No bucks, no Buck Rogers. It was one of the great lines from the even greater movie "The Right Stuff."
Back in the early 1960s, the United States was in a race with the U.S.S.R. to see who could get to the moon first. And if the U.S. was going to win the space race, it was going to take funding, and lots of it.
There's a new race these days. In college sports these days, no bucks in your program means you're likely fighting a losing battle for each and every 5-star recruit. So at many universities, the bucks are being spent in an attempt to be first and the best.
On Friday, in a not at all surprising unanimous vote, curators at the University of Missouri approved a $98-million proposal for improvement in the south end zone at Memorial Stadium in Columbia.
The improvements, first envisioned by former head coach Gary Pinkel nearly a decade ago, will come in two major areas. You want to know what nearly a $100 million can get these days?
- An improved team facility, with all the latest bells and whistles to entice recruits to wear the Black and Gold. The three-story facility, slated to be ready for the start of the 2019 season, will include locker rooms, coaches' offices, meeting and weight rooms and a recruiting lounge.
- The addition of new luxury suites to increase athletic department revenue. On Friday, Missouri athletic director Jim Sterk said the current set-up brings about $1.5 million into the department. The new suites would bump that total to more than $6 million.
There is demand for suites at the stadium, with the current ones being nearly sold out for the 2017 season. So you can likely pencil in the new ones as being sold as soon as the paint is dry and the cushy seats are bolted down.
The stadium, which currently seats a little more than 71,000 fans, will see capacity drop to the neighborhood of 65,000. You've got to make room for all those mini fridges.
Where's the $98 million coming from? A good chunk of it has already been raised in donations. The rest will be paid off by revenue from the new suites.
With the popularity of the suites, it's clear there are a lot of fans - if they are going to come to games - who want to make it as much like home as possible. And that's where I think there's a hidden cost to these improvements.
Missouri has not had a sellout for a home football game since 2014, the second of two straight seasons that saw the Tigers advance to the Southeastern Conference championship game. It's not just Missouri that has seen problems getting fans through the turnstiles. There are figures that show attendance at major college football games has dropped for each of the last six seasons.
Why?
First, I think people are deciding it's easier to stay home and watch their HD television with their own refreshments. Second, with ticket prices being what they are these days, you could buy an HD TV for what it costs to go to just a handful of games.
I can take this on a personal level. I know someone who first purchased Missouri football season tickets for the 2008 season and renewed them every year. Until this one.
The seats weren't great, but they weren't horrible. And in the nine years, the cost went up nearly 40 percent for each ticket. In addition, a donation to the Tiger Scholarship Fund was required if they wanted those same seats, adding even more to the cost.
There were other reasons that went into the decision - the lack of free parking within a reasonable walking distance, the quality of the nonconference schedule among them. But at least one family of longtime Missouri fans feel they were priced out of Memorial Stadium.
The plan now is to watch the games on television at home, unless there's something else to do on a fall Saturday. I have a feeling there just might be more often than not.
As a university, as an athletic department, is that what you want? Apparently so. The Missouri athletic department, along with the curators, feel the added revenue is a necessity to stay competitive.
You - and I - don't have to like it. But it's the cost of doing business in 2017.