Baron Settlement $1.1M

[rodfromcranston]

If you have cancer, you remove it, and hope it's cured.
What is the reasoning behind losing 2.5 million a year in such futility?
It "hurt to think basketball is our marquee program".??? Too bad. It is. Deal with it.
If we could spend some of that on the basketball program, and go to the NCAA
every couple of years, maybe win a game or two, it would pay for itself.
What is the football program ever going to do but lose and bleed money?
North Dakota State? We should be that good at football, in our dreams!
They play in an 18,000 seat dome, and have a very successful MVC program.

[section(105)]

I recall President Dooley saying(at conclusion of the disaster season), that if football was "fixable" it would be continued. He was lead to believe by Athletics?? it was "fixable"......I don't agree. Now that we/ve committed to stay in the current league.....what's the options?? Thorr is a football guy right? His main goal was to fix football??

[Keaney.Blue]

One more point - New England doesn't care about college football. Name the best programs in NE - UConn, BC, and a few Ivies? Nobody cares!

I'm all for continuing sports and giving local kids a chance to play at their state university, but only if it makes sense. In this fiscal environment it just doesn't make sense to have sports like football, men's swimming, field hockey, and gymnastics. The university has limited resources, and unfortunately tough decisions have to be made.

I enjoy going to homecoming football games as much as the next alumnus, but it's not worth a sizable portion of URI's athletic budget.

[rodfromcranston]

I think javelin catching could be a money making sport.
Maybe we should suggest it to Thorr?

[rambone 78]

If we drop football, I know all the money spent on it won't magically go into the BB coffers. But enough would be there to not only improve the BB facilities, but bring back gymnastics and a couple of other sports.

Yeah no football, but otherwise a stronger and healthier athletic dept. One that might even MAKE some money for the university, now that's a novel concept!

[STC]

Ugh what a country where Baron can walk away with 1.1 mil. I know he signed a contract and URI must live up to it but I can't help but wonder where this program would be if they had made a better head coaching hire back in the day.

Hurley has inherited a really beaten down program and fanbase but I can't wait for the days when the Ryan Center is packed again and they actually beat a top 25 team.

[reef]

Canisius won tonight boo !!!

[SGreenwell]

URI is a bottom feeder in the second tier of D1 football. Our facilities are at D3 levels, and alumni interest in the sport is flagging at BEST.

And let's consider a best case scenario for URI football - we upgrade facilities, improve recruitment, and become a solid contender in the CAA. Attendance could be 5000 - 6000 per game. Is that worth millions in investments?

That $2.5 million/year could've been used for better facilities for our marquee program which would've put us in a much better position in this conference realignment. Let's be honest with ourselves - URI basketball is the face of our athletics department and that will not change. Let's drop an obviously failing sport (much like we did gymnastics and men's swimming in 2007) and use the saved resources on our successful endeavors like baseball and basketball.

I think there is something to the idea that, while you might not ever make money on certain programs, at least some investment in them would prevent them from being crippling loss leaders. For example, I think a study I once read suggested that schools could get a lot of bang for their buck by investing in women's basketball - not because the sport was inherently popular or anything, but that the best coaches weren't that compensated, meaning it was easy to improve from a horrible program drawing 500 fans a game to something at least respectable.

For similar reasons, it would be nice if URI looked into just doing a nice, big, multi-purpose stadium with a good synthetic field and great stands. Just run everything on it, line it for every sport, invite high school teams to play there - whatever.

[Captainron@]

I think javelin catching could be a money making sport.
Maybe we should suggest it to Thorr?

I'd pay to watch that. Especially if we used politicians as the catchers. No pads....

[Hal Kopp]

If you guys think football were cut the $$ would be reinvested wisely,you don't know RI or URI.
There was 5000 for HC and 6600 for FD attendance this year. Plenty of young people there. What was the combined attendance for all sports,all games except Mens BB?

[section(105)]

If the high schools played football at Meade now, or in the future at some new and improved facility, they would probably be expected to pay a fee.......

[rodfromcranston]

I'd pay good money to see Missing Linc Chafee on the Javelin Catching team.
And the entire State Legislature.
Yes, this could be a money maker!