Monday, May 31, 2010

“Men’s gymnastics a target for college athletics cutbacks” plus 1 more

“Men’s gymnastics a target for college athletics cutbacks” plus 1 more

Men’s gymnastics a target for college athletics cutbacks

Posted: 31 May 2010 06:53 AM PDT

Message from Five Filters: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it.

Men's gymnastics a target for college athletics cutbacks

Posted on May 31, 2010 by Scott Dochterman.

Iowa's Jacques Bouchar competes in the still rings Friday, April 7, 2006, during the NCAA men's gymnastics championships in Norman, Okla. (AP Photo/Jerry Laizure)

IOWA CITY — Tom Dunn jokes that it will take the rest of his tenure as Iowa's men's gymnastics coach just to clean out his desk.

For 31 years Dunn, 60, led the Hawkeyes, once taking them to a second-place finish at the NCAA championships. He will retire next month, witnessing his sport change dramatically over his tenure. And that's no joking matter.

Since 1988, 49 colleges have dropped men's gymnastics, and just 17 teams compete annually for a combined NCAA title, including one Division III school. It's a sport where expenses soar past revenues, and the combination of gender-equity and economic issues have made it vulnerable on the chopping block.

"We did obviously lose a ton of teams over the 20 years, but recently it hasn't been an epidemic by any means," Dunn said.

"We've kind of stopped the bleeding, but of course the challenge is to add programs. We're working on it, but that's tough, especially in this present economic situation. With gender equity rules, it's hard to add a men's team anywhere."

Federal Title IX legislation mandates public institutions that receive state or federal funding must provide equal scholarship opportunities for men's and women's athletes based on enrollment. Many universities have been required to either add women's sports or cut men's sports. Once a football's 85 scholarships are figured into the balancing act, men's scholarships are quickly dried up. That made men's gymnastics a convenient target.

"While everybody supports the ideals of Title IX and gender equity, the reality is the economic situation has made it a situation where schools have found themselves unable to add," said Dennis McIntyre, men's program director for USA Gymnastics. "The only way they can come into compliance is by dropping programs, which everyone feels is unfortunate.

"The thing we've tried to do, wherever we can, is to help and encourage athletics departments and certainly gymnastics programs to look for ways they can fund themselves and become more self-sufficient."

From 1988 through 1998, 36 men's gymnastics squads were at the NCAA level. Wrestling, track, golf and tennis also were hit hard in that time frame.

In recent years, the problem is economically rooted. Iowa, for instance, has spent more than $2.75 million on men's gymnastics from 2005 through 2009, according to numbers the school submitted to the NCAA. During the same time frame, it earned $151,255 in revenue, but only $7,925 from ticket sales.

Those numbers are similar among their competitors. All six Big Ten schools competing in men's gymnastics spent at least $487,000 in 2008, according to numbers supplied to the U.S. Department of Education. The schools' combined losses — revenues subtracted from expenses — exceed $3.26 million.

"I would tell you nationally, and this is something I've told Tom and said to others, I'm concerned about the sport nationally," Iowa Athletics Director Gary Barta said. "At this point we haven't had any discussions about changing our number of sports at Iowa. But nationally, when you only have 17 teams, certainly you wonder how it's going to do in the long run."

Iowa has advertised its opening to replace Dunn, and Barta said men's gymnastics is "one of our teams."

Most college gymnasts come from private clubs rather than school-sanctioned athletic activities which distorts the public's gauge on interest, McIntyre said. He said boys' participation in private gymnastics clubs is growing, partly because of the Olympic Games.

"That certainly helps to raise the awareness," McIntyre said. "The average age of male gymnasts that make our world and Olympic teams are collegiate-age athlete. There's definitely a heightened look at our college programs during those years and the contributions they make to our Olympic team and our world championship teams.

The Big Ten's threshold for competitive teams is six, which means the sport remains league-sanctioned. The collegiate club movement continues to grow with 84 schools boasting men's club teams, including four Big Ten schools. That gives McIntyre hope for the future if the economy rebounds.

"Many clubs are working to find ways to fund themselves, to make themselves an integral and important contributor to university programs," McIntyre said. "So that in the future, as the situation gets better or warrants, those can become varsity programs. So that's another avenue."

Five Filters featured article: Into the Abyss. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Agreement reached on moving 2 London sports venues

Posted: 26 May 2010 09:05 AM PDT

Message from Five Filters: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it.

LONDON (AP)—An agreement on a change of venue for badminton and rhythmic gymnastics that organizers of the 2012 London Olympics hope will save tens of millions of dollars was reached after months of negotiations.

Olympic organizers said Wednesday the two sports approved of a move to Wembley Arena in north London. They were originally scheduled to compete at a temporary venue in Greenwich near the athletes' village and Olympic Park in east London.

Due to the economic crisis, London organizers decided last year to scrap the temporary facility in a move that will save about $28 million.

"It is sensible during these difficult economic times to make use of an existing and well-established facility," Sports and Olympics Minister Hugh Robertson said. "Wembley Arena will be an excellent venue for fans and participants of both sports."

Officials for the two sports were concerned about the travel time between the athletes' village and Wembley, but organizers have offered to house the athletes in hotels within walking distance of the venue and find ways of shortening the journey.

A preliminary agreement on the move was announced last year, but final approval required ratification by the two sports federations' governing boards.

London organizing committee chairman Sebastian Coe thanked the federations for the change.

"We will now work through all the detailed arrangements with them and Wembley Arena to put on first-class events," he said. "This is a big boost to north London, which will be a hub for the London 2012 Olympics."

The move also was welcomed by the International Olympic Committee.

"(The organizing committee) will be able to advance full steam ahead with its planning," said Denis Oswald, head of the IOC's coordination commission for London.

digg del.icio.us
more

Five Filters featured article: Into the Abyss. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)