"You start talking to businesses and they all want to be tied in to the football team," Bubb said. "Football provides a means of cultivating donors for all our programs."
Were basketball to play more home games and improve its standing among Division I teams, Bubb said, it might be able to replace football in terms of winning major donations.
Football, with its $298,572 budget, compares favorably to other sports at Northridge. Among projected expenditures this school year are $210,411 for men's basketball and $152,819 for baseball, the two other most expensive sports on campus. At the other end of the spectrum, Northridge will spend $35,965 on women's tennis.
Debby De Angelis, Northridge's business manager for athletics, projects this school year's approximate bottom-line costs: $190,000 for football, $110,000 for men's basketball, $120,000 for baseball and $32,000 for women's tennis.
"We would like this university to be the model for what cost-containment football can be," De Angelis said.
The goal is much the same for all Northridge sports. This fall, athletics sustained a 9.2% cut in funding, as did the school's academic departments. To make ends meet, a hiring freeze was placed on 2 1/2 open staff positions within the athletics program. Almost $9,000 budgeted for operations and equipment also was eliminated.
SHAKY FOUNDATION
The Northridge Foundation manages surplus funds generated by such operations as the student bookstore and food services. Athletics' share has increased from $210,000 in 1989-90 to $475,000 this year--more than half of the foundation's distribution of $800,000. An additional $500,000 is promised in each of the next six years.
However, the foundation's 10-year, $4,495,000 commitment to the athletics program is being challenged in some quarters of the school's academic community.
In the past three years, almost half of the foundation money earmarked for athletics has gone toward increasing scholarship levels as Northridge made a transition from Division II competition to the NCAA Division I level in sports other than football. The other portion went to salaries, equipment and other operating expenses.
Last spring, the university's academic senate recommended the foundation reconsider its obligation to the athletics program. A public hearing to gauge support for the current arrangement drew a crowd estimated at 200. Athletes and other supporters of the Northridge program turned out in force and boisterously expressed their opinions.
But the debate continues. More hearings and discussions are expected.
Clendenning warned, "we need to make sure our expenditures are wise and prudent." He said the school's athletics program monopolizes available funds.
Supporters of athletics always have claimed that surplus funds, by the charter of the foundation, cannot be funneled directly to academic programs. But Don Queen, director of the foundation, said surplus funds are available "for whatever purposes the trustees deem necessary."
Queen acknowledged that even an extra $500,000 per year would not come close to curing the campus-wide ills caused by state budget cuts. Conversely, Hiegert said a drastic reduction in foundation funds to athletics would result in athletics making "a reduction in the programs we offer."
The potential for either the elimination or reduction of foundation funds for athletics is menacing enough that school officials have told Hiegert not to sign football contracts that include penalty clauses if games are canceled.
Also, De Angelis, the business manager, was asked last summer to calculate the one-year cost of eliminating football. She said Northridge would spend $278,000 to drop the sport based on commitments for coaching salaries, athletics scholarships and other contract obligations.
Hiegert considers any serious talk of eliminating the sport premature. "This is not the first time people have talked about dropping football here," he said.
THE IMAGE QUESTION
Proponents of football contend that the accomplishments of the team can be tallied in places other than on a balance sheet. They say students benefit from football's social aspect, and the university profits from publicity the team generates in newspapers and on radio.
Northridge, which has an enrollment of 29,000, drew an average of 3,488 spectators to North Campus Stadium this fall for each of its five home games. Subtract a homecoming crowd of 6,217 and the average slips to 2,805. About 1,000 of those per game were students admitted free using school activities cards.
Ron Kopita, vice president of student affairs, acknowledged that such crowds were "a drop in the bucket" compared to those seen on televised games on any given weekend. "But it does show a certain level of commitment by the community to support football," he added.
As for publicity, Northridge football games were broadcast live on KGIL radio. The team also receives regular coverage in the sports sections of Los Angeles' two largest newspapers.
