Funny Money at Cal-Berkeley
In a big-time sports version of the “99% vs. 1%,” the University of California-Berkeley recently opened its plush Simpson Student-Athlete High Performance Center (SAHPC). The “One-Percenters” in this case are members of 13 varsity sports teams on campus. Not only is the general student body (36,142 total students) barred from using the new facility but 16 other varsity teams on campus have been basically locked-out of the $153 million project as well. (See “Cal’s Student-Athlete High Performance Center Should Show Us the Money,” by Brian Barsky).
The grand opening comes at a time when budgets are being slashed across the Berkeley campus. One report identified 63 chronic roof leaks and antiquated laboratory facilities on campus.
Cal’s administrators are telling the public that the SAHPC has been funded by private donations. However, according to an analytical report by Berkeley professor Brian Barsky, it was disclosed at a February 3, 2009 Cal-Berkeley Regents’ meeting that the construction cost had jumped from the original estimate of $111.9 million to $153 million, with $136 million funded by debt. This is in addition to $321 million in debt for a reconstruction of Cal’s football stadium, for a grand total of $457 million in athletic facilities debt. Factoring in the interest on these loans and it results in about a $1 billion commitment for upgrades to the facilities for varsity athletics.
According to Barsky, the Cal athletic department already falls short in covering its own annual expenditures. The athletic department was $88.4 million short from 2003-2011. So, to expect the athletic department to cover the debt payments for the new athletic facilities is pie-in-the-sky thinking. The University of California will ultimately be responsible. Reuter’s reported that a key rating driver for the bonds is the university’s “ability to increase tuition and fees.” This can’t be good news for students who’ve seen tuition fees quadruple over the last decade.
As of now, about 29% of the construction cost for the SAHPC was raised from donations. Given this overall financial situation, it’s particularly shocking that Cal’s head football coach will receive a quarter-million dollar bonus when the football team completes its move into the SAHPC, AND a second bonus of equal size when the team plays its first home game in the reconstructed stadium.
“Ultimately, this is a potent example of the misguided priorities that emphasize Intercollegiate Athletics rather than the core educational mission of UC Berkeley,” concluded Barsky.
— Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans
Sports Forum Podcast
Episode #29 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: The Honorable Tom McMillen Visits League of Fans’ Sports Forum – McMillen is a former All-American basketball player, Olympian, Rhodes Scholar and U.S. Congressman, and has a long involvement with the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sport (now called the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition). We discuss the state of college athletics today, given the pressures of NIL, the transfer portal, sports gambling and huge media contracts. McMillen then provides great perspective on the poor state of physical fitness our young people are experiencing today.
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Episode #28 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: A Chat With Mano Watsa, a Leading Basketball and Life Educator – Watsa is President of PGC Basketball, the largest education basketball camp in the world. We discuss problems in youth sports today.
Episode #27 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Kids’ Sports: How We Can Take Back the Game and Restore Quality Family Time In the Process – Linda Flanagan is author of “Take Back the Game: How Money and Mania Are Ruining Kids’ Sports and Why It Matters.” We discuss how commercialized and professionalized youth sports are hurting kids and their families.
Episode #26 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: How Can We Fix Youth Sports? – John O’Sullivan is Founder and CEO of Changing the Game Project and author of “Changing the Game: The Parents Guide to Raising Happy, High Performing Athletes and Giving Youth Sports Back to Our Kids.”
Episode #25 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Physical Education Should Be a Critical Component of K-12 School Design – Michael Horn is co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation.
Episode #24 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Mental Health and Athletes: Ending the Stigma – Nathan Braaten and Taylor Ricci are the founders of Dam Worth It, a non-profit created to end the stigma around mental health at colleges and universities through sport, storytelling, and community creation.
Media
"How We Can Save Sports" author Ken Reed appears on Fox & Friends to explain how there's "too much adult in youth sports."
Ken Reed appears on Mornings with Gail from KFKA Radio in Colorado to discuss bad parenting in youth athletics.
“Should College Athletes Be Paid?” Ken Reed on The Morning Show from Wisconsin Public Radio
Ken Reed appears on KGNU Community Radio in Colorado (at 02:30) to discuss equality in sports and Title IX.
Ken Reed appears on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour (at 38:35) to discuss his book The Sports Reformers: Working to Make the World of Sports a Better Place, and to talk about some current sports issues.
- Reed Appears on Ralph Nader Radio Hour League of Fans’ sports policy director, Ken Reed, Ralph Nader and the New York Times’ Tyler Kepner discussed a variety of sports issues on Nader’s radio show as well as Reed’s updated book, How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan. Reed's book was released in paperback in February, and has a new introduction and several updated sections.
League of Fans is a sports reform project founded by Ralph Nader to fight for the higher principles of justice, fair play, equal opportunity and civil rights in sports; and to encourage safety and civic responsibility in sports industry and culture.
Vanderbilt Sport & Society - On The Ball with Andrew Maraniss with guest Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director for League of Fans and author of How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan
Sports & Torts – Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans – at the American Museum of Tort Law
Books