A crowd of University of Colorado men’s tennis players and supporters pleaded with the school’s regents Monday to spare the program, chopped three weeks ago to help plug a surging deficit.
Since March 23, tennis fans have pledged $311,000 in donations, which would cover almost the team’s $325,000 annual budget.
“Give us some time to help you,” said Bob Bateman, a volunteer CU tennis coach. “Don’t cut us off.”
A few of the nine regents were sympathetic, promising to discuss funding options with athletic director Mike Bohn.
“At least we can give it a try,” Regent Pat Hayes said. “We’re very hopeful that something can be worked out.”
Several of the nine people who asked regents to step in said they thought Bohn already had abandoned the program and was uninterested in their fundraising. Bohn said he could not reinstate the program based on donations that would cover only one year, but would need proof the program could sustain itself for several years.
Bohn cut 12 administrative jobs and the men’s tennis program to save about $1 million. The athletic department ran $1.1 million in the hole last year and is bracing for a predicted $1.7 million deficit this year.
Bohn felt he had no other choice but to slash men’s tennis.
“That was certainly the last thing we wanted to do,” he said. “But we’re also about excellence. With the financial challenges we have, the best way to do that is to shorten our sail.”
CU president Hank Brown said the athletic department is under pressure to reduce the deficit and sustain itself financially.
“Eliminating a sport is heartbreaking,” Brown said. “On the other hand, we have a $2 million deficit.”
Brown said the athletic director and Boulder chancellor Phil DiStefano were “under orders from me to eliminate the deficit. Period.”
The deficit predicted for this fiscal year does not include a $3 million payout to former football coach Gary Barnett, who was fired in December.
Tennis players and supporters told regents they shouldn’t cast off an 80-year-old tradition because of a financial crisis that could last only a few years.
Player Chad Tsuda, a Boulder native who said he dreamed of playing on the CU tennis team as a kid, said future college tennis players shouldn’t have to leave Colorado “because of mismanagement” in the athletic department.
Jennifer Brown can be reached at 303-820-1593 or jenbrown@denverpost.com.
