Colorado University Athletics
CAF DONATIONS ALL FOR SCHOLARSHIPS
The University of Colorado Athletic Department, and its fundraising arm, the Colorado Athletic Fund (CAF), felt it was important to respond to some misconceptions that have arisen due to our recent decision to implement a new football seating plan that is donation-based beginning for the 2005 season.
The most common misunderstanding is in the area of where the new dollars will be spent that are raised from this plan. Some believe it is to offset the cost of the club seats and suites that were added to Folsom Field in 2003. That is a complete falsehood.
In the 2003-04 fiscal year, the CAF (formerly known as the Golden Buffalo Scholarship Fund) raised $3.5 million through donations, with a five-year fiscal average of $3.8 million since 1999-2000. The financial aid bill for CU’s 300-plus student-athletes for 2004-05 will exceed $5.9 million.
The expansion of this seat donation program, initially implemented in 1979, will provide progress towards bridging the $2.4 million gap that exists between our most recent donation total and the financial aid bill that athletics pays the university. The seat plan has the potential to generate slightly more than $1 million.
This, however, would still leave a gap this year that will have to be made up from the athletic department's current operating budget. It is the goal that donations to the CAF will one day pay the entire financial aid bill; at present, it is projected that this bill will exceed $8.7 million by the year 2010. A grant-in-aid package for an in-state student-athlete costs approximately $13,000 while those for out-of-state student-athletes are roughly $30,000.
Thus, all monies raised by the CAF go to counter this expense; if the CAF raised more than the department’s scholarship bills, those dollars would also go to enhance the student-athlete experience. But with the CAF currently raising under the annual financial aid cost, there is no question that 100 percent of the dollars raised go toward this expense.
It should also be noted that stadium club seat and suite sales should generate $3.3 million this season, which will be enough to meet the current bond payment.
One other question was raised as to who signed the seating plan informational letter and who did not; Provost Phil DiStefano signed it as a representative of the University of Colorado's senior administration. It was particularly appropriate in his role as the senior campus administrator to whom athletics reports.