June 3, 2001

By Mike Hall
Associate Sports Editor

ALBUQUERQUE - University of New Mexico women's basketball coach Don Flanagan has a big goal. No, not the one that involves winning the Mountain West Conference and winning in the NCAA Tournament.

Flanagan's goal is to build that oddity of oddities on the nation's collegiate athletic fields of play -- a self-supporting program.

To that end, he has set a long-term goal of 10,000 season tickets.

Short term?

"Our goal for next year should be 7,000," he says. "That would be the biggest jump ever. But I do think with the exposure, the popularity of the TV game (the WNIT finals that drew an incredible 14.4 rating) and the people who were at the WNIT final ..."

The UNM women last season once again took a big leap in profits. They collected $431,377 in ticket sales and $295,012 in concessions to total $726,389, an increase of $177,907 from 1999-2000.

The Lobos' budget was $850,240, but Flanagan doubts the program spent that much this past season. For example, in 1999-2000, UNM's budget was $818,620. But the final totals showed the program spending $783,588.

Ticket sales for the past season, because of quirks in the schedule, are broken into three segments:

* Regular-season ticket sales.

* Money paid to UNM by the Women's Sports Foundation for hosting the preseason tournament.

* Money paid by the WNIT for five home games, which totaled only 15 percent of the total gate, or $32,610.

In fact, Lobos athletic director Rudy Davalos still is kicking himself for not adding a $1 parking fee to that ticket, something that's always done during the regular season for football and basketball.

"That's regularly built into the cost of the ticket," Davalos says. "It wouldn't have been hosing people. We always do that."

If UNM had charged for parking, generating money which the WNIT couldn't touch, it would have pumped $46,975 more into the program.

There are signs the women's program is getting closer to that goal of self-sufficiency -- mainly, increased revenues. But there also were key times last season when the Lobos could have fallen far short of the $726,389 figure.

For example, concessions for five WNIT games were $97,807. If UNM had lost the first game of the WNIT, which drew only 5,133, that figure would have been drastically less. Additionally, despite a record 5,172 season tickets, total average attendance fell about 200 per game less than the previous season.

Last season, the Lobos averaged 8,712, still good for fifth in the nation.

"The thing about the tournament was they turned their season around and played their best ball," Davalos says. "Before that, it could have been construed as disappointing."

Flanagan wants to see a push for season-ticket sales start in late August and run through September. Lobos marketing director Joe Weiss says renewals for basketball -- men's and women's programs -- are consistently high. So, new sales reasonably could start being counted at the 5,172 point. In fact, 343 new season tickets were sold right after the WNIT finals.

Flanagan and Davalos believe the addition of seven new players on the team will help bring more fans to the early season games that normally aren't as attractive as conference contests.

"We have some very avid fans, and those fans will be very curious about the new players," Flanagan says. "I think the interest level will be high because they've heard about the high school and junior college players, and now they'll want to see if they can really play."

Davalos says he expects that to be a factor, not only for the women but also the men, who'll have six new faces on the floor.

The Lobos will have a genuine star-quality player to sell in 6-foot, 3-inch junior post Jordan Adams, who was invited to the U.S. World University Games tryouts.

"Being nominated definitely gives us credibility," Flanagan says. "She's the first one in school history, she's already the leading shot blocker in school history and is on track to set a school scoring record."

Additionally, junior Chelsea Grear showed all-Mountain West Conference ability in the WNIT, averaging 11 points and 9.6 rebounds a game.

But, Flanagan notes, "I think one reason, maybe the main reason, we've done so well in attendance is that I've had more comments about the quality of the individuals who are representing the university. They do well in the classroom, they compete well on the floor and they're good citizens in the community."