... it would be in large part because of their significant financial donations. They may feel like they're not ready for that."

Jeff Mullins said football was discussed during his tenure as athletics director (1985-90). Mullins, who remained as basketball coach until 1996, said he was advised by former Duke athletics director and Sun Belt Conference commissioner Vic Bubas that having a football program would be crucial in where a school would land in future conference realignments.

"But the timing has never been right," said Mullins. "The stadium situation hasn't been figured out and the financial support that the alumni base could offer isn't enough."

At one point several years ago, the school brought in former SEC commissioner Roy Kramer.

"They were just exploring the landscape," said Kramer. "They hadn't made any commitment in any direction. We talked about what kinds of things that could happen if some of those changes occurred, like what schools might shift where.

"But it's become very obvious that, depending on which conference you're looking at, whether it's the ACC, Big East, SEC, Big 12, and so forth, that football is going to always be a requirement."

A number of schools have recently added the sport -- including Division I-AA Coastal Carolina this season and Southeastern Louisiana in 2003. UNC Pembroke recently announced it would begin playing Division II football in 2007 and Old Dominion plans to start a program in 2009 if financial and other goals are met.

South Florida and Alabama-Birmingham started football in the 1990s when they were in Conference USA with Charlotte.

Money is why football isn't on the horizon for Charlotte, which recently completed a seven-year capital campaign that raised more than $115 million for various academic projects.

"Cost is obviously the major consideration ... (and) we don't even have a particularly well-funded athletic program currently," said DuBois.

Charlotte's athletics budget for the 2005-06 athletic year is about $8.5 million for 14 sports, with about $6 million coming from student fees and most of the rest from men's basketball gate receipts and the school's athletics foundation. North Carolina's annual budget of about $48 million funds 28 varsity sports.

Charlotte athletics director Judy Rose said adding football would cost about $10 million per year. She also said the school would have to look at gender equity issues if football were added. Building a stadium, or finding an existing facility to play in, would also need to be factored in.

Gene Johnson, CEO of Fairpoint Communications and past president of Charlotte's athletic foundation, likes football but understands the logistics of it.

"I'm all for football; it would be great for students and alumni and a rallying point for the city of Charlotte," he said. "But where's the money going to come from? All the people hollering for football aren't going to pony up the checks."

According to a 2002 Orlando Sentinel survey, Bowl Championship Series conferences are the only ones in which a significant number of schools make money from football.

UAB, which became a I-A program in 1996, hasn't consistently made money from its football program, according to a source with knowledge of the finances involved. South Florida has had more success, and that should improve further with the Bulls' move this year to the Big East.

Both schools list football as essentially break-even in 2003-04. UAB spent $5,115,934 and took in $5,163,095. South Florida's numbers were $5,022,753 and $5,189,338 in revenues.

Dubois isn't interested in I-AA football, at which Charlotte might fit in the A-10 or the Southern or Big South conferences.

"I frankly don't think I-AA is worth doing," he said. "You can't play on the soccer field, so you still have to build a smaller stadium. But it gets no attention. In a city like Charlotte, would that be attractive to anyone?"

So maybe Dubois is heeding the words of the SEC's Kramer.

"I think there will always be a place for Charlotte," Kramer said.

"I don't think that will change in the future. There will continue to be some high quality basketball programs at schools that don't play football. I expect that to continue."

Football startups

Recently added:

• Coastal Carolina (2005)• SE Louisiana (2003)

• South Florida (1997)

• Ala-Birmingham (1991)

Plan to add

• UNC Pembroke (2007)

• Old Dominion (2009)

 

Thinking big too costly for 49ers

Thinking big too costly for 49ers

TOM SORENSEN

Football teams are expensive. So anytime you complain to Charlotte about the absence of football, the school can pull out a study that cites the cost of starting and sustaining a program.

Then it can direct you to the ticket office, where plenty of good seats are available for baseball, softball, volleyball, golf, tennis, track, women's basketball and soccer.

Of course football is expensive, and some costs are hidden. If the 49ers add football, would they have to create a commensurate number of scholarships for women, or would they have to reduce men's scholarships in other sports?

There is always a price to thinking big, and Charlotte has refused to pay it.

Football is the rare sport that can bring together the varied and almost unrelated neighborhoods that make up a university. You see three generations from the same family show up two hours before kickoff on a fine fall football afternoon.

That's your team down there on that impossibly green field. And for several hours, you can lose yourself in mindless cheering and feel part of something bigger than you are.

Men's basketball is the only sport around which Charlotte students and alumni rally, despite all the missed jump shots this season. Baseball, softball, volleyball, golf, tennis, track, soccer and women's basketball are great for participants, but fans don't care.

Charlotte was studying the feasibility of football when 9-11 struck. After that, sports seemed less important, potential money dried up and people pulled in.

What would happen if Charlotte committed to football? What would happen if the school applied its formidable fundraising abilities to football? Do not underestimate the importance of the school to this city.

Stick a model of the stadium on Web sites and billboards and glossy magazines. Help us envision ourselves inside. Convince the alumni who chose not to make the Feb. 1 trip to the basketball game in St. Bonaventure to apply the money they would have spent.

There are donors who wouldn't think of kicking in $10,000 to help endow a scholarship or enhance a library, who would feel as if supporting football is an opportunity.

Other schools have viewed football as an opportunity. Alabama-Birmingham had no football until 1991, when it began a Division III program. Two seasons later, the Blazers upgraded to Division I-AA, and in 1995 they began playing with the big fellows in Division I-A.

South Florida started a Division I-AA program in 1997 and moved to a I-A program in 2001. Now look where the Bulls are. They are in Charlotte's Meineke Car Care Bowl, where they will play N.C. State next week.

More importantly, they are in the Big East. If the 49ers played I-A football, they would have joined them.

I would love to see a 49ers football team. And I say this knowing Charlotte fans would rip this newspaper for devoting more ink to North Carolina-N.C. State than to their game against Austin Peay.

 

Alumni contributions



I will gladly buy a ticket. But not for basketball.

 

IF UNC Pembroke gets a football team before UNCC then that is just a shame. I could see the 49er's starting at D1-AA in the same conference as App's in or does the A-10 have a football conference? and then moving up to Division 1-A and playing in Conference USA with ECU as a rival. Tons of football teams play in different conferences than Basketball anyway.

 

Sounds like a Duke fan, just reverse the sports.

 

My daughter goes to Brevard (NAIA) and they added football and are moving all of their sports up to NCAA D2 next year.........just saying......

 

Charlotte cannot play D2... no school that plays D1 sports can. just sayin...

 

Understand.........just the issue of school/alumni size to support a new sport.....heck, they don't even charge admission to the BBall games now at Brevard........just sayin

 

Don't tell that to UConn.

 

Or App State.