Gazette Article part 4
- Thread starter busabus114
- Start date
No doubt that the bb program has been the red-headed stepchild of major sports at Iowa the last 15 years at least. Of course,if there were limited resources,it is hard to argue that they should not be put into the big bread-winner, as long as they are successful as football has been. I think the crucial time was after we won the BTT in 2001...donors still liked SA,fans were fired up, but,it happened to coincide with the Kinnick redux and the rest is history...timing is everything in life.
busabus114
Well-Known Member
This Gazette series is depressing
tweeterhawk
Well-Known Member
Disagree. To this outsider it was illuminating to see the numbers on the investments in other sports relative to basketball. I'm also left with a number of questions about use of CHA and whether some of the non-revenue producing programs couldn't be accomodated elsewhere.
The Athletics Department has clearly dropped the ball on basketball. As much as I hate to agree with Alford on anything, I am beginning to think he's correct that Iowa is a football school, at least as far as where the money was spent before and during his time there ... and afterwards. We're 30 points down and playing catch-up.
The problems run much deeper than the current coach, his style of play, ability to recruit, lack of connection with the fanbase, etc.
busabus114
Well-Known Member
I guess i was saying it wasnt groundbreaking because Ive seen all the numbers many times before, and the money spent on football is always going to be greater than basketball for obvious reasons
tweeterhawk
Well-Known Member
I learned something...
I was under the impression that they built the rowing house almost entirely from private donations from a women who said the money could only be used for rowing. The article states that the women donor only gave 1 million towards a building that cost 7.5 million.
I don't know if it was Barta or Bowlsby that approved this but they literally should be kicked in the nuts until they pass out. Rowing already costs the University 1.8 million dollars annually (scholarships, coach salary and travel). There is not one highschool rowing program within 1,000 miles of Iowa. The vast majority of girls on scholarship never have even rowed for fun (I knew several). Yet we spend 6.5 million on this sport while completely neglecting 6 others (including three other women's sports) that Iowa fans actually care about and have Iowa highschool athletes competing in them.
This is so dumb it is hard to comprehend.
I was under the impression that they built the rowing house almost entirely from private donations from a women who said the money could only be used for rowing. The article states that the women donor only gave 1 million towards a building that cost 7.5 million.
I don't know if it was Barta or Bowlsby that approved this but they literally should be kicked in the nuts until they pass out. Rowing already costs the University 1.8 million dollars annually (scholarships, coach salary and travel). There is not one highschool rowing program within 1,000 miles of Iowa. The vast majority of girls on scholarship never have even rowed for fun (I knew several). Yet we spend 6.5 million on this sport while completely neglecting 6 others (including three other women's sports) that Iowa fans actually care about and have Iowa highschool athletes competing in them.
This is so dumb it is hard to comprehend.
busabus114
Well-Known Member
NewMexHawk
Well-Known Member
I also know a woman who used to be on the team. Was from out of state...read an add wanting women to "compete" for the team. Showed up, had never rowed in her life and earned a full scholarship.
tweeterhawk
Well-Known Member
Perhaps the rowing team be pressed into water taxi service the next time the river floods campus.
Re: I learned something...
I understand Title IX requires that you spend equal amount on scholarships but this building is just dumb administration. Title IX does NOT say that you spend equal amount on facilities (otherwise no school in the county could have a nice football facility or stadium). If I was AD I would have either built a rowing facilty for the amount of the donation or I wouldn't have built the facility and said no thank you on the donation. By accepting the one million dollars this women offered, the AD cost the athletic department 6.5 million. The athletic budget only has so much money it can invest into facilities so by doing this the AD tied up 6.5 million into a rowing facility. I bet the reason it took so long to raise the capitol for the Carver renovation was this 6.5 million already wasted.
I think it turns out that Alford was wrong...apparently we are a football AND rowing school.
I understand Title IX requires that you spend equal amount on scholarships but this building is just dumb administration. Title IX does NOT say that you spend equal amount on facilities (otherwise no school in the county could have a nice football facility or stadium). If I was AD I would have either built a rowing facilty for the amount of the donation or I wouldn't have built the facility and said no thank you on the donation. By accepting the one million dollars this women offered, the AD cost the athletic department 6.5 million. The athletic budget only has so much money it can invest into facilities so by doing this the AD tied up 6.5 million into a rowing facility. I bet the reason it took so long to raise the capitol for the Carver renovation was this 6.5 million already wasted.
I think it turns out that Alford was wrong...apparently we are a football AND rowing school.
olivecourt
Well-Known Member
the problem with rowing is that if we cut it we have to cut a men's sport-- probably baseball or swimming. right now iowa offers a team in every sport that competes for a big ten championship except for men's soccer.
compare this to iowa state-- they have six men's teams and ten women's teams. six-- that's it: no baseball, no soccer, no swimming... all sports that are very popular in iowa high schools.
iowa has nine men's teams and twelve women's teams. we can complain about the BS scholarships given to women's rowers (and those stories are certainly true), but without those scholarships we'd probably have seven men's teams. it's one of those crappy situations that i actually think the administration is handling pretty well.
and yes, the boathouse was expensive, but they got a sizeable chunk of private funds and at least now they can try to make rowing a legitimate sport so it isn't such a joke.... i used to watch the team have to pull rowing machines out of a garage and set them up on a public patio next to the IMU, where they would then work out for a 1-2 hours. that was their "training facility"-- a chunk of cement next to the river.
and to those who say it makes no sense to have a rowing team in iowa, i mean, at least we've got a river coming through campus! it makes more sense than our other options. we could add women's hockey, i guess, but where would they practice? the coralville mall? how about a ski team that practices at fun valley?
compare this to iowa state-- they have six men's teams and ten women's teams. six-- that's it: no baseball, no soccer, no swimming... all sports that are very popular in iowa high schools.
iowa has nine men's teams and twelve women's teams. we can complain about the BS scholarships given to women's rowers (and those stories are certainly true), but without those scholarships we'd probably have seven men's teams. it's one of those crappy situations that i actually think the administration is handling pretty well.
and yes, the boathouse was expensive, but they got a sizeable chunk of private funds and at least now they can try to make rowing a legitimate sport so it isn't such a joke.... i used to watch the team have to pull rowing machines out of a garage and set them up on a public patio next to the IMU, where they would then work out for a 1-2 hours. that was their "training facility"-- a chunk of cement next to the river.
and to those who say it makes no sense to have a rowing team in iowa, i mean, at least we've got a river coming through campus! it makes more sense than our other options. we could add women's hockey, i guess, but where would they practice? the coralville mall? how about a ski team that practices at fun valley?
