Editor, the Gauntlet,
Re: "Faults found in Dinos’ funding," Jan. 29, 2004,
While the University of Calgary’s funding of athletics is an important issue, Mr. Coe has taken a simplistic and misinformed view of the situation. As a first-year student on the football team, I find the comments in this article do not reflect a deep understanding of the "athletic reality" but rather, amount to football bashing.
First, there are a number of reasons why certain sports receive more funding than others (some of which were discussed in the article). Football has more players than any other sport and therefore necessarily commands more funding in order to even field a team.
Certain sports (football, basketball, etc.) also have larger audiences and alumnus which means they earn more revenue than other teams, so it’s only fair that they partake of their own success.
Lastly, while the achievements of other sports are laudable, they do not bring the kind of publicity or attention that others do to the university.
While all sports are important, Dinos Athletics should invest what limited funding it has into sports that will generate the greatest amount of positive publicity for the university.
It is a positive suggestion to raise all teams up to a reasonable level of funding, but it is unacceptable to suggest lowering all teams to the lowest common denominator!