Monday, September 20, 2010
However, in rare instances, like when an alumni has TBoone Pickens type money, these BCS schools may consider taking the plunge. Take Penn State for example, which recently announced they would be adding varsity Men's and Women's Ice Hockey thanks to a $90 million dollar donation. Why 90 million you may ask? Doesn't that seem a bit high? Well look at it this way. Based on this list, one could expect the combined operational cost for Men's and Women's Ice Hockey programs to be as high as $1.7 million. When taking into consideration new auxiliary costs associated with the creation of these programs (salaries for academic support positions, equipment managers, athletic trainers etc.) let's say an even $2 million to run both programs.
So if the Men's program costs $1 million annually, that program could be fully endowed for $20 million dollars assuming about 5% of endowment assets are used each year. Do the same for the Women and you've got two fully funded potential powerhouse programs, plus $50 million left for a new facility. Now I have no idea of what the actual breakdown of this donation will be, in fact this article implies that only $13 million would be used towards scholarship endowment and the remaining $75 million would go towards a new facility. Either way, what us lacrosse dreamers should take away from this is that to add Men's Lacrosse at a D1 BCS school, it would likely be expected that an alumni (or friends group) would need to contribute significant funds toward program endowment for not only a new men's lacrosse program, but also for a new women's sport as well. In addition, it would likely be expected that significant funds would also be required for facility upgrades, or a new facility altogether. Simple plan no? Let's get fundraising.
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