Friday, October 29, 2010

Denver athletic department is losing 7 million a year.

Wow! I found this article in the Denver Post this morning when I was conducting a visual recon of the opposition’s newspaper and I must say; that is a lot of money.
The Denver Post --- Despite having one of the country's premier hockey programs, the University of Denver athletic department is operating on an annual budget deficit of more than $7 million. The massive shortfall is the result of the school's pledge to remain in NCAA Division I in all sports, as well as its effort to upgrade its struggling men's basketball program.

Athletic director Peg Bradley-Doppes said there has been no discussion about Denver returning to Division II in its core sports.

"I believe the chancellor and the board feel very, very, very good about the direction of our program, and confident in the direction of the program," she said in a recent interview. "This university takes pride in that we educate student-athletes. . . . There is no quick fix here."

According to documents obtained by The Denver Post, the DU athletic program lost more than $22 million during a three-year period ending June 30, 2007, the deficits growing from $7.1 million to $7.8 million in the third year. DU is a private school and would not make its recent budgets available.