Was Fresno State wrestling program, reinstated amid financial crunch, set up to fail?

There are the Big 12 Conference championships in March and the NCAAs after that and yes, absolutely, Fresno State could have one or more of its wrestlers make a run in one and both.

But, then, that will be it.

After just four seasons the program will go away; the university announced it would be eliminated in October along with men’s tennis and women’s lacrosse for budgetary and related issues. It is the second time Fresno State has cut wrestling, for many of the same reasons, and that only begs the question.

Did it even have a chance?

The sport was reinstated in 2015 and squeezed into a struggling athletics department along with women’s water polo and there were many strikes against the success of the program – outside of the wrestlers who competed with a Green V on their singlets, with 12 qualifiers for the NCAA Championships over the past three seasons.

The department already was running annual seven-figure deficits and with football in a downturn ticket revenue from all sports was taking a hit, down more than $2.5 million from 2014 to ‘16.

Fundraising efforts for athletics scholarships were not covering those costs, and the NCAA was about to approve a cost of living stipend for student-athletes that added around $1.2 million a year to that bill.

The Bulldogs’ sports programs already were not well funded, ranked toward the bottom half of the Mountain West Conference, and would only be pinched harder if that portfolio of teams was increased.

Much of that was covered in an independent review of the Fresno State athletics department and its ability to reinstate its wrestling program in 2014, before its former president Joseph I. Castro committed to the move.

Prepared by an executive search and consulting firm, it raised questions about resources and the impacts that adding sports to an already struggling athletics department would have on existing programs.

It pointed out that athletics facilities on campus could not accommodate additional programs without significant renovations, and that donors were not in a position to fully fund new programs.

The athletics administration also was in transition at that time, with Jim Bartko taking over as athletics director with a new development staff.

And, a potential source of additional athletics revenue — the renovation of an aging Bulldog Stadium — never gained much traction. Castro shelved the project in January 2018, months after Bartko was terminated in a messy divorce that ended with a wrongful termination lawsuit and the university agreeing to pay the balance of his contract.

Castro had information in hand that could have but did not give pause, reason to proceed with caution rather than haste, to take measured steps ensuring the sustainability of a program valuable to its community.

Fresno State could have reimagined its athletics portfolio, easing the financial burden on the department by dropping other sports to add wrestling.

It could have tried to fully endow or build a more sustainable long-term financial model for the sport.

It went ahead, anyway, only to have to cut it.

“Very disappointing,” said Nick Zinkin, who was on the search committee for a wrestling coach and whose family members were among the primary donors to the program. “The youth and high school wrestling in this area is up there with any area in the United States, if not better.

“It has always made sense for the university to have a program so we don’t lose these kids to other areas, and I think President Castro acknowledged that when he took the job and that was very encouraging. For them to drop it now, it’s disappointing.”

Castro stands behind his decisions

Castro, now chancellor of the California State University system, declined to address questions on reinstatement of the Bulldogs’ wrestling program. But he did not back away from the decision, six years later.

“Dr. Castro stands behind the decision he made to reinstate wrestling at the beginning of his presidency, and behind the decision made last Fall to eliminate it because of the financial constraints faced at the time,” said Toni Molle, CSU director of strategic communications and public affairs, responding to a request for an interview.

Despite the financial challenges athletics was facing, Castro and Fresno State plowed ahead. Coach Troy Steiner was hired in May 2016 and assistant coaches were added that summer. The Bulldogs’ first recruits were signed in November, and in July 2017 Fresno State signed on as an affiliate member of the Big 12.

The program was set up to be funded by a combination of university funds, athletics department funds and donor support. But projected expenses kept increasing year after year. A program that was expected to cost around $689,000 a year to operate cost more than $1.2 million in 2020 with the largest chunk of that falling to an athletics department that couldn’t make its budget even when it was supporting 19 sports.

In 2017, wrestling received $205,000 in direct institutional support and $106,124 in contributions, according to the financial report that Fresno State submits annually to the NCAA, a total of $311,124.

The operating costs that year: $467,929.

In 2018 the program received $160,000 from the university and $172,813 in contributions, a total of $332,813.

The operating costs that year: $980,189.

In 2019 it received $160,000 from the university and $243,576 in contributions, a total of $403,576.

The operating costs that year: $1,129,826.

In 2020 it was $224,240 and $247,015, a total of $471,255.

The operating costs last year: $1,200,544.

Steiner had no comment for this story, according to an athletics department spokesman, but when Steiner was hired he said that he had received assurances that the program would be properly funded.

“I told them that I had no intentions of taking over a program that could only be mediocre,” Steiner told The Bee after his hire in 2016. “I wanted a program that I felt could win big. And they agreed. It’s not all about money and the facilities. But it helps.”

But that grew increasingly more difficult with the athletics department in each of the past two fiscal years absorbing more than $725,000 of the cost of operating the program.

Women’s water polo, added along with wrestling to balance Title IX gender equity requirements, also cost more than the $456,000 that was projected. In 2020 direct institutional support and donations to the program totaled $348,515 and operating expenses were $778,610.

That added up to more than $1.1 million for the two new sports in 2020 alone, and that did have an impact on other sports. With the exception of football, all of the Bulldogs’ men’s sports programs received a smaller percentage of operating expenses in 2020 than they had in 2016, before the first wrestling season.

On the women’s side, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis and track and field/cross country all were getting a smaller slice, as well.

Wrestling attendance good, but not the ticket

Attendance and ticket revenue was no answer, a fallacy.

Fresno State wrestling can claim attendance that was ranked in the Top 10 nationally, but its ticket revenue declined over the past three years from $118,252 in 2018 to $79,645 in 2019 and to $69,156 in 2020.

It is not a direct transaction, but even if it were doubled it would not cover any major line item including coaching salaries, team travel or game expenses including officials, security and event staff.

It also would not cover payments to the Save Mart Center for floor changeovers and event staffing.

In addition to operating expenses the university sank around $10 million from campus reserve and central reserves into a renovation of the North and South gyms to address facilities deficiencies, which included locker room renovations for the women’s water polo and swimming and diving programs, a new wrestling locker room, mat room and office space as well as locker rooms for the men’s and women’s basketball programs.

“There weren’t guarantees given to us that the program is going to be forever, but I sure had feelings that way,” Zinkin said. “Otherwise, what are we doing giving a significant amount of money every year? We’re trying to build something, so if other aspects or components of what they were relaying on the supplement to shortfall didn’t come through, punishing the kids doesn’t seem right. A university is supposed to serve the community, and this is a wrestling community. It’s just a significant blow.”

Title IX in the mix

Castro throughout his tenure poured more and more institutional dollars into athletics, but couldn’t keep up with rising costs. In 2013-14, the year Castro was appointed, university support to athletics totaled $9.6 million. In 2018-19 it was up to more than $20 million including an additional $1.6 million Castro poured into athletics in June so that new athletics director Terry Tumey, who inherited those 21 sports programs, could start with a balanced budget.

In 2020, university support was up to $18.5 million with $4.3 million in student fees.

The wrestling model was miles from sustaining the program, and it was connected to women’s lacrosse and men’s tennis. Wrestling donors were willing to put more into the program, Zinkin said, but to keep one program meant keeping the others to maintain Title IX gender equity proportionality.

When the three sports programs were eliminated in October, Castro said an endowment to fund just wrestling would require a commitment of about $14.8 million and to endow all three sports around $40 million.

The total revenue for the entire department in 2020 was only $47.3 million.

“We’ve tried to invest in that program and see a path forward for it, but the financial weight of the program was just too dire, too much for us,” Tumey said in October, when the sports were cut.

And, that was it, at least on the mat. Fresno State could not pay for the program with its good intentions, reinstating a popular sport in the San Joaquin Valley and a program that had produced Gerry Abas and Stephen Abas, both four-time All-Americans; that had won 11 conference championships.

“I really thought it had a chance to succeed with the president behind them and making that commitment,” said John Kriebs, the former associate athletics director for internal relations. “I do think the community loved it. If they expected people to buy PSLs and all that kind of stuff, it wasn’t going to happen. But as far as kids in the Valley, there was light, they had an opportunity that they could possibly wrestle somewhere if not at Fresno State; to take that away really hurts the San Joaquin Valley.

“I think the president’s heart was in the right place in trying to make a run at it, and I also think he saw the writing on the wall and that if he wasn’t there to carry the baton for it, he wasn’t going to put the next president in that line of fire.”

Inglorious finish: COVID cancellation, possible NCAA sanctions

The Bulldogs’ final home matches were canceled due to COVID-19 contact tracing protocols within the program, but the program and its impacts may be felt for a while. The elimination of the three sports programs led to a sex discrimination lawsuit by five members of the women’s lacrosse team, and the university is waiting on a report from the NCAA following an investigation into potential rules violations in the wrestling program stemming from a stripper at a party that included recruits on official visits.

That could lead to disciplinary action for student-athletes and coaches through the university, and perhaps sanctions for the Bulldogs’ coaches and program even after Fresno State drops the sport.