New University of Denver lacrosse coach Bill Tierney will be among the highest-paid managers in his sport.
While DU isn’t releasing details of Tierney’s contract, athletic director Peg Bradley-Doppes said his earnings could reach $250,000 including potential income from camps and clinics. ESPN reported on Monday that a $250,000 contract would make Tierney the most highly paid lacrosse coach in the country.
“My guess is that’s certainly possible, and most likely probable, with the success at the camps and clinics he’s had,” Bradley-Doppes said.
Tierney, who begins his new job July 1, led Princeton to six NCAA championships and 10 NCAA Final Fours in 22 years.
His hire comes six months after the layoff of at least 11 DU athletic department personnel and amid continued struggles to make the school’s fully funded basketball programs a financial success. Lacrosse is considered a nonrevenue-producing sport.
Citing school policy, Bradley-Doppes would not disclose what Tierney’s base salary would be, saying only it was competitive for upper-level NCAA Division I lacrosse schools.
“I have a responsibility to hire great leadership for our young men and women, and I can’t think of a better investment than investing in people,” Bradley-Doppes said. “That’s the reason we give scholarships and hire good people.”
Tierney will be paid less than the coaches of revenue-producing sports, basketball and hockey. Based on figures obtained from IRS public disclosure documents, former women’s basketball coach Pam Tanner was the highest-paid DU coach at $374,916 for the 2007-08 fiscal year, while men’s basketball coach Joe Scott made $317,250. George Gwozdecky, the school’s winningest and longest-tenured major-program coach, whose hockey teams captured NCAA championships in 2004 and 2005, made $355,356.
Tierney declined to discuss his compensation at Princeton or Denver.
“(Salary) doesn’t have anything to do with anything,” Tierney said Wednesday in a telephone interview from New Jersey. “All I know is I can afford to make this move, and Denver is supporting me on that.”
He hopes to turn the program into one that can make money by scheduling teams such as Syracuse, Cornell, Johns Hopkins and Virginia and seeing fans “hanging out of” Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium, the 2,000-seat venue built on the DU campus four years ago.
Princeton averaged 1,599 fans in seven home games last season.
“There’s no football (at DU), so you have the ability to have a major men’s sport in an area where the game is just exploding, and in a country where it is exploding,” he said.
Mike Chambers: 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com
