Football Fundraising To Kick Off This Spring

Pending sufficient financial support, football should get the green light at Old Dominion, and the pieces are starting to fall in place for a Monarch team to take the field in fall 2009.

The university was encouraged by a report in December by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the consulting agency it had retained to conduct a market assessment. And by the time this issue is printed, a formal announcement may be made regarding an agreement with the city of Norfolk about land acquisition, one of the major challenges ODU faced in its football proposal.

“The consultant’s study indicated a wide and strong base of support for football, and we now have an agreement in principle with the city,” President Roseann Runte said in late January. “It’s just a matter of finalizing a legal document. Our Board of Visitors is pleased with the terms of the agreement, which includes space close to campus for crew and soccer, as well as practice fields for football and recreational sports.”

While an ODU football team would play on campus at Foreman Field, extra space is needed for current and future athletic and recreational programs. Should football become a Division I-AA sport, the university would add women’s crew in 2007-08, women’s softball in 2010-11 and women’s volleyball in 2014-15 to meet Title IX requirements. The proposal also calls for the addition of a marching band.

The next hurdle, then, is fundraising, and bringing football back to campus for the first time since 1940 will require broad support from alumni, according to Alonzo Brandon ’85, ODU’s vice president for development.

The university initially said it would need to have a commitment of $8 million in pledges by June 2006. At the December meeting of the Board of Visitors, Brandon said, “I feel comfortable enough to say you’ll get your money, but I wouldn’t say you’ll have it by June.” Based on the 4,000 people – mostly alumni – surveyed by Pricewaterhouse, he predicted the university could receive $3.3 million in up-front gifts.

The balance of the $8 million will be raised primarily via gifts from the alumni population at large, and plans are under way to launch a fundraising campaign this spring. Big Blue Club leaders will be called upon to help go after major gifts, and all alumni will be solicited. Once a football program is in place, the university would need approximately $1.5 million in annual donations to help sustain it, Brandon said. A football program would also be supported by increased student fees, as well as ticket sales, advertising and concessions.

Committees have been formed to look at everything from marketing and parking to seating and uniforms.

Runte, who affirmed her pledge that academic achievement and ethics would not be compromised with the addition of football, said that Old Dominion has retained a consultant to look at the entire athletic program to ensure that all of its teams can “flourish appropriately.”