Faults found in Dinos’ funding

By Allen Coe

People are often jealous of rich kids. But what if that rich kid was a member of your very own family, and your mom and dad gave them Gucci while you got Jordache, sent you to Millet instead of Milan, and took out a second mortgage to pay your sibling’s allowance, leaving you with the remains of the take-a-penny, leave-a-penny dish at McDonald’s?


Unfortunately for many varsity teams, feeling and being treated like the illegitimate children of Dinos Athletics is an all too harsh reality.


Swimming, soccer, wrestling and track and field have all paid their dues. When scouring their cramped change room of achievements, you’ll find individual and team performances that more than legitimize these teams’ abilities to compete at the national and international levels. You’d think this would be enough to garner at least a bit of respect from the powers that be.


Sadly, it is not.


With rumors of football taping budgets equaling the annual budgets of the swimming and wrestling teams and seven-foot rookie basketball players dressed head-to-toe in name-brand team gear–including backpacks–not to mention costly, well-publicized, corporately sponsored international volleyball tournaments, it would be hard not to notice something askew in how teams are treated at the University of Calgary.


The question is why?


Maybe it’s simple economics. People are willing to pay to watch basketball and volleyball, so they have more dough to spend on gear and publicity. Or maybe a narrow-minded administration answers more to the call of wealthy sponsors and alumni than it does to the neglected athletes who must deal with the fiscal decisions they make each athletic year.


Maybe it’s based on performance and practicality. Dinos football won the Vanier Cup a while back, so they have extra money to tape the hundred or so players every practice. Or maybe it’s just a harsh reality that no matter how many 6 a.m. practices they go to, or Canada West and Canadian Interuniversity Sport titles they bring home, the swimmers, wrestlers and track and fielders will still be faced with very real, very substantial budget cuts of some kind for the following year.


Spreading things around a bit can only help the overall perception of the U of C and the many Dinos Athletics administrative egos. When one team is not doing well–football, men’s volleyball–why not showcase another that is excelling–swimming, cross-country–making it appear as though we are perennial champions across the board, rather than seasoned losers at a few sports? Why not make the system of who gets what perks and sponsor money incentive-based? Why not make a system where good performances are rewarded and poor ones are not?


Ultimately, the reason athletes battle each year for their respective team and individual goals is not for sponsorship money, perks or publicity. They battle because they love their particular sport. This is a universality that applies to all Dinos teams. But when Dinos Athletics picks and chooses favorites and consistently neglects certain low-priority teams, it makes it hard to keep up the fight.


How else should teams feel if, year after year, they’re stuck in the mud-soaked trenches while their Nike/Adidas/Husky Oil-clad equals sit comfortably in their armoured Hummers?