The football program is the economic engine that generates nearly 70% of the funding required to operate OSU’s athletic programs.  Despite the two recent expansions in Phase I and Phase II, Reser Stadium is only 9^th place in the Pac-10 conference in stadium capacity and will be 10^th place in the Pac-12 (Table 1).  The small stadium size limits the revenue generating capacity of OSU athletics and will impede the ability of all OSU sports to remain financially competitive in an expanding conference of champions.  Phase III of Reser Stadium’s development plan is slated to take the facility to completion and raise capacity to 55,000, about average for the North Division of the Pac-12.

Table 1 – Pac-12 stadium capacities

The past 60 years of OSU football have been marked by only 21 winning seasons split over two distinct periods of prolonged success with a 28-year gap of gridiron futility sandwiched in-between (Figure 1 – click on figure to enlarge).  The two winning periods, the Prothro-Andros era of the mid 1950s to late 1960s, and the Erickson-Riley era of the late 1990s to the present, are the most consistently competitive times in OSU football history.  Figure 1 clearly shows that both periods were preceded by and later sustained with facilities construction and expansion as well as by increased institutional support.

Figure 1. Winning percentage and facilities improvements at OSU

But in the 1970s, OSU’s administration believed that sports were not a valued component of the institution’s mission and enacted a new policy for intercollegiate athletics.  The result was that institutional support was reduced to zero, facilities were neglected and athletic construction projects were ceased, and low salaries imposed by the administration sent competent coaching assistants elsewhere.  In the meantime, our conference rivals continued to build and support their programs, leaving us further behind with each passing year.  The first manifestation of this policy was the start of the losing streak in football in the 1970s, but other sports would follow later.  Names like Ralph Miller and Gary Payton staved off the demise of men’s basketball for many years but it too eventually succumbed to the systemic problems in paying for competitive sports programs at OSU.

With losing teams, fan interest first in football and later in basketball waned, and the cash-strapped programs were even more hard-pressed to compete because of the lack of funds.  Compounding the money problems for OSU was the fact that the state of Oregon does not provide tuition waivers like the public universities in our fellow Pac-10 schools in other states. Eventually, OSU’s track and field programs were eliminated with budget cuts. The baseball program teetered on the brink of extinction and would have been lost without the hard work of Coach Jack Riley, and later Pat Casey.

Fans and OSU’s administration did not understand the nature of the problem and continued the cycle of disinvestment and resulting failure in athletic programs.  With no general funds allocated to athletics, the department had to be self-supporting – an impossible task given that the chief source of revenue for OSU athletics, the football program, was on a two-decade plus losing streak.  The staggering accumulation of debt by the department and poor performance of many of its teams should not have been surprising to any rational observer.  The cheap solution for fans and administrations alike was to simply fire the underperforming coaches, and repeat over and over, hoping for a better result with each new hire.

That all changed on the day that Dr. Paul Risser accepted the presidency at OSU in 1996.  Dr. Risser understood the natural connection between the university and the greater world through its athletic programs.  He reinstated the spending of institutional general funds as had been done for many years at the UO, and made improvement of the football program a university priority.  Both actions were very unpopular with faculty, but later paid dividends in increased enrollment (OSU had fallen to 13,000 students) and in donor support for academic programs.  By 1998, the football program was competitive again, and saw its first winning season in 28 years in 1999.

While the Raising Reser campaign was the brainchild of Risser, Barnhart, and Erickson, none of these men were still in the employment of OSU for the Herculean effort of raising funds and building Phase I of the stadium.  This job was left to Bob De Carolis, the new AD in 2003.  By 2004, the debt had been eliminated and sufficient capital has been raised for the construction to begin.  With the old facilities in 2001, the athletic department revenues were $25 million but were less than the department’s expenses at $29 million, adding to the debt.  Renovation of the east side of Reser Stadium has permitted athletic department revenues to double by 2009.

Seating capacity of Reser Stadium was raised from 35,362 to 43,300 with the completion of Phase I, a net increase of 7,938 seats.  Reser was elevated from 10^th place in the conference to 9^th in capacity after Phase I.  Our history clearly shows that when we stop building and stop our commitment to program development, we slip into long periods of losing in our major sports.

Next post in the series – Part 2.  The urgent need to complete Reser, Phase II

Phase I Timeline:

June 1999 – Reser family donates $5 million and stadium’s name is changed to Reser.

November 1999 – Dennis Erickson-led Beavers record first winning season in 28 years.

December 2000 – Beavers earn trip to the 2001 Fiesta Bowl and Erickson’s contract is renewed.  Terms are not known but some have speculated that stadium improvements might have been a part of the contract.

September 2001 – Truax Center is completed at a cost of $15 million.  During fall 2001, prospective recruits are shown a model of a future Reser Stadium.

February 2002 – Erickson announces a multi-phase, stadium upgrade that will seat 55,000.  But funds are tight, a state audit this month reveals that the OSU athletic dept was late in paying $600,000 to reduce debt in 2001 as required by the state.

July 2002 – Reser family donates $7.5 million, increasing their total donation to $12.5 million.  Mitch Barnhart leaves OSU.

October 2002 – Fundraising strategy for Reser Stadium is announced.

November 2002 – Raising Reser Campaign begins for the $80 million project.

January 2003 – The first section of Phase I is sold out, the $600 seats.

February 2003 – Erickson and Risser leave OSU.  DeCarolis makes pitch to OSU students asking for help in Raising Reser.

October 2003 – Phase I of Raising Reser project is approved by the Corvallis Planning Commission.  Raising Reser Campaign reached the $16 million mark.  Multi-year plans for seating are announced to stimulate sales.

February 2004 – Raising Reser Campaign reached the $24 million mark.  The original goal for starting construction was $28 million but this mark was increased to $33 million to eliminate the $5 million debt to the OSU general fund.

April 2004 – Raising Reser Campaign reached the $33 million mark.  A ground-breaking ceremony is held at the Spring Football Game.

June 2004 – Construction of Phase I begins.  OSU students finally agree to be partners in the Raising Reser Campaign, 18 months after they were first asked.  Students agreed to contribute $1.2 million from incidental fees over a four-year period in exchange for 6,082 seats, and in return OSU will allocate $2.4 million back to students in repayment.

July 2004 – Construction begins on the Finley Parking Stucture.  The $17 million dollar project provides additional parking required for the Phase I expansion and increases on-campus parking.  The athletic dept’s share of the project is $4 million.  The remaining $5.7 million in athletic dept debt is eliminated; this debt started at $12.5 million when Barnhart and De Carolis arrived at OSU.

November 2004 – With the Civil War, the last game is played in the old Parker/Reser Stadium.

September 2005 – Phase I of Reser Stadium and Finley Parking Structure was completed.