The truth behind UNCW’s lack of a football program
April 29, 2013
It seems that the University of North Carolina Wilmington has everything a college student could ask for: the beach, great academic programs such as nursing, film studies, creative writing, education, business, and it has a Costco nearby.
However, UNCW is missing something that 625 other universities have: a football team. Football is one of America’s greatest sports. The Super Bowl, football’s biggest game, holds the record as the most watched event in world history.
So why is UNCW missing this? It’s all about the dollar signs.
Joe Browning has been UNCW’s Senior Associate Athletic Director for 27 years, dealing with communications. He explains that there are many reasons why UNCW doesn’t have a football team, but the primary one is purely finances.
“If you survey everyone in our department, which is 90 employees, all of us would love to have football here,” Browning said. “It’s the most popular sport in America, which makes us feel worse about not having it at this school. To start up a football team the right way, it would probably cost about $50 million. There are a lot of things that people don’t see within the football costs.”
In order to break down the cost to create a football program, the university would have to deal with building a new stadium, practice facilities, supplying equipment, hiring a coaching staff and trainers. So the university will have to deal with all of those salaries and benefits. Equipment alone would cost $250 to $300 per person. There are also the travel expenses if the team wants to go play football at other stadiums during the season. Then there are scholarships. If the school comes in at the FCS level (Division 1AA), that’s supplying 63 scholarships to student athletes.
“Our main goal right now for the athletic department is to fully fund all of our sports here at UNCW,” Browning said. “Right now we can only fully fund men’s and women’s basketball. We would like to fully fund all of our sports before we can add in football.”
UNCW has 19 sports programs, but only three of them are fully funded (the third is baseball). In the CAA, UNCW has the lowest percentage of fully funded teams (16 percent) behind the University of Delaware and 50 percent of their sports programs are fully funded. UNCW also has the lowest athletic budget in the CAA at $10.5 million a year. The next lowest athletic budget in the CAA is Old Dominion University with an estimated $27 million per year and they have a football team. Another small school that just recently added a football team is UNC-Charlotte, but Browning brings up a point that also helps college programs acquire football teams.
“We don’t live in a big corporate area, like Charlotte, so we don’t have that many corporate sponsors to help fund a football program,” Browning said.
The city of Wilmington, NC has a population of roughly 108,300 people. The population of Charlotte, NC is roughly 751,087. Being seven times larger than Wilmington, Charlotte has seven times the revenue coming from corporate sponsors and other big businesses around the metropolitan area. For UNCW’s athletic program, most of their revenue comes from student fees.
“Our money is going to have to come from student fee increases, which I’m sure students don’t want to hear about,” Browning said.
UNCW has the lowest student population in the CAA. This is a problem, because that means the school has the disadvantage of less people to pay for their expenses. When breaking down the athletic budget, student fees make up 77 percent of the revenue sources. Last year, UNCW brought in $4,955,000 from just student fees alone. The next biggest source of revenue was ticket sales from sporting events and that made up $655,000. Basically, the students at UNCW would have to pay more money if they would want a football team.
Ethan Griffith, a sophomore at UNCW, said that he would be willing to pay more for his tuition just so UNCW could have a football team.
“I think having a football team will bring a lot to UNCW that we don’t have now,” Griffith said. “It will help us out in a lot of ways by giving us more notoriety.”
However, Michael Llabona, another sophomore at UNCW, said the opposite.
“I shouldn’t be paying extra money for the school to get a football team,” said Llabona. “All big public projects are paid by bonds which is why they are able to keep additions cheap for the short run. Football programs are very lucrative businesses and they usually pay for themselves in the long run.”
According to a recent poll taken on theseahawk.org, 56 percent of students who took the poll want a football team. However, the athletic department at UNCW has a lot more on their plate. According to UNCW Athletic Director Jimmy Bass, creating a football team is far from being a priority.
“Our priority in the immediate future is to expand our scholarship offerings, improve/expand practice and competition facilities, and increase annual operating budgets for all sports while retaining a very talented coaching staff,” Bass said.
Because of the current economic state, costs are rising for everything, so for every year that UNCW doesn’t create a football program, it will hurt their chances even more.
“There are a lot of positives to having a football program,” Browning said. “But there’s rising costs every day. You go one year without having a football team, your costs of getting one increases. It could cost $50 million right now, but it will probably be somewhere around $60 million in three years, so you’ve got to consider that as well.”
UNCW was founded in 1947, which technically makes it a “young” university. This also has an effect on UNCW’s revenue. Since it is a small and young school, there are not enough alumni to support the school.
“Being a young school is definitely a disadvantage, but it’s not the sole reason why we don’t have a football team,” Browning said. “We don’t have a big alumni base and so we’re not getting as much support as older and bigger schools have.”
Not only does UNCW want a football team, but they also want to have one that will actually compete with other schools.
“You also have to think about how competitive you want to make your team,” Browning said. “We don’t want to start a football program unless we know it’s going to be successful, so money plays a big part in that as well. Our fans don’t want to just see a team, they want to see a team competing.”
The point that Browning brings up will just add more costs to UNCW’s football program. Better coaches want more money and better athletes want more scholarships. So with all of this thrown into the mix, Jimmy Bass estimates that in order to make a fully funded, competitive football program, it would take an initial investment of $300 million. That number is pretty far from UNCW’s financial goals, but Browning is optimistic that UNCW students will get what they want some time in the future.
“I think eventually we will have a football team, maybe not in my lifetime,” Browning said. “I think it’s just a financial hump that this school has got to get over. If there’s enough support out there for it and people want to pay for it, it can get done.”
Jim (1975) • Mar 7, 2023 at 10:47 pm
Should you need confirmation that nobody cares, note that this post is now 13 years old and has generated 8 comments (including this one). That kinda sums it up for UNCW football – the athletic endeavor that uses the funny ball with points on two ends; or, depending on your perspective, the points are found on two sides. Thus, a web search for “UNCW football” is far more likely to provoke a UNCW Soccer hit. (Maybe UNCW should pursue a Hockey team, if it’s hits you’re interested in). Back in the day, Bill Brooks coached Baseball & Basketball, plus handled AD responsibilities. He borrowed a bulldozer and almost single-handedly constructed the current athletic field, including the baseball stadium and a field house. Too bad he didn’t build a football stadium. So, I asked him one day, probably in ’69 or 70 when “we” would have a football team. He replied he had submitted a bid on football gear from a defunct college, but he only had $100K and missed the boat. I have no idea where he got $100K. Wikipedia says Frederick College closed their doors and athletic programs in 1968 (having split from Frederick Military Academy in 1961). So it’s plausible that my recollection is accurate. Browning’s assertion that it would take $50M seems far fetched. NC Wesleyan (Rocky Mount) started a Div III football program in the early 2000’s. Coastal Carolina in Conway sports a competitive athletic program including football (2003) with a smaller enrollment. Charlotte now has football, but gee, they have all that money…. Bill Brooks showed with grit, spirit, determination and FAITH you can accomplish most anything. $50M…. yeah right, Joe. Somebody needs to pick up that funny ball and run with it.
Kevin • Sep 23, 2022 at 11:58 am
There is too much money in Wilmington to not do this. It is no different than building a business which they promote every day in class. Sponsors will purchase rights to the field name, the stadium name, season rights to seats, advertising on the big screen, and all around the stadium. Sale the rights to box seats and the Seahawk club, not to mention ticket sales. The food alone will bring in millions. Lets face it, There is billions of dollars in Wilmington that is waiting for the opportunity to get their name on that stadium somewhere. Banks will lend the money to do this as long as you get those commitments just like building a building like a mall. You do not have to pay for this out of your pocket, get a loan from a bank, plenty of those in Wilmington. The excuse is nothing more than that, an excuse. Doesn’t UNCW teach finance and business?? They can figure this out, they just do not want to do it! They are giving “The dog ate my homework” excuse! Come on UNCW, show everyone you PRACTICE WHAT YOU TEACH!!!
Richard Beacham • Jun 28, 2022 at 4:31 pm
When I attended in 1979-82, we had a club team. I practiced, but never got to play as I never could get off work. We were told tge reason we didn’t have a team then was due to low school enrollment. We asked, “what about ECU they started their team in 1932 with an enrollment of about 1,000… we got no real answer.. we all agreed that we would Furnish our own equipment… had volunteers for coaches…In the Wilmington area… there is a tremendous amount of talent. And everyone knows it draws a huge attendance….
Charles • Jul 19, 2020 at 1:45 pm
I totally agree with Sam on this. I am a student at uncw and also a student at a community college in Jacksonville nc.
On top of everything the coaching staff aspect, there are plenty of coaches out there that would want to start this. Especially coaches that believe it will work, the ones that don’t believe it will work are the ones that always get shocked when it does work. There is always money out there for sponsors, you just need to know how to find them.
Sam • Feb 24, 2020 at 12:45 am
The lack of finances is honestly a bunch of bull. Simply put. Other smaller university’s have football teams and UNCW is in desperate need of one. Take it from a student here living on campus. The other sports programs lack energy and a football team would change all of this! UNCW can throw up buildings, parking decks, charge each student 400+ dollars to park there car, $5000 in dorm fees just for 1 semester, and COUNTLESS of other fees, lets not forget the outrageous $2300 meal plans, and tell me you guys can not afford a football team is beyond me. Someone really needs to do something and it is obviously not the current people in charge. This university needs MAJOR change!
uncw neeeds football • Oct 2, 2019 at 2:36 pm
coastal carolina, old dominion, deleware, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and others with similar demographics all find a way to get it done.
T. Roberti • Jul 13, 2019 at 10:09 pm
Sorry for not being well informed, moved here from Midwest 20years ago. I was always told here that a major benefactor from the area made it clear that their contribution was only good has long has there would never be a football program at the school. Please clear that up for me.
Thank U.
Scot May • Sep 23, 2017 at 5:23 pm
As a former Seahawk (well, I only took a class there during summer), I”m glad the university hasn’t felt the need to jump into the football mania. The medical research that has emerged over the past decade clearly points to the danger of the sport to individuals. If UNCW takes seriously the idea of supporting the development of young adults’ minds and intellect, how can it support a sport that has proven to cause significant brain and bodily injury. Besides, right now UNCW football is undefeated…let’s keep it that way.