Could high and rising costs force high school championships out of UD facilities?

University of Delaware athletic facilities have long been a destination for First State high school athletes because getting there means they are likely playing for a state championship.

Since the Bob Carpenter Center became the site of the state boys and girls basketball Final Four and title games in 1993, players winning quarterfinal games have loudly and proudly crowed “We’re going to the Bob!”

Likewise, the state football championship returned to Delaware Stadium in 2013 after 38 years away – “It’s an iconic place for sure,” victorious Salesianum senior and now Minnesota Viking Brian O’Neill said then – and has also proven to be an epic setting for memorable outcomes.

“It’s fitting and it’s right to hold the premier game in the premier facility,” then-DIAA chief Kevin Charles proclaimed that night with words that still echo today.

The same could be said for each Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association championship held at UD sites, which now includes the aforementioned girls, boys and also Unified basketball and football, longtime tenant swimming, girls volleyball, field hockey and recent addition softball.

But using UD facilities comes at a cost and it isn’t cheap. Plus, the prices have been going up.

According to DIAA data, Delaware Stadium's rental cost was $41,707 in 2021, then rose to $57,410 in 2022 and $71,819 last year, when the four football title games – classes 1A, 2A and 3A and Unified − were spread over two days instead of one for the first time.

Those expenditures raised eyebrows in a state government task force that recently concluded a sixth-month study of the DIAA and has proposed an overhaul of the organization. They are significantly higher prices than what the DIAA pays for championship sites elsewhere.

As a result, the DIAA, in cooperation with UD, has begun studying ways to reduce those costs and perhaps profit more from their use. If no solutions emerge, the DIAA would consider moving championship events to more financially feasible venues in Delaware.

“That’s the concern from an operational expense,” said Dave Baylor, who became DIAA executive director last summer. “If we keep experiencing increases like that, we won’t be able to keep up and we’d have to consider moving to something more economical.”

Baylor, who has a close relationship with UD from his days as the Blue Hen football team’s player development coach, hopes it does not come to that and has begun to seek ways to cut costs while remaining at UD. He is even entertaining the notion of moving another state championship, wrestling’s individual meet, to the Carpenter Center.

Likewise, Blue Hens athletic director Chrissy Rawak knows having DIAA events at Delaware's premier NCAA Division I venues is beneficial for UD, which has a marketing campaign using the statewide 302 area code, and the community.

“I absolutely love it for so many reasons,” Rawak said of hosting DIAA championships. “I think we do a really good job of putting a first-class event on, an experience for these student-athletes and their fans. … They’re competing for a state championship; they’re deserving of a first-class experience.”

She added that providing such a setting “is part of our responsibility as a whole. It’s really being as integrated and as involved in our community as possible.”

There’s a great attraction in holding DIAA events at UD sites.

“We’re hoping to build the brand to the point where all of these championships sell out,” Baylor said. “Delaware has the parking and infrastructure in place, plus the kids like to go to a college setting for a championship. And it provides a neutral site.”

UD prices high in comparison

The DIAA has faced high and rising prices for renting other UD facilities.

Annual costs for the boys and girls basketball semifinal doubleheaders and the girls, boys and Unified finals at the Carpenter Center was $42,604 in 2022, $50,240 in 2023 and is estimated to be $55,616 when the 2024 bill comes. That’s a 30% increase in two years.

The cost to hold girls volleyball at the Carpenter Center has also soared, though the DIAA did add a second day last fall when semifinals were also held at UD following controversy over where 2022 matches took place. It was an $8,182 price tag in 2021, $10,853 in 2022 and soared to $23,777 last fall.

The biggest increase, more than 51%, was at Rullo Stadium, which provides field hockey players with the AstroTurf playing surface ideal for that sport. It was $8,711 in 2022 and $13,186 in 2023 for Division I and II semifinal double-headers on separate nights followed by the two title games a few days later.

The price for softball rose 40% from the DIAA’s first venture to UD’s field in 2022 ($3,370) to 2023 ($4,722).

The most stable costs have been for swimming, held at the Harry Rawstrom Natatorium in Carpenter Sports Building for more than 40 years. They were $14,101 in 2022 and $16,493 this year.

“There are unions that we have on our campus representing custodians and police that we use for all of our events,” Rawak said, “and there are certain prices that are established and set in contracts that we don’t have any control over.”

The presence of CSC Security staff, the easy-to-spot people in yellow jackets at UD events, also adds to that cost. That’s actually one area Rawak and Baylor have discussed lowering prices by having volunteers from DIAA member schools partially stepping into that role.

When the 2021 football title games were at Delaware Stadium, some COVID-19 limited-attendance protocols were still in place that lowered the cost, according to UD. That included fewer CSC workers, police and other staff.

Cost increases for the 2022 football finals included CSC ($6,891); stadium cleaning ($2,405); a fire alarm technician ($1,104); media services ($1,083); UD police ($695) and what the university termed “small increases for ambulance, printing, electrician, plumber parking” and other expenses.

“Chrissy is actively working with us to find ways to reduce these costs,” Baylor said.

DIAA championships much cheaper off UD's campus

UD rental rates are in stark contrast to what the DIAA pays to off-campus sites for its championships. It's particularly inexpensive for DIAA events held at high school sites, such as Dover for boys soccer, boys lacrosse and outdoor track and field, Smyrna for the state wrestling team championships and Saint Andrew’s and others for tennis.

One of the state’s premier state championship sites is Frawley Stadium, home of the Class A minor-league Wilmington Blue Rocks, for the baseball semifinals and finals. Though Frawley Stadium’s rental cost has also risen of late, it is presently just $8,000, a huge bargain compared with what the DIAA pays for UD venues.

The DIAA pays even less to hold its annual cross-country championships at Killens Pond and Brandywine Creek state parks ($5,914); girls lacrosse ($7,922) and girls soccer ($5,489) at Delaware State’s Alumni Stadium; and indoor track at the Prince George’s Sports & Learning Complex in Landover, Maryland ($3,450). Information was not available for golf, which is held at a rotating set of club courses.

But UD is an attractive location for championships, Baylor said, because it has plenty of parking, first-rate facilities and people adept at organizing and conducting occasions that attract crowds.

“Being able to compete for a championship at the university is something that is recognized as a really special experience,” Rawak said. “I want to give our staff a lot of credit because they’re practiced and they put on a great event and a great experience for these young people.”

Wrestling in, football out?

The state wrestling individual championships are held at Cape Henlopen High, where there are not enough seats to always accommodate fans.

As a result, the DIAA is looking into the possibility of moving those individual championships to the Carpenter Center for a one-day extravaganza, knowing how popular the annual December Beast of the East tournament is there.

Beast organizers have said their costs are $70,000 for three days. Also, Delaware’s basketball teams are busy using the Carpenter Center in late February. Availability, therefore, may be an obstacle, as well as cost.

“The whole idea,” Baylor said, “is this an experience. We want to give them the best stage to be playing on for a state championship, and for a lot of kids this will be the final stage they play on.

“If we can move wrestling there, that would be the optimum experience, just like basketball.”

Baylor added that “nothing is off the table right now,” including possibly moving football back to one all-day event or perhaps out of Delaware Stadium into a more intimate environment.

The DIAA football title games do not come close to filling the 18,500-seat Delaware Stadium, while Delaware State’s 7,000-seat Alumni Stadium has also hosted those games and provides a more intimate setting.

“Part of the championship atmosphere is a full venue,” Baylor said. “Are we really providing the championship atmosphere? You’re not seeing that crowd at the high school championship. Are we really doing a disservice to the kids by putting them in that environment, even though it’s the University of Delaware?”

UD, state sometimes at odds

The DIAA is an arm of the Delaware Department of Education. The university and the state government have, at times, had somewhat of an uncomfortable relationship.

Despite its name, the University of Delaware is a “privately governed, state-assisted” institution, according to its charter, long ago fashioned in conjunction with the General Assembly. Because of that, UD is not required to divulge some information regarding expenditures, such as salaries. It also, therefore, does not have to submit to some Freedom of Information Act scrutiny.

That’s despite the fact the university annually receives significant appropriations from the state, including $135 million in the state’s 2023-24 fiscal year budget, with nearly 75% of that going to operational costs. UD is asking the state for $146 million in the 2024-25 fiscal budget. The university's annual operating budget is $1.2 billion. It is also seeking more than $50 million for capital improvements.

Last year UD would not, for the first time, submit information for USA Today’s annual report on school athletic revenues and expenses and the Knight-Newhouse College Athletics Database. It said that was because no state money supported the athletic department's operating budget. A Freedom of Information Act request submitted by Delaware Online/The News Journal to get that information was rejected.

The incongruity of UD athletics distancing itself from the public in such a way is that many Blue Hen teams play in facilities built and/or improved with the aid of state money, including the Carpenter Center, Delaware Stadium and most recently the softball stadium, which will be renovated with the aid of state money.

Delaware Sen. Nicole Poore, a New Castle Democrat, who chaired the DIAA task force, said discussions that took place have helped foster a better relationship with the state’s universities. That led to including Delaware and Delaware State athletic directors as non-voting members of a revamped DIAA board of directors.

In addition, that stirred the conversation about UD facility costs, how to reduce them and how the DIAA, which builds its budget off state championship event proceeds, could possibly make those more profitable.

“Until this conversation took place at the task force,” Poore said, “I’m not sure that it was an open conversation. So I think what happened was, by having that conversation, it bubbled to the top and it brought everybody to the table.

“You don’t know what you don’t know, right? If nothing else, the conversation got started and the light bulb went off about what can we do to work together?”

Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com and follow on Twitter @kevintresolini. Support local journalism by subscribing to delawareonline.com and our DE Game Day newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: High rental cost of University of Delaware facilities worries DIAA