The MSU women’s hockey club is seeking to join Wayne State as the only universities in Michigan to have a women’s varsity ice hockey teams.
MSU has 11 women’s varsity sports, and each is budgeted a certain amount of money each year.
From July 1, 2000 to June 30, the women’s basketball team had revenues amounting to $109,296 and expenses totaling $1,374,930.
During the same year all other women’s teams brought in $416,968 compared to expenses totaling $4,769,835.
The hockey club team first applied for varsity status in 1996. The team again applied in 1999, but was told it wasn’t in the budget.
However, it’s not unusual for women’s athletic teams to spend more than they make.
Rob Fournier, athletics director at Wayne State, said the cost to implement the women’s ice hockey program was $250,000. He said women’s ice hockey is budgeted about $200,000, but he doesn’t consider it a revenue sport.
“It doesn’t come close,” he said. “We usually bring in $20,000 to $25,000 a year.”
He said those numbers shouldn’t matter because the program is still in the beginning process. Wayne State does not have an on-campus facility for the team to play in, which adds to its expenses.
Adding a hockey facility is part of a long-range plan for the program.
Fournier said the future of women’s hockey is in limbo because it needs the big-name universities to help push it.
“There needs to be a commitment and the dollars from larger universities - it’s paramount,” he said.
MSU athletics director Clarence Underwood has been out of the office and didn’t return phone calls.
In 1999 the men’s and women’s hockey teams at Wayne State were added as provisional Division I teams to the university’s athletics program.
Wayne State is a Division II school, but the NCAA allows one men’s and one women’s sport to have varsity status. Wayne State offers 18 full-ride scholarships to women’s ice hockey.
Ice Breakers president John Munn said women’s ice hockey is a growing demographic and having varsity status at MSU will bring in more top-caliber athletes. Ice Breakers is the boosters club for the women’s team.
Munn said the program is looking to raise $250,000 to $500,000 from corporate and private sponsors toward funding the first year of the sport if it reaches varsity status.
“We started an account in January,” Munn said. “We hope it will help expand the whole transportation costs.”
Munn said the organization plans on submitting paperwork to the NCAA sometime next fall or summer. From there it will go to the athletics director, and finally the athletic council.
Women’s hockey coach Craig Payment said gaining varsity status would really help bring in the recruits to the university.
This season the team has done its part in building a winning program by receiving a No. 1 seed at the American Collegiate Hockey Association Nationals in Atlanta, March 1-3. The ACHA is the collegiate club hockey league for men and women.
“Women’s hockey is fairly new to Michigan,” Payment said. “And the varsity teams are getting more exposure to the top-skilled players.”
The kinesiology graduate student said players from top to bottom at varsity schools are bigger, stronger and are more experienced.
Wayne State is able to obtain players from Canada and the East Coast with scholarships.
Payment remains optimistic that the financial differences will be taken care of, and said it is more than just an investment.
