SSU sports are a net financial gain for the university, according to a sports economist in the bay region, who said that programs reduction could cause loss for the tax campus in difficulty.
Sonoma State University should lose more money than it would save under its deficit plan Axis all of its intercollégiaux School year sports programsAccording to a new report by a sports economist from the Bay region.
Dan Rascher’s study, professor at the University of San Francisco, was prepared in coordination with the Rallying Coalition to save SSU athletics.
Released on Monday, this is the first independent assessment of the statements of SSU administrators that the reduction of 11 sports programs would save $ 3.7 million, or about $ 15% of the dollars deficit that campus leaders are looking to approach through a Controversial cuts of cuts This also eliminates six university departments, nearly two dozen diploma programs and more than 100 jobs of teachers, lessons, staff and coaches.
In the 9 -page report, Rascher sought to answer the question: “The closure of the Athletics Department would have a net financial financial impact on the largest university?”
Read the report here:
His analysis has revealed that athletics in Sonoma is providing a positive net financial gain at university ranging from $ 2.2 million to $ 4.4 million.
“A large part of the SSU financial gain,” he writes, comes from the number of athlete students who do not leave, because their sport would not be eliminated.
“In other words, it is assumed that athletics brings hundreds of athletes to SSU who would not attend … otherwise. The athletics test will transfer these athletes, to an environment in which the decrease in registrations means that this income for tuition fees will not be replaced. ”
Following this point in an interview on Monday, Rascher noted that university athletes – in particular at the level of Division II – “are essentially university customers”.
By getting rid of athletics, “you close the product for which customers come. They will move on.”
The calculations do not include “the impact that athletics has on the increase in applications, registration, retention, graduation rates or donations to non -athletic entities caused by athletics and the media coverage it generates”, according to the study.
The trap in some schools falls, said Rascher, an antitrust litigant who teaches and publishes research on the sports economy and finance, is that “when they think of expenses, they do not always think of income. When you reduce all these expenses, you will lose income, because you will lose students. ”
The elimination of sports programs could lead to a clear financial loss for the university, more of the $ 3.7 million than the temporary president Emily Cutter, Emily Cutter and her management team, say that the college would save by reducing sports.
The state of Sonoma has not provided information on how these savings was calculated, wrote Rascher in the report: “And therefore deeper analyzes are justified here.”
The university later responded Monday in a written statement by SSU spokesperson Jeff Keating.
“The decision to put an end to the athletics of the NCAA was not taken without an in -depth examination of the detailed and complete data, as well as the essential need to balance the interests of all the students of the state of Sonoma,” the statement said.
“The University will examine the document received entirely today. However, our initial assessment is that it is based on selected information and is based on uncertain assumptions.”
The report was facilitated by SSU’s retirement sports director, Bill Fusco, now a member of the auxiliary faculty of the USF sport management program, and submitted to Marcus Ziemer, the long-standing head coach of the male football team and a leading voice in the coalition to save SSU’s sports programs.
Compiling his report, Rascher used data accessible to the public with the National Center on Education Statistics, of the California State University Business and Finance Office and a source at the Sonoma State Athletics Department.
The savings figure advanced by the administration proposing to eliminate intercolllegia sports of SSU has been a key control point since the January announcement of Culler.
“They just launched this issue there,” said Ziemer, a member of Save Seawolves Athletics, the coache group, current and old athlete students and campus supporters who have come together following Culler’s January 22 Announcement of the proposed budget cuts.
Val Verhance, male and female golf coach at SSU, said: “We have not yet seen, and they have produced no kind of documented evidence that supports this issue ($ 3.7 million).”
The Rascher report supports the counterpoint to the coalition that the University will deepen its financial problems by reducing sports, noted green.
“Not only for school but for the community,” he said.
A group of seven students athlete from Sonoma continued university earlier this month Seeking to stop the move to cut all sports. The trial, which appoints Culler and the Chancellor of California State University Mildred Garcia, alleges a “fraudulent conduct”, including violations of procedural requirements to notify the students affected by the unanswered move.
Men’s assistant football assistant Ben Ziemer described the report as “overwhelming”.
The message from Cutter and his cabinet, he said, “has nothing more than” confidence, we have made mathematics at the back of the envelope, these cuts must occur “.
You can reach the staff editor Austin Murphy in Austin.murphy@pressdemocrat.com or on Twitter @ ausmurph88.