June 1, 2002

By Robert Gagliardi
Wyoming Tribune-Eagle

LARAMIE, Wyo. - As spring turns to summer, things are pretty quiet in the University of Wyoming athletics department.

Student-athletes are enjoying a well-deserved, but short-lived, break from off-season conditioning. Coaches and administrators are in and out of their offices as frequently as the wind changes direction in the Cowboy State.

But there is work being done, and that could have a significant effect on UW athletics for the next 50 years.

Recently, the athletics department gave the UW Board of Trustees a plan called "Investment in the Future." It's an early draft of a long-range blueprint of what the department would like to accomplish. It covers such areas as competition, finances, facilities, sports medicine, academic standards and gender equity issues.

All of the above are vital to any college athletics program, but after looking through the plan, there are a couple that stand out. First and foremost are finances.

The broad goal of the financial plan is to maintain funding at the NCAA Division I level. It also calls for UW to catch up to the Mountain West Conference average in terms of athletics department budget.

UW athletics director Lee Moon said the average athletics budget among the eight MWC schools is about $19 million. UW's budget during the 2001-02 year was about $15 million. When Moon took over at UW in 1996, his budget was $10 million. His department has generated that $5 million increase.

Other aspects of the financial goals are to decrease the number of "money" games in football. That means scheduling fewer road games like Tennessee and Washington for big-time paydays.

The plan also calls for increasing resources to "buy" more home games for men's and women's basketball and women's volleyball and not to depend as much on home game revenue from football and men's basketball to balance its budget.

A close second is facilities.

UW must pay $5.3 million on repairs on War Memorial Stadium. About $250,000 must be spent to make the stadium safe and functionable for the upcoming season, which will be done.

But with a need for chair-back seating, improved restroom and concession areas and press box expansion, UW is left with a decision: Restore War Memorial Stadium or plan for the construction of a new facility.

A combination of the two could be in the works.

Obviously, the structural work on War Memorial Stadium must be done now as well as some other cosmetic work over the next few years. But UW President Philip Dubois and the Board of Trustees may look seriously down the road into building a new facility. That could be a domed stadium.

Other facility upgrades Moon would like to see are an outdoor track, indoor tennis courts and an indoor facility for football and soccer. The domed stadium could help the football and soccer issue.

All of this sounds great, but where would the money come from?

Some will come from UW-generated funds, some from private donations. But a good portion must come from taxpayers and the state Legislature.

While lawmakers fund UW, a small portion of its nearly $300 million budget goes to athletics.

Education funding, highway construction and economic development seem to gain most of the attention of the Legislature every year, and they should.

But if UW athletics is as revered around the state as everyone says it is, maybe it is time to test those waters in the Legislature, which could come as soon at the 2004 legistlative budget session.

The future of UW athletics could depend on it.