Academy seeks some economic elbow room

Cutting out daily trips to Starbucks. Buying generic at the supermarket. Watering the lawn only occasionally.

In these difficult economic times, even the slightest of sacrifices can help trim a budget.

This fall, Air Force linemen will have to do their part for the athletic department's bottom line by giving up some elbow room.

The department recently has taken several proactive steps to save some cash, including chartering a smaller airplane for the football team. Last season the Falcons used a 182-seat 757 from Northwest Airlines. This year they'll use a 172-seat 737 from Miami Air.

Going to the smaller plane (and giving up 10 seats - often kept open so the biggest players would have extra space) will reduce the annual cost of the charters from $650,000 a year ago to $429,000 - a 34-percent savings.

"That's awesome," athletic director Hans Mueh said. "That's an enormous bill that we have to pay."

Downsizing the plane is one of several changes the athletic department has made - with other initiatives under discussion - to cut costs.

"We definitely are experiencing the same economic downturn as the rest of the nation," said John Coulahan, associate athletic director for finance. "Many view service academy athletic departments as being insulated from these dynamics. But all of the service academies work to some degree on a revenue-generating model."

Only about 50 percent of the athletic department's budget comes from appropriated funds the government gives the academy. The rest is paid for by the Air Force Academy Athletic Association, which makes money through ticket and merchandise sales.

Air Force is trying to retain season ticket holders by not raising prices for any of its major sports and, for the first time, allowing people to pay for football season tickets in installments. The academy also has come up with promotions for individual football games that are at "probably a lower price-point than what we've done in the past," assistant athletic director-tickets Chris Peludat said.

Upper-deck tickets for the Oct. 10 game against TCU will go for $5.50 - the same as when the teams met in the 1959 Cotton Bowl.

"We're trying to recognize that people are strapped, and they need some diversion to take their minds off this mess," Mueh said.

Other ways Air Force is hoping to save money include waiting to make hires at certain positions (the assistant ticket manager position has been open since December) and reusing uniforms and equipment. Earlier this year the academy restructured its contract with Nike so that instead of getting a certain amount of product each year, there is a monetary value assigned to the goods.

"So if you've got 110 jerseys and you only have to replace 20 or 25 of them, you replace those" and use the remaining money for another sport or need, said senior associate athletic director for external affairs Jim Trego.

Air Force also is attempting to increase its partnerships with area restaurants and hotels. In exchange for advertising in Air Force's venues and game programs, restaurants and hotels provide reduced costs and "a limited amount of trade," Trego said. This helps in particular with paying for recruiting visits.

Other initiatives the academy is considering include:

• Regional lodging contracts. "We have 27 different sports that go to some of the same locations throughout the nation, so what we're looking at is possibly partnering with one or two large lodging chains, and they in turn give us much better rates," Coulahan said.

• Putting three athletes (instead of two) in a hotel room, with one on a rollaway bed.

• Scheduling lower-cost regional competitions when feasible (water polo, for example, can play only on the East or West Coast, but the soccer teams will play more teams within driving distance such as Regis, Fort Lewis, Colorado School of Mines and Denver).

• Attempting to schedule more home-and-home series instead of paying schools to visit the academy. (What Air Force pays varies depending on the sport, the opponent and the time of year it comes. The median rate the men's basketball program pays opponents, Trego said, is $40,000.)

• Playing more basketball games on the road - without a return game - than in the past, which would earn the academy money.

• Attempting to utilize busses more for road trips and "leisure fares" for commercial air travel.

"Typically right now we have to go through our commercial ticketing office, and they offer a government rate, which often has an increased cost because it gives you the flexibility to cancel," Coulahan said. "Once we know a schedule, and we're fairly certain, we can get a much lower rate by going with a leisure fare, but there is the risk of having to eat that cost if there's a cancellation. So we're very careful about that."