In a time of looming budget woes and uncertain futures for university departments, it's everyone's job to find money-saving or money-making solutions.
But charging devoted Spartan fans an upward of $500 for a season ticket to a football game isn't a fair way to generate revenue.
The MSU Board of Trustees voted unanimous approval on Friday for the Scholarship Seating Plan, a donation-based season ticket system used by six other Big Ten schools. Certain lower-bowl sections, accounting for 21 percent of Spartan Stadium's 72,027 capacity, are affected by the athletics department's plan.
"The cost of athletics is spiraling out of control," MSU Athletics Director Ron Mason said.
But the Lansing State Journal reported Sunday it was Mason's department that recently gave every coach on the football team's staff a salary increase, the biggest of which was for head coach John L. Smith. Smith now makes a cool $1.1 million, more than double the $543,000 former head coach Bobby Williams made during his final season with MSU.
According to the report, the average salary increase among the coaching staff was $28,323 minus Smith's increase. Including the head coach's increase, the average increase jumps to $81,191.
These salary increases are totally unnecessary, given the current budget situation the university is facing and considering what the football team gave us last season. It's fine to get what you pay for, but it's hard to expect fans to fork over seating prices rivaling those of the pros, especially when the team they're paying to watch has yet to produce results that would mirror the amount of money that's put into the program. This year, MSU spent $6 million in scholarships for its 25 varsity sports.
All in all, the athletics department needs to prove the money it plans to make from the seating program and the money it's spending on salary increases for coaches, will get some solid results for a football team suffering from substance-abuse scandals and a sub-par showing in last seasons' games.
Surely, Smith will work hard to turn his new program around. But we wonder whether it's worth paying $500 a seat to see the new program, regardless of how good it becomes.
Perhaps it would be in the best interest of the athletics department to wait a year or so to implement its new program. After all, the department hopes to generate revenue from its planned club seating and luxury suites, set to be built before the 2005 season. Donations for those areas would be between $4,500 and $6,500 for the club seats and between $45,000 and $80,000 for the suites under the seating program.
No more green should be going into Spartan Stadium until the play there warrants it. Hopefully the team will give us more than our money's worth this fall. Spartan fans won't like losing both games and money, and they shouldn't have to.
