When Budgets Are Tight, Subsidies for Sports Are a Harder Sell

College officials in Tennessee and Alabama seek end to general-fund support for athletics

Each year, for as long as they can remember, officials of the athletics department at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga have known that ticket sales and concession revenues would not balance their budget. But they never had to sweat: The university would chip in enough of its own general funds -- $2.6-million last year -- to stem the flow of red ink. Even so, the sports program

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