Fresno State Athletics
Bulldog Business Report with Thomas Boeh- Oct. 21
10/26/2005 12:00:00 AM | General
Oct. 26, 2005
DOG ZONE: Talk a little bit about how important facilities are to an athletics program.
Thomas Boeh: "I think sometimes when you want to build facilities you might get a bad reputation- like you are trying to keep up with the `Joneses." Intercollegiate athletics, especially at the Division 1 level, are very competitive so facilities do two things for you. First of all, when you are recruiting student-athletes to this level, they expect to compete at the highest level. Subsequently, the quality of their facility is going to affect their ability to maximize their potential and student-athletes are aware of that...Second, the name of the game at this level is recruiting. When a prospective student-athlete visits Fresno State or other campuses, sometimes (rightly or wrongly) they make a determination of the quality of the program and the commitment to success by what the facilities look like. Facilities are a tangible reflection of the institution's commitment to be successful."
DZ: What about the facilities specific to Fresno State?
TB: "Certainly, the Save Mart Center is a state-of-the-art facility and there are not many arenas around in collegiate athletics that are finer. Men's and women's basketball have a facility that is national and international in nature, and that helps with recruiting. The only downside to that is the Save Mart Center is presently only accessed by four of our teams (also wrestling and volleyball). We also have to balance our time in there with concerts and the Fresno Falcons. We have made some progress on the west side of campus. The Ricchiuti Academic Center, strength and conditioning center and Duncan Building are nice additions. Beyond those facilities, we are unfortunately well behind our counterparts in facilities almost from top to bottom."
DZ: Are the increases in student fees directly tied into the athletic department's efforts to raise money for facilities?
TB: No, that has not been typical at Fresno State. Different places have different funding models...A lions share of the money we are looking to accumulate will need to be privately raised over the next couple years. It will be a very aggressive campaign and we will look to all of our resources to try and take care of as many things as we possibly can. This will likely be an eight-figure plus project but we will have to raise that money privately for the most part, so I don't expect it will affect the students much at all."
