Freshman Lucas Hagerty makes the case for giving GW a football team. After all, we once had a team, and:
“GW is a vastly different school now than it was when we last had a football team. We have better facilities, better academics and a better reputation. What we don’t have that the old commuter-school GW had, though, is a football team. It doesn’t have to be Division I, but if we all get excited enough about this, we could pull off lower-division team.”
Read the full column here.
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It will never happen theat GW will ever get a football team. One of the reasons was because the school was paid to do away with the football team after there was an accident with it.
Also look at the economics. GW would never even fill a quarter of RFK. The rental expense of the building would vastly be higher then the amount of income GW could raise. While it would be nice it will never happen.
Lucas, I have completed some extensive research on this topic for a former university. The lowest NCAA class level GW can compete in is NCAA-IAA or Subdivision. The university would compete against universities like Richmond, Towson, Delaware, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Villanova and Appalachian State University.
The average operational cost for a Division IAA football program is $4.5 million. This includes all coach salaries, travel, equipment, insurance, scholarships,security, trainers, medical staff, etc.
The university needs two facilities. A primary facility to practice and a facility to play official games. You can estimate the facility rental to average around $300,000 per season.
You’ll need to be a member of a recognized NCAA conference. In all probability the CAA is best. Be prepared to write a hefty check to join your fellow football playing partners.
Football will add 65 more male scholarships to the athletic department. In all probability this will create an NCAA gender equity problem. Therefore you’ll need to add a few women’s sports with an equal number of athletic scholarships, coaching staff and practice and playing space. Estimate around $3 million to achieve gender balance.
NCAA IAA generates little money for the university. Average paid attendance is 5,000; no television revenue, no radio revenue; no corporate sponsorship revenue. More money leaving than incoming.
Ask yourself, would you pay to watch a low level, low quality, low performing and sometime winning football team?
Next college football season attend a few Howard University football games. This is the level GW would need to compete against. Write a column on your experience and lets us know if football is still in GW’s future.
Thanks.
Let’s try to support the teams we do have before we go asking for more. Our men’s and women’s basketball teams need fans at their games. What makes you think football would change GW students’ lack of support for our current sports teams? Let’s not spread ourselves too thin.