September 28, 2009
Debt Loads Weigh Heavily on Athletics Programs
Planned in boom years, costly facilities now burden bottom lines
John Biever, Sports Illustrated, Getty Images
The Oklahoma State U. athletics department had to borrow $38-million from the university to complete a stadium project after a donation from T. Boone Pickens (foreground) fell in value during the recession.
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John Biever, Sports Illustrated, Getty Images
The Oklahoma State U. athletics department had to borrow $38-million from the university to complete a stadium project after a donation from T. Boone Pickens (foreground) fell in value during the recession.
Swank new practice facilities and 100-acre athletics villages may be magnetic recruiting tools, but they can be awfully rough on a balance sheet.
That is what some athletics departments have learned as they grapple with the bills from costly projects conceived in flush times.
Like eager homeowners living beyond their means, athletics programs were swept up in the recent boom. From 2003 to 2008, the largest departments raised nearly $4-billion in private donations to finance
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