Football feasibility study for Wichita State released

Posted June 28, 2016 7:00 am

The Associated Press

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - Wichita State University has released a feasibility study for reviving the school's football program, detailing startup costs of more than 40 million and annual football budgets that start around $6 million.

The school originally dropped its football program in 1986.

Interim athletic director Darron Boatright is expected to discuss the report, which was released Tuesday, The Wichita Eagle (http://bit.ly/28ZSsq9 ) reports.

According to the study, expenses for the first season of FCS football would be $5.8 million and would rise to $6.5 million for the second season. Salaries for coaches would account for $1 million of that $6.5 million total.

The report projects revenue of $1.2 million by the fifth year.

For FBS football, costs would increase from over $585,000 at the start of the program to $10.5 million five years later. Salary for coaches would account for $2.5 million of that program's fifth-year budget, with revenue projected to be $2.5 million by the fifth year.

The study also cited a report done by GLMV Architecture that estimates costs of $21 million to $28 million for improvements at Cessna Stadium and $21 million for a practice facility. The stadium would get a new press box, suites, artificial turf, a new scoreboard with video, lights, four elevators and a new concourse under the improvement plans.

According to the study, the school would likely need to add one or more women's sports to satisfy Title IX, a law enacted to ensure gender discrimination protections at publicly-funded schools.

"The addition of from 100 to 120 male student-athletes will of course change considerably the female to male ratios of the current student-athlete population," the report states. "The addition of that number of males will likely necessitate the addition of one or more additional women's intercollegiate sports in the future. This will require further study and a definitive strategic plan."

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Information from: The Wichita (Kan.) Eagle, http://www.kansas.com

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