I'm very hopeful that with an expanded revenue base we'll be spending more on existing sports. I'm ok with it if we don't add another sport for a while. The only one I'd really consider in the short-term would be to bring back Men's Tennis if we are able to secure the indoor facilities that are needed to bring Women's Tennis up to being a nationally competitive program.
I look at UT as the model. Their focus was on leveraging football revenue to bring everything else up. Following that model, we need to put all the resources at our disposal to maximizing the revenue generators at CU - football and men's basketball. Give those sports everything on Embree's and Boyle's wish lists.
1. Put more resources into skiing, cross country and track & field. These are sports that CU is already among the elites in the nation. Solidify and expand that. Don't rest on our laurels, because we've often been doing more with "less" due to our built-in advantages. Instead, let's do more with "as much or more" and utterly dominate skiing and distance events while being relevant in other T&F events we don't regularly compete in or consistently have top athletes in. Our indoor T&F should benefit from the Folsom expansion & renovation project that will replace Balch with a new facility that impresses.
2. Focus on our women's court sports while continuing the support of the golf programs. Supporting men's basketball automatically supports women's basketball and women's volleyball. But they should have their own dedicated trainer and the recruiting & marketing budgets to get them to championship level. Golf, with the addition of a home course and the expansion projects in progress with that to give the programs first-class indoor practice opportunities in inclement weather, this should only build upon the success we saw this year when the women were a top 15 program and made the NCAAs for the first time. The men's team has a proud history, with 2 US Open winners among our former players. Make this elite.
3. Next, we've got our women's field sports: soccer and the new lacrosse program. We need to give them the training facilities and budgets to build the programs. We can be nationally ranked in these programs with the right commitment.
4. Finally, there's tennis. I don't believe that it's going anywhere until we have the facilities and the facilities we need cost money. Bring back men's tennis and make this commitment. Do something similar to what was done with golf. We need a home at a tennis club in partnership with our programs so that we can practice and host tournaments in inclement weather.
One of the big keys to all of this is development of the South Campus. With the East Campus going through a $1.5 billion project for new academic buildings, Potts (T&F) and Prentup (Soccer & LAX) will need to be relocated. The South Campus is the site to make this happen. Tennis is already there for its outdoor courts along with the XC courses (which we could also improve). South Campus needs to become the hub for CU olympic sports.
Once all this is done and we have the resources to be great at what we currently do, then let's talk about things like baseball/softball, men's lacrosse, men's soccer, women's rowing, wrestling, swimming & diving, gymnastics or whatever... and expand sensibly with what makes sense.
/end rant
Congrats, Shalaya!
:goldcup: