Wichita Mayor Carlos Mayans’ push to bring back Wichita State University football is the political equivalent of a Hail Mary pass: It generates some excitement and raises hopes but likely isn’t going to put points on the scoreboard.
WSU football could make sense under the right circumstances, but it’s also a risky venture — and WSU president Donald Beggs is right to be wary of it.
And talk about bad timing: It seems odd that the mayor is working so hard to convince WSU to add a program it doesn’t want at the same time Wichita is in danger of losing the Wranglers baseball team.
Where is the City Council leadership on that issue?
Posted by Randy Scholfield
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23 Comments
A very stupid idea being pushed by very stupid people.
At the risk of causing intergalactic upheaval..I am in total agreement with Todd.
Taxpayer funds for a college football team? Then more taxpayer funds for traffic control; security; clean up; etc?
Do WE, the people that are being suggested as the ones funding this nonsense, get a say in this? Or is this another campaign by our born again, holier than thou and waste of time mayor?
With all due respect to my friend the mayor, the only useful purpose for WSU football was to give KU and K-State somebody to beat.With both programs under capable leadership, there is no need for WSU football.However, it looks like the K-State baseball program needs to be continued, just to give WSU somebody to beat.
Why not just give Mayans and the rest of the city council your entire net income so they can decide what you should spend your money on. Everytime the free market decides that something no longer serves a purpose, the Wichita city government swoops in with bags full of stolen taxpayer loot to bail them out in order to protect us helpless rubes from our poor decisions. It is far too dangerous to allow the citizens to make their own financial decisions, when our government knows that everyone should enjoy and be forced to pay for a Wranglers game, WSU football program, a bait and tackle store and an arena with no team or tenant to use it.
I am not sure what the mayor is thinking on this one. Sure football would be good for WSU and Wichita. However, it did not work last time and it would cost a ton of money to support today. But, I am curious about the complaints posted here regarding the tax dollars being used. The Eagle just attacked legislators for not spending more on higher ed. Would football not bring more students to WSU and defray some costs over the long haul? That support tax increases for buildings and teachers salaries but not sports?
Would football bring more students to WSU? I don’t know. I doubt there is any substantive data that would prove that.
What I do know is that college football doesn’t make money anywhere but at the top level.
You can rest assured that our do nothing City Council will not make any tough decision until they test the winds. They would have to come out of hiding and actually make a decision and they are not up to that challenge.
It is my understanding that the City Council is virtually unanimous that we have no business dictating to WSU whether to start a football program. So lets give credit where credit is due. The majority on the City Council had made up their mind on the idiocy of this initiative by the Mayor well before the public became aware of the controversy.
I believe that Mayor Mayans is the only one alone on this.
As a WSU alumni, I would love to see WSU football, but I would rather see money spent towardss scholarship programs, building maitenance, and our engineering department.
STS, I’m looking for a broken clock. We actually agree on something!
MC – you can’t always judge a book by it’s cover or even parts of it contents. LOL
Are all of you happy with the status quo (meaning, you are paying a special tax as Wichita property owners to support WSU with no control over where the money goes)? I don’t see how you can argue that football wouldn’t be positive for the image and attendance at WSU… but the question remains whether the cost would be worth it.
I can think of a few rather well known schools that do just fine without a football team. CalTech for one…Harvard for another..Dartmouth also comes to mind.
Highly respected schools, and it didn’t take a football team.
Harvard and Dartmouth both have football.
My mistake…I meant those schools do not rely on football to bolster their reputation. They seem to do just fine with providing a quality education instead of using a football team as a recruiting tool.
There is an option that too many of the egomaniac boosters of WSU would never go for. WSU could play what is termed D-1 non-scholarship football, and be a member for football of the Pioneer Football League. This league follows the Ivy League model of not awarding scholarships to the players. Current members are Butler, Davidson, Dayton, fellow Valley school Drake, Jacksonville, Morehead State, San Diego, and Valparaiso. By not having scholarships, the cost of the program is dramatically reduced. I would love it, even though some would perceive it as not “big time”. Who cares! It would make for a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon!
What Jeff sez, I could go for.But even without scholarships, football is an expensive sport – all the people involved, all the equipment needed, the travel for all of the people, etc. If it is self-supporting, OK, maybe Carlos can get some rich folks to kick in the bucks, but there are a lot more worthy projects for our tax dollars than to field a football team.
Uh, guys, tax money already supports football teams (KU, KState). And, uh, we already pay taxes that get funneled to WSU. Mayans isn’t asking for me, he’s asking that this tax get redistributed to a football program.
With that said, I have to go with the rest of you on this one. We have a major professional sports team threatening to leave and our focus is instead on an alsoran college football program long dead with little chance to be a major national power anytime in our lifetimes. Seems Mayans priorities are a little out-of-whack on this one. He should have taken a knee on football the moment the news about the Wranglers broke.
What a stupid typo. That “me” should be “more.” Mayans doesn’t ask for me, and I hope he never does…
Just so I can have my daily chuckle, what is name of the “major professional sports team” threatening to leave Wichita?
“And, uh, we already pay taxes that get funneled to WSU.”
Uh, yeah. No kidding. That doesn’t change the fact that college football in particular is a black hole that money disappears into. I don’t know specifically what WSU does with their money, but I do know that they’ve got more important things to spend it on than a guaranteed money-loser. Not to mention that Title IX is going to have ramifications.
Forcing WSU to divert the money that they are currently receiving and using solely to a football program would either require that taxes be raised to compensate or WSU would have no choice but to cut academic programs and scholarhsips to make up for the shortfall. It is absurd to force an educational institution to use money for athletic programs at the expense of academic programs or staff.
We did quite well without football at MIT when I was there.
If the boosters want football at WSU let them raise the money to support is. Next week I will post the step-by-step proposal I had in the Eagle letters some time ago.