AMHERST -- For generations, the University of MassachusettsMarching Band has rallied students before the football team's homegames by parading through campus, horns wailing, flags spinning,drumline popping.
No longer. The tradition will end Saturday morning when theband's 350 musicians board a convoy of motor coaches for a two-hourtrek to the school's home opener -- at Gillette Stadium.
The journey to Foxborough, by far the longest commute to a homegame in American college sports, will signal a turning point in the130-year history of UMass football -- a test of whether relocatingthe school's home games to an NFL stadium nearly 100 miles away andinvesting millions of dollars to try to catapult the state'sflagship university into the gilded realm of big-time collegefootball is visionary management or a misguided gamble.
The fact is, no one foresees a financial bonanza anytime soon.Amid the turbulent currents of major college football, UMass leadershave crafted a blueprint for the upgrade that aims to limit therisks of a potential failure but offers little promise of asignificant payoff through at least 2020, according to a Globereview.
Any notion of UMass joining Boston College and the University ofConnecticut in the rarefied ranks of big-time college football willhave to wait. Amid the funding crunch in higher education, UMass hasembraced a humbler goal: reducing its annual investment in football.
'I hope people see this as a balanced, modest approach,' said newUMass Amherst chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy, whose predecessor,Robert Holub, spearheaded the upgrade. 'We really are managing tokeep our eyes on the downside, and we will under no circumstancessacrifice academics for the sake of moving up in football.'
UMass football has long relied heavily on school funding. Nearlytwo-thirds of the team's budget this year -- $4.2 million of the$6.5 million total -- will be derived from institutional support,including student fees and a direct subsidy.
Yet little is expected to change, at least for many years. Theuniversity's plan for the upgrade forecasts no reduction in thefootball subsidy until 2016, when it would drop by only $3,000.After that, the school plans to incrementally cut its footballinvestment each year until 2020, when it would decline by $475,000 -- still a nominal amount considering the total football budget isprojected to top $9.3 million by then.
Worse, critics say, the budget projections do not include $30million the university system has borrowed to construct a footballtraining facility and renovate the outdated McGuirk Alumni Stadiumon campus for possible future use. Because the debt service on theproject will total $1.8 million annually for 30 years, the programeffectively could continue losing money far beyond 2020, campuscritics contend.
'The difference between the actual costs of running the footballprogram and its revenue is millions of dollars, and it's going toget worse,' said Max Page, an architecture and history professor whoco-chairs the Faculty Senate's ad hoc committee on the cost of thefootball upgrade.
University leaders said they plan to defray the building coststhrough fund-raising and will adjust the football budget ifnecessary to ensure the subsidy does not increase.
'If things work out very differently than planned, we will takeanother look and see if this is the right thing to do,' Subbaswamysaid. 'But right now I'm very comfortable with where we are.'
He said the university's spending on athletics is less than 4percent of the school's total budget.
'The way we are approaching this is completely consistent withthe scale of the role of athletics in our lives,' Subbaswamy said.'We are committed to making this work, and we think we can do itresponsibly, without putting the university at risk.'
Beyond reducing the subsidy, university leaders hope toreinvigorate alumni, enhance fund-raising, boost the university'snational prestige, and position the school to one day cash in on thecascade of big money that now flows to a small circle of elitecollege programs. UMass leaders yearn for the kind of nationalrecognition the university commanded when the basketball teamadvanced to the Final Four under John Calipari in 1996 -- anachievement later tarnished by scandal.
At worst, the football team will return to Amherst amid finger-pointing and questions about its future value on campus.
The Minutemen opened their season Aug. 30 with a 37-0 loss atUConn.
'If they do things the right way and win football games, thiscould have an enormous impact, as it has at the University ofMichigan and Florida,' said Matt Carlin, who championed the upgradeas chairman of the athletic committee for the UMass board oftrustees before his term ended in 2010. 'But the truth is, it couldgo in a couple of different directions. The jury is out.'
The Gillette deal
After years of success in the second-tier Football ChampionshipSubdivision (formerly Division 1-AA), UMass decided to join the top-flight Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division 1-A) partlybecause school officials believed the team's affiliation with theColonial Athletic Conference would grow costlier amid a membershipshuffle. The decision posed two crucial challenges: playing homegames on a larger stage than the 17,000-seat campus stadium andjoining a suitable FBS conference.
By opting for Gillette, UMass deferred a debate over financing anew stadium -- a project that would cost hundreds of millions ofdollars, including road improvements -- and negotiated a deal thatprovides the school financial safeguards in case of poor attendancein Foxborough. In exchange, the school granted the Kraft family, thestadium's owners, a greater share of the revenues if tickets sellwell.
'If there turns out to be a lukewarm reception in the next fewyears, then the university doesn't have much of a risk,' said JamesKaram, a UMass trustee who was chairman of the board when itendorsed the upgrade. 'That gave us a great opportunity toexperiment with this.'
Under the five-year agreement, the Krafts will control ticket,concession, and merchandise sales, and equally split with UMass thefirst $300,000 in ticket revenues per game. The Krafts then willretain the amount above $300,000 to cover their costs of staffingand operating the stadium, an estimated $125,000 per game. Shouldadditional ticket revenue exist, UMass and the Krafts would split itevenly.
The arrangement effectively guarantees the university will earnat least $150,000 per home game, even if attendance lags, becausethe school will not be liable for operating expenses. But thegreater the attendance exceeds about 21,000, the more the Kraftswill gain than they would have under a standard lease agreement,according to UMass officials.
'If we have great success, then obviously we traded some thingsoff,' athletic director John McCutcheon said. 'But we wanted thecomfort level at the low end.'
The deal requires UMass to play all its home games at Gillette in2012 and '13, then play at least four games a year there through2016.
'We need a venue we can recruit the best players in America to,'the team's new coach, Charley Molnar, said in a news conference.'Playing at Gillette is a perfect piece of the puzzle.'
Conference call
Finding another piece proved more problematic. Stymied in tryingto align with the richest FBS conferences, UMass settled for paying$500,000 to join the Mid-American Athletic Conference, a lower-level FBS affiliate with a small television contract and littlenational exposure.
Unlike New England's other FBS teams, BC and UConn, whosefootball teams turn a profit, UMass chose a formula that, analystssay, could be a losing proposition.
'I wish them luck, but I just don't see how it workscompetitively, financially, or educationally,' said AndrewZimbalist, a Smith College professor who is one of the nation'sleading sports economists and has consulted for the NCAA.
'I hope I'm wrong, but it seems like kind of a farce.'
By all accounts, the key to cashing in on college football isjoining one of the six major FBS conferences that automaticallyqualify for championship bowls and command lavish televisioncontracts. BC did so with the Atlantic Coast Conference, UConn withthe Big East.
While BC reaps a reported $17 million a year from the ACC'stelevision deal, for example, UMass stands to gain about $75,000 ayear in MAC television revenue.
UMass officials said they lack the major funding BC and UConnreceived to build profitable football programs. As a result, theirbest hope is building the Minutemen into a regional power worthy ofjoining a big-money conference.
'That's got to be the goal,' Karam said. 'Ultimately, it's aboutTV revenue.'
Karam, an appointee of former Gov. Jane Swift, joined several offormer Gov. Mitt Romney's appointees, including Carlin, in providingimpetus for the upgrade. Ultimately, the full board, including Gov.Deval Patrick's appointees, endorsed the plan.
The board's new chairman, Henry Thomas 3d, said the trusteesvetted the proposal and deemed it a 'sound and reasonable' effort toburnish the university's stature.
'As a highly regarded flagship university, you want to operate ata level of excellence in everything you do,' said Thomas, a Patrickappointee who played football at American International College inSpringfield. 'Taking the program to an FBS level is a necessaryinnovation to bring the university the kind of exposure that createscollateral benefits as they relate to the brand and studentrecruitment.'
Thomas cited BC's blossoming from a regional school to a magnetfor students nationwide after Doug Flutie's Hail Mary touchdown passlifted the underdog Eagles over Miami on national television in1984.
Costs of doing business
To sell the upgrade, UMass is spending about $550,000 inadvertising, aimed both at its 400,000 alumni in Massachusetts and abroader audience of males 25-54 in the Boston, Providence,Worcester, and Springfield markets. But ticket sales have beensluggish, despite the promise of free parking at Gillette.
To date, season ticket sales have topped out at about 2,200,compared with about 2,000 last year at McGuirk. And total sales forthe home opener have yet to top 11,000.
Attendance last year for the Minutemen's home opener on campus,against Rhode Island, was 11,167. School officials in recent monthshave projected ticket sales for Saturday's home opener at 20,000-35,000.
Under the Gillette deal, UMass receives six luxury suites, thelargest of which the school will use for corporate sponsors (theuniversity has sold about $300,000 in football sponsorships, similarto last year's total). Three suites will be reserved for thechancellor, the president of the university system, and the opposingteam. Of the remaining two, one has sold for $25,000, and the otherremains available.
Perhaps the football team's greatest revenue source, however, isthe guaranteed payments the school will receive from FBS teamstrying to fill their home schedules with nonconference opponents. Inall, UMass has signed guarantees for more than $7 million through2019, including $1 million to play at Notre Dame in 2015 and $1.25million to visit Florida in 2016.
On Aug. 30, the Minutemen received $225,000 to play at UConn.However, they will pass much of that along when they pay Indiana$200,000 to visit Gillette for the home opener.
UMass entered the season as a competitive underdog, having beenpicked to finish last in its MAC division. Still, the players andrecruits have embraced the challenge of competing in the FBS andplaying for Molnar, the former offensive coordinator at Notre Dame.
Molnar will be paid $250,000 annually, plus a $25,000 carallowance; $25,000 for speaking and media appearances; up to$125,000 in bonuses for the team's on-field achievements; as much as$12,500 in bonuses for the team's academic performance; and 10percent of the revenue from guarantee games, up to $100,000 a year.
Notable among his first recruits is Sam Zeff, a 6-foot-5-inch,275-pound lineman for Montclair (N.J.) High School. Zeff receivedscholarship offers from seven other schools, including UConn.
'What set UMass apart for me was that I could be part ofsomething new and really leave my mark on the program,' Zeff said.'To be able to look back and see this team winning games and say Ihelped them get there, that was much more important to me than beingin a program that already is nationally known.'
Divisions on campus
As for UMass students, no one expects them to flock toFoxborough; they rarely turned out en masse at McGuirk. Admission toGillette is free for students (they pay a $401 annual athletic fee),and the school is offering round-trip bus transportation, plus acookout, for $10. Yet administrators expect only about 10 percent ofthe school's 20,000 undergraduate students to attend the Indianagame.
Student government president Akshay Kapoor said studentsgenerally are excited about the upgrade. But he expressed a commonconcern about its economic impact.
'In a time when the campus has been overhauling our academicclassrooms and buildings, and the need is still ever strong toupdate academic infrastructure, I think the increased cost of havingsuch a program should not have fallen on the backs of students andthe state, but rather from the capital derived from the athleticprogram itself,' Kapoor said.
Much of the faculty harbors similar reservations. Ernest May,head of the Faculty Senate, said his colleagues are 'quite divided'over the initiative.
'I regard the move as a big challenge to the alumni,' May said.'If they don't come out and make this successful, I'm not sure theprogram can survive.'
McCutcheon said he expects the alumni's relatively restrainedgiving to football in recent years to improve. One donor already hascommitted $500,000, he said, and the university hopes to raise $8million-$10 million in the next five years to support football-related construction.
Bill DeFlavio, a UMass Hall of Famer who was an All-Americanlineman in 1971 and heads the Friends of UMass Football, said he isexcited about the move. But the challenge of raising money anddrawing crowds to Gillette would be easier, he said, if UMass wereplaying in a higher-profile conference.
DeFlavio said it may be difficult persuading fans to follow theMinuteman if they are losing to lesser-known MAC opponents such asKent State and Miami of Ohio.
'Is it a risk? Sure,' DeFlavio said of the upgrade. 'But if wecan build a good winning record, people will go and they will give.'
By moving up a division, UMass can increase the number offootball scholarships it awards to 85 from 63. Under gender equityrules, the school also must fund an additional 22 athleticscholarships for women, which will benefit every women's sport thathas not already reached its scholarship limit, McCutcheon said.Football revenues will pay for the additional women's scholarships.
As for the marching band, the upgrade means the musicians willperform at fewer road games because of the travel expenses toGillette. It also means that everyone from the drum majors to thesousaphonists will be wondering, along with the rest of the UMasscommunity, how the experiment will unfold.
'All of us are excited about the challenges, but we're alsoanxious,' Anderson said. 'We're interested to see how it goes.'
Bob Hohler can be reached at hohler@globe.com.
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