Investing In Football

The headline below has nothing to do with Georgetown football, but the story does.

Deadspin.com posted a story this week titled “ESPN’s Wimbledon Bid Is The Future Of Televised Sports,” a review of the circumstances in which NBC, after having broadcast the world’s preeminent tennis tournament since the dawn of the open era, lost its rights to ESPN, a network which has over the past two decades picked up Major League Baseball, the NBA, most of NCAA college sports, and the entire sports remnants of the ABC television network. But what makes this story interesting is not that ESPN took it away inasmuch as NBC gave it up."

"NBC's not stupid, and GE didn't become the third-largest public company because it passes on chances to make the most money,” wrote author Barry Petchesky. “The decision comes down to opportunity cost. On one hand, there's the viewership lost by airing a match we already know the outcome of. On the other hand, there's the viewership lost by preempting The Today Show for live tennis. Guess which brings in more ad sales?”

"NBC, or any network that commits to a long-term TV deal, has to be concerned not only with recouping its money from commercial sales, but also the lost money from whatever's being preempted. For NBC, that's a fortnight of The Today Show, with around 5 million viewers daily; for ESPN, it's the 7am SportsCenter.”

Hold that thought as we begin with a review of the costs associated with intercollegiate football at Georgetown University.

First, this question: what is the opportunity cost for Georgetown to be a competitive football program? Or, more appropriately, how much investment will it take? For this column, a lot less opinion and a few more numbers will be in play. Few fans pay attention to a team's budget--perhaps it's assumed that schools send an equivalent amount on equivalent sports.

A closer look at U.S. Department of Education budgets for football suggests a changing landscape. Five seasons ago, the 2005-06 academic year, Georgetown ranked as follows among those Eastern schools playing Division I-AA football:

1	James Madison University	$4,208,133
2	Fordham University	$3,898,156
3	University of Delaware	$3,890,595
4	Villanova University	$3,791,955
5	University of Richmond	$3,658,117
6	Colgate University	$3,628,807
7	Hofstra University	$3,602,055
8	University of Massachusetts	$3,318,205
9	Lehigh University	$3,261,340
10	Northeastern University	$3,166,474
11	Lafayette College	$3,109,946
12	University of Rhode Island	$3,040,230
13	University of New Hampshire	$3,022,471
14	College of William and Mary	$3,006,528
15	College of the Holy Cross	$2,716,725
16	University of Maine	$2,621,578
17	Bucknell University	$2,488,592
18	Yale University	$2,155,095
19	Harvard University	$2,090,271
20	Columbia University	$1,971,707
21	Towson University	$1,962,285
22	Princeton University	$1,801,579
23	Georgetown University	$1,666,297
24	Dartmouth College	$1,624,336
25	University of Pennsylvania	$1,497,051
26	Cornell University	$1,441,074
27	Brown University	$1,256,085
28	Stony Brook University	$1,225,656
29	Wagner College	$1,198,243
30	Sacred Heart University	$994,970
31	Central Connecticut State Univ	$972,558
32	Monmouth University	$880,823
33	SUNY at Albany	$877,574
34	Bryant University	$876,671
35	Saint Francis University	$867,629
36	Robert Morris University	$843,158
37	Duquesne University	$465,936
38	Marist College	$456,575
39	Iona College	$355,172

Twenty-third? Not great, but look at the comparable budgets: Princeton, Dartmouth, Penn. Say what you will, but those are names Georgetown could be comfortable with.  In 2009-10, look how that ranking had changed:

1	University of Delaware	$5,744,858
2	Villanova University	$5,228,231
3	Fordham University	$4,809,131
4	University of Richmond	$4,783,891
5	College of William and Mary	$4,535,570
6	Colgate University	$4,514,524
7	Old Dominion University	$4,415,209
8	University of Massachusetts	$4,332,838
9	Lafayette College	$4,198,351
10	James Madison University	$4,197,097
11	Towson University	$4,050,261
12	College of the Holy Cross	$3,920,294
13	University of New Hampshire	$3,824,532
14	University of Rhode Island	$3,730,269
15	Lehigh University	$3,671,791
16	University of Maine	$3,593,951
17	Stony Brook University	$3,452,189
18	Bucknell University	$3,008,262
19	Princeton University	$2,929,356
20	Columbia University	$2,745,817
21	Yale University	$2,507,069
22	Monmouth University	$2,265,998
23	Harvard University	$2,142,235
24	University of Pennsylvania	$2,079,036
25	Cornell University	$2,015,525
26	Dartmouth College	$1,920,170
27	SUNY at Albany	$1,903,667
28	Wagner College	$1,866,061
29	Bryant University	$1,847,498
30	Central Connecticut State Univ	$1,779,801
31	Robert Morris University	$1,639,539
32	Brown University	$1,538,414
33	Duquesne University	$1,529,237
34	Georgetown University	$1,430,512
35	Saint Francis University	$1,415,266
36	Sacred Heart University	$1,384,786
37	Marist College	$760,699

Goodbye, Princeton, Dartmouth, Penn. Say hello to Duquesne, St. Francis, and Sacred Heart.

So what changed? For Georgetown, very little. Its four year net change in football spending was a slight decrease from $1.6 to $1.4 million. Trouble was (and is), it was the only school in the region to actually decrease spending. When viewed on percentage change, Georgetown's place in the Eastern landscape is even more disturbing:

1	Duquesne University	228%
2	Stony Brook University	182%
3	Monmouth University	157%
4	SUNY at Albany	117%
5	Bryant University	111%
6	Towson University	106%
7	Robert Morris University	94%
8	Central Connecticut State Univ	83%
9	Marist College	67%
10	Saint Francis University	63%
11	Princeton University	63%
12	Wagner College	56%
13	College of William and Mary	51%
14	University of Delaware	48%
15	College of the Holy Cross	44%
16	Cornell University	40%
17	Columbia University	39%
18	Sacred Heart University	39%
19	University of Pennsylvania	39%
20	Villanova University	38%
21	University of Maine	37%
22	Lafayette College	35%
23	University of Richmond	31%
24	University of New Hampshire	27%
25	Colgate University	24%
26	Fordham University	23%
27	University of Rhode Island	23%
28	Brown University	22%
29	Bucknell University	21%
30	Dartmouth College	18%
31	Yale University	16%
32	Lehigh University	13%
33	Harvard University	2%
34	James Madison University	0%
35	Georgetown University	-14%
	(new programs since 2006 not included)

It’s no secret that Georgetown spends a lot less on football, than, say, men’s basketball. There is historical as well as economic precedent for this. The dropping of major college football remains a tear in the Georgetown athletic fabric sixty years later, because it cemented an institutional distrust in sports becoming bigger than the school could manage. Football wasn’t dropped for scandal, nor for any shame brought upon the school, but for the sin that it was an expensive proposition for the University. That football returned at all was based upon the premise—a compact, perhaps-- that football at Georgetown, expensive football, would not return as it did before.

“Any form of highly subsidized football is an economic impossibility here at Georgetown,” wrote The HOYA in 1964. “There is big-time football and non-scholarship football. There is no in between.”

For most of Georgetown’s 28 other sports, then as now, its programs are underfunded. It’s not a slight, but it’s reflective of a school which decided long ago not to invest in the land and the tools that major college programs do to be in that select company. Few expected Georgetown ever to be in the select company of major college athletics again, but it happened.

What happened was, of course, men’s basketball, which also existed on a shoestring when John Thompson arrived in 1972. The perfect storm of Thompson, the arrival of the Big East Conference, and the explosion of TV sports elevated Georgetown from a local team to a national one within three years, even if McDonough Gym was better suited to a Division II program than one that was moving through the NCAA Tournament.

It was during the early 1980’s (and revisited in 2004) that Georgetown took a hard look at the opportunity costs of men’s basketball and decided that the costs of investing in basketball had a return that Georgetown could live with, and be successful with. Georgetown’s basketball spending went from “spending to compete” to “spending to excel”.

Georgetown football does not spend to excel. It has not demonstrated the capacity or the financial commitment to compete for the I-AA national championship.

It is arguable that Georgetown football does not spend to be regularly competitive. With a budget that trails fellow Patriot league schools by such a degree that the Hoyas could double its spending and still rank last in the conference by budget, one unfamiliar with GU could assume that Georgetown’s financial backing does not put it in a position to compete for the Patriot League title; not spending to compete, merely spending to play.

"How will ...football better the school?” asked The HOYA 47 years ago. “Just because it’s cheap doesn’t mean it’s advantageous.”

The secret to Georgetown’s future success isn’t to look to Delaware or Villanova for budgetary guidance. First, look up the hill.

As operating budgets go, Georgetown University is half that of Duke, a quarter that of Stanford. Yale produces enough endowment proceeds to fund the entire Georgetown operating budget, yet Georgetown’s annual endowment proceeds would fund two weeks of expenses at Yale. Yet, against considerable odds, Georgetown nonetheless competes with Duke, Yale, and other peers—not because it outspends these schools, but because, in part, it leverages its message and its spending that play to Georgetown’s strengths.

And what are these strengths? From Georgetown.edu: "Established in 1789, Georgetown is the nation’s oldest Catholic and Jesuit university. Drawing upon this legacy, we provide students with a world-class learning experience focused on educating the whole person through exposure to different faiths, cultures and beliefs. With our Jesuit values and location in Washington, D.C., Georgetown offers students a distinct opportunity to learn, experience and understand more about the world."

Put another way:

1. The preeminent Roman Catholic university in the nation.
2. Exposure to a world-class education.
3. Location, location, location.

Over the next four installments, let’s talk about the targeted investment that could allow Georgetown to compete at the top of its football peer set, focusing to its strengths and opening the doors of a Georgetown education to a new generation of student-athlete that may have never considered it in the first place.

(That, and finishing the field.)

Hail And Farewell

Ah, the commencement weekend.

Simultaneously the most remarkable and most forgettable time in one’s young life, college commencement is a big deal, even if the speaker isn’t. Some graduates will be hard pressed to remember the speaker at all in six months time, much less a quarter century passed.

My commencement speaker was a South African poet. I have no memory of what was said, but we weren’t there for the talk, anyway. Graduation Day, 1984 marked two lasting images. First, it was the happiest I would ever see my father. Only a day removed from a particularly sharp chewing out over my sleeping through their breakfast at the Key Bridge Marriott (last call at Senior Ball was the unmentioned culprit), he nonetheless was sincerely happy to see me make it through college. I was only the second member of my extended family ever to graduate college, neither of my parents made it through a year after high school.

Simultaneously, it was among the saddest—three hours later, as friends and family had left and I was packing up the Village A dorm, the stark reality followed—this really was all over. The campus was deserted, and four years were done. Finished. They may tell you the class will all get together at Reunion, but once the ceremonies conclude, this will really be the last time you may ever see some of these people again. Some will lose touch with you, some won’t care, and for some, the end is sooner than we all know. A month after I graduated, one of our colleagues at the radio station died in a car crash. He was 21.

There is now a cottage industry in commencement speakers—actors, statesmen, journalists, humorists. Georgetown’s somewhat short-sighted policy on commencement contributes to this, in a way. For the 25th straight year, commencement will not be one speaker, but up to ten, where quantity does not always equal quality. The Class of 1981—all 1200 of them--heard from Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Impressive. Would it have been the same for the SLL to get the Assistant Undersecretary of the Interior that year instead and for the business school to get the CEO at Giant Food?

The official reason there is not one commencement speaker is that no facility is capable of holding 1200 graduates and three or four guests each. Funny, that approximates the expected capacity of the Multi-Sp….no, that couldn’t be. Yet, back in the 20th Century when this plan was hatched, the use of the MSF for commencement was a viable and worthwhile goal.

This weekend, the weeds grow a little taller at the Millions Short of Fundraising Field, but for those up top on the hill, congratulations and a few words of my own, directed at the newest members of the alumni family.

"If there are three things you take away from four years at Georgetown, what would they be, debt service notwithstanding? Three.

1. Pay attention. So much of life is about those who are aware to the world around them and those who let it slide on by. A movie from your parents’ generation summed it thusly: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” So whether it’s grad school, raising a family, joining a community, or simply knowing when to cross the yellow light and when there’s a red light camera waiting around the bend, a Georgetown education should offer you the benefit being involved and active. Don’t fall for the adage that ninety percent of life is just showing up. If you do, you will die an unfulfilled man.
2. Ask questions. Nothing in life isn’t made better by critical thinking. At the turn of the 20th century, the director of the U.S. Patent Office questioned his department’s legitimacy, saying “Everything that can be invented has been invented.” It’s easy to jump to the same conclusion today, and while we are not all inventors, we have the opportunity to be innovators in our chosen fields. I don’t care what you do it or how you do it, but make it better, and know that you can’t get to the answers without posing the questions.
3. Lend a hand. In a time of such great bounty in our history, there are always those in need—in your neighborhood, in your church, in your nation, in your world. Remember those cards with the different-colored spots harkened back at Orientation? The spots indicating the number of people that do not have the opportunities you have had? Those haven’t gone away in four years and they won’t unless people of good will can offer to help. Closer to home, alma mater needs your help. Don’t turn your back on this place because you can’t afford to write a check. There are institutional needs that do not require a few zeroes behind your name, and young alumni can play a vital role in this. For starters, how about talking up the need to get these athletic facilities taken seriously by more people? It’s one thing to read about the woebegone MSF and the McDonough locker rooms, it’s another think to have lived it, as you have. Tell us what needs to be done. Lead by example. This is no longer an era where you must generationally wait your turn to take positions of authority. Step up and be counted. Now.

And for our athletic alumni out there, don’t put aside the mantle of competition as you put aside the jerseys and pads. Character is revealed in athletics, and for those who put their sweat equity into the program at a time of low expectations by friend and foe alike, do not lose that intensity to be a productive alumnus and a productive member of your community. Get involved with the University. Get involved with your class. And in three years time, when the program recognizes its 50 years of modern football, do not be afraid to lead the charge once again, to make the academic and athletic experience of Georgetown University all the better because you were a once part of it.

Or, as simple as this, from your fellow alumnus Joe Lonardo (B’69): “When you leave Georgetown, Georgetown doesn’t have to leave you.” Take the best of the place and use it every day going forward. You’ll find out you’ve learned more about life than you’ll ever know."

Now, on to the field.

Nothing To See Here

It's been awhile since there was much to talk about on the blog, but there hasn't been much on the front burner of football to awake from hibernation (or basketball season, whichever applies). I had planned to talk this week about Villanova's big decision whether or not to join the Big East, but the Big East (read= Pitt) is making things a little more difficuly on the Main Line, essentially telling the Wildcats that an 18,000 seat soccer stadium isn't good enough for them. Some of the ACC media wags in Boston suggest this is the first step towards kicking all the non-IA schools out of the Big East. (Don't think so.)

As Georgetown goes, when it's the off-season, it's really the off-season. Recruits won't be announced until May (whatever rules apply which do not allow GU football to announce recruits doesn't apply at the five other PL schools which have already posted theirs). As far as we know all the coaches are back for 2011, and if there are transfers or attrition from the 2010 season, it may take a while to know more about it.

The 2012 schedule was announced earlier this year, adding the first meeting with Princeton since 1923, and a return series with Brown. The Hoyas travel to Old Nassau on Sept. 28, 2012. (Red Line to Union Station, Amtrak to Princeton Junction, one stop on the famous "Dinky" line, and you're right there.) For 2011, only four home games but a road game at Howard keeps one close.

If it's been quiet off the field, it's been quiet on the field as well.

Unlike the interest that predominates I-A spring football and finds its way to I-AA teams as well, Georgetown wraps up its spring practice with nary an article written on it. A brief blurb at GUHoyas.com noted that sQB Scott Darby threw a touchdown pass and three interceptions last week, but without further clarification of how the scrimmage was set up, it's impossible to determine what that means. If you're looking for a spring roster, stop looking: GU did not release one.

Kevin Kelly's degree in college wasn't marketing, but you have to think he would like to promote this program better than what has shown to the public these last five years. Outside of an interview with Bernard in the New York Times in 2007, there may not be five articles in the off-campus press about Georgetown Football. That Kelly and his staff is back for a sixth year after dropping six of its final seven games may be enough for now; like some other smaller sports, staying off the campus radar may have its advantages when the win-loss record isn't there.

We are also not hearing from Georgetown on either of the two pressing issues circling the program: funding and facilities.

The avoidance approach by the Patriot League presidents to the "fight or flight" posed by Fordham will continue through 2012, whereupon the Rams will have signed 60 on full scholarship athletes and the rest of the league will not. One of three outcomes await:

1. The league will deny Fordham's plan for scholarships, and the Rams will leave the league after 2012.
2. The league will accept Fordham's plan for schoalrships, a mad dash to match Fordham's 60 grants ensue, whereupon Georgetown is left far, far behind or eventually asked to leave; or
3. The league will stall again, and Fordham will leave anyway.

Georgetown is not in the driver's seat on this matter but it wouldn't hurt to check out its safety belt. Does Georgetown need to start soliciting funds for schoalrship support, however one defines it? Should it be up front and let everyone know it won't play scholarship football even if the rest of the PL does? With new leadership at the Gridiron Club (Bruce Simmons '69), there are a lot of opportunities to energize the base.  And that's important--with materially less to offer than every other PL school, when does Georgetown University start the process of stepping up its financial support, whether to be a truly competitive PL program in a scholarship scenario, or finding a soft landing elsewhere if the league becomes untenable?

The time to act is not in 2013. It starts in 2011.

Of similar and growing concern--heard much of late about the Multi-Sport Facility, "the most important project in the history of Georgetown Athletics"? Me neither.

On the front page of the HoyaSaxa.com football site, a clock ticks away the days since construction was stopped on the Field With No Name--as of this writing, 2,035 days and counting. Those temporary stands hastily constructed before the home opener in 2005 weren't put up to withstand the tests of time, and a FieldTurf surface meant to withstand 10 seasons of football games is approaching some real maintenance concerns with 12-16 hours of usage a day among various teams.

The fundraising model that started with this project is broke. The efforts to focus on a name donor before any movement forward isn't there, either. Further complicating the situation is the idea of timing--Georgetown cannot seem to do more than one construction project at a time, which put the MSF behind the Southwest Quad...then the business school...then the science building...and soon, the inertia for building the Athletic Training Facility (ATF), delayed now for 4+ years, will soon overtake the MSF as the top project for Athletics. Meanwhile, the gravel will wash away, the field will wear out, and recruits will find other places to go.

If the decision comes down to building the ATF or the MSF, well, no question. But with technology in the area of modular stadiums, a concept at its infancy when the MSF make-do began, maybe there's a middle ground between doing nothing and waiting for Godot.

A modular stadium is a means to construct a facility which is not intended to be a permanent facility, but has all the acoutrements of a permanent facility but without the foundations and the building materials that would add to the cost. Modular building is the new buzzword in soccer circles, particularly for countries bidding on world events. Rather than spend billions on dozens of World Cup facilities, build what you need and keep only that which you want to keep after the event.

In theory, the temporary grandstands at MSF were a crude form of a modular stadium. "Georgetown had the idea in motion to build a multi purpose stadium on campus and initially thought that their need would be for a two season rental of our Ultimate seating," wrote the 2006 press release at Seatingsolutions.com. "When the larger project stalled, the University then purchased the Ultimate bench seating system... and the three press boxes with the intent to move the entire modular system to various sports fields on campus once the new stadium is built."

But the technology is so much more developed than 2005. So it was with some interest that I read about the efforts un Vancouver, BC to solve a real problem with facilities.

In 2010-11, Vancouver will be converting its downtown domed stadium, BC Place, from a inflatable roof to a retractable one, which moved the Lions (CFL) and the Whitecaps (MLS) out of the building for a season. With no good options anywhere nearby to handle such crowds, an RFP was posted for what they were looking for:

"Pavco, the crown corporation responsible for BC Place, is seeking proposals for the construction of temporary grandstands to facilitate the formation of a stadium suitable for the playing of Canadian football or soccer. Specific requirements are:
- Capacity of 30,000 to 32,000 with at least 75% of the seats covered
- Individual and seating preferred (to at least 85% of capacity)
- Other facilities required include:
- 24 private boxes
- Media facilities (press box)
- Broadcast boxes"

The winning bid was a European company called Nussli AG, and I'll share three amazing numbers from their bid:

• Capacity: 27,500 seats
• Cost: $14.5 million
• Construction time: 111 days

OK, it's not BC Place, but it's not a half-bleacher across from Harbin Hall, either. Take a look at the photos below (courtesy the Nussli site) and ask yourself: do we wait another 10 years for the MSF, or get something in the ground sooner? If $14.5 million bought all this, what would a 7,500 or 10,000 seat facility cost?



And what's a 111 day construction schedule? To meet a September 1 deadline, it would have to start by what, May 13? Amazing.

"The temporary stadium matches the quality of a permanently built stadium in many respects," reads the Nussli web site. "In time for the BC Lions to host their first home game of the 2010 CFL season, Nussli has concluded construction of the Empire Fields temporary football and soccer stadium in only three month[s] time. Capacity is 27,500 seats, including two roofed main grandstands and twelve VIP suites. 20,500 seats have been equipped with seat shells, 7,000 with bench seating for the balance. The Nussli contract also included responsibility for supplying complete power supply systems, flood and area lighting, stadium and emergency lighting, the sound system, and the construction of a VIP zone with turnkey suites, media and press rooms, as well as the installation of external cladding...The timeframe for construction of this stadium is unprecedented in the history of modular construction in North America."

Ok, It's a discussion starter, nothing more. But if the MSF falls behind yet another project (or two), someone is going to ask the question, "What's the point?" We can't let it come to that.

So if there's not much to see in Hilltop Football this time of year, know that there is still plenty to do. This is the challenge that faces Bruce Simmons and the Gridiron Club, and I look forward to their efforts.