Hansen's notebook: U of A president's callous remarks on 'firing people,' ticket prices don't add up

The Star's longtime columnist also on PCC's impressive 2023 sports hall class, how Reid Park plan is senselessly compromising to Tucson's golf jewel, Rincon coaches Rich Utter (boys basketball) and Roxanne Taylor (boys soccer) approach 500 wins, and more.  

Greg Hansen's Sunday Notebook is presented by Rite Way Heating, Cooling & Plumbing.

UA athletic director Heeke: Hiring freeze in play (not 'firing') amid financial issues

University of Arizona president Robert Robbins last week said the school's athletic department is "firing people, laying off people.'' He said the school would raise ticket prices 25%, adding "we are probably 30 years behind our peers in increasing prices.''

Those callous words send a shudder through the halls of McKale Center, through 276 athletic department employees. It was a jolt to the school's fan base, especially those in the mid-level seats at McKale, those who already pay $5,000 to $75,000 over five years for the right to buy those tickets.

It was a bad look for Robbins, Tucson's most visible sports fan, a message that the UA sports community would pay for a blundering administration's $240 million miscalculation in projected cash reserves.

I've studied UA sports history for decades and can't find another crisis to match Robbins' decree to fire people and jack up ticket prices by unimaginable sums. What about those loyal football supporters who pay $3,999 per ticket to sit in the Sands Club each season? That's not enough?

In 1981, Arizona eliminated three sports (wrestling, men's gymnastics and water polo), faced a two-year NCAA punishment for football violations and had difficulty selling even 6,000 seats at McKale Center during the collapse of Fred Snowden’s basketball program.

But that's peanuts compared to Robbins' financial crisis of 2023. Can you imagine how the perception might affect recruiting for all sports?

On Friday, I asked UA athletic director Dave Heeke about the school's uncertain future.

"This isn't the end of athletics or our programs,'' he said, calmly.

Heeke has assured his head coaches that there is no plan to eliminate sports. He is not firing people, although there is a hiring freeze; the department's workforce is being trimmed through attrition. Positions related to health and safety — training and medical staffs — will remain fully manned.

Resources for the nation's 14th-ranked football team and No. 1-ranked men's basketball will not be diminished.

If there's any acknowledged pressure, it is on the athletic department's 16-person development department, the fund-raisers, to increase their bottom line.

The root cause of the athletic department's enormous financial problem — reported to include unpaid loans back to the university ranging between $55 million and $87 million — is a result of the perfect storm of the early '20s; the pandemic year created a shortfall of about $50 million, the implementation of Names, Image and Likeness funding soon followed, average football attendance hit a 50-year low of about 39,000 during the failed Kevin Sumlin years, and the UA is paying full price to each scholarship athlete for cost of attendance.

More? Building projects have accelerated the last few years: the construction of an indoor football facility, the expensive rebuild of Hillenbrand softball stadium and the costly re-do of the Hillenbrand Aquatics Center, about $10 million of improvements to the Lowell-Stevens Football Facility and cost of keeping up with the Joneses in football, which includes larger support staffs and attendant salaries. Has Jedd Fisch been offered a contract extension with a raise? Yes.

Robbins inflamed the issue by declaring unprecedented increases in ticket prices. His claim that the UA is at the bottom of the Pac-12 in pricing is not accurate.

I studied the ticket pricing charts of every Pac-12 school last week and found (1) tickets at McKale Center are the most expensive in the league, by far; and (2) Cal, Stanford, Oregon State, Washington State and UCLA all charge less for football tickets than Arizona.

For example, courtside tickets at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion peak at $17,500. Arizona's courtside tickets soar to $25,000 and beyond. Oregon is charging from $10 to $58 for single-game tickets against Arizona on Jan. 27. At McKale, an upper deck seat in section 205, the worst seat in the house, costs $470 per year, or $25 per game.

It's not like the UA's athletic department is overstaffed. According to the school's website, ASU has 341 full-time employees in its athletic department. Arizona: 276.

According to the U.S. Department of Education's Equity in Athletics financial figures for fiscal year 2022, every school in the Pac-12 — big-money football programs Oregon and Washington included — do little more than break even, revenues vs. expenditures.

But it's those "bridge loans" — paying off a nine-figure stadium renovation or, as Utah is about to do, build a $35 million baseball facility — that saddle each school with a debt service that seems insurmountable. Cal has a $26 million yearly debt payment on its football stadium through 2053.

The next move up to Robbins. He is scheduled to deliver a university-wide financial plan to the Arizona Board of Regents this week. Let's hope that rather than inflame a critical situation, he has a plan that walks UA sports fans back from the ledge.

Pima College's Class of ’23 impressive

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

Pima College will celebrate its half-century of sports competition Sunday when it inducts its second sports Hall of Fame class at the school's west campus gymnasium, 5 p.m.

Of particular interest will be the induction of four major-league baseball players from Southern Arizona: Palo Verde High third baseman Jack Howell, Pueblo third baseman George Arias, Nogales pitcher Gilbert Heredia and Rincon pitcher Jason Jacome.

All played at PCC during the Rich Alday-Roger Werbylo years, in which the Aztecs reached the NJCAA championship games of 1985 and 1992. What's impressive is that Howell, Arias, Heredia and Jacome weren't considered elite recruits, but, combined, they went on to play 1,456 games in 31 MLB seasons. All have made baseball their life's work; Howell and Heredia are still coaching minor-league baseball.

What you might not know is that PCC produced a pro football player during its brief period operating a football program. Pima went 9-3 and was ranked No. 5 nationally under coach Jeff Scurran in 2004. Its key player, linebacker Mickey Pimental, who will be inducted Sunday, went on to make 91 tackles for the Cal Bears and then play two seasons for the NFL's Atlanta Falcons.

Rincon coaches Utter, Taylor near 500 victories

This could be a week to remember, an unprecedented week of Tucson prep sports, as Rincon/University High School coaches Rich Utter (boys basketball) and Roxanne Taylor (boys soccer) could reach 500 coaching victories at the school.

After beating Ironwood Ridge on Thursday, Utter has 498 victories dating 35 seasons.

The Rangers play three games this week, including Thursday against Mica Mountain and Friday at Catalina Foothills.

Taylor, who has coached Rincon to three state championships since the mid-1980s, won her 499th game last week against Skyline. The Rangers will play at Desert View on Thursday at 6 p.m.

The only boys basketball coach in Tucson history to reach 500 victories is Sahuaro's Dick McConnell. The only boys soccer coach in Tucson to reach 500 is Salpointe's Wolfgang Weber. Utter and Taylor will soon join them.

Short stuff: Cats could've used Conner's 3s; won't' be easy for next Salpointe football coach

• There were times last season at McKale Center when I thought UA distance shooting ace Madison Conner, a sophomore, would become a break-out star for Adia Barnes’ women's basketball team. But she received inconsistent and limited playing time, averaging 4.8 points. Unhappy with her role, she transferred to TCU. This year, she leads the 8-0 Horned Frogs with a 22.1 scoring average, including a school-record 41 last week against Tulsa. She swished 10 3-pointers that day. Of all the transfers who left Barnes' program, almost all were not missed. Conner and Colorado's Netty Vonleh (15.3 points per game) are the exceptions. ...

• Arizona All-Pac-12 tackle Jordan Morgan last week became the first Southern Arizona offensive lineman since San Manuel's Warner Smith (1994) and Sabino's Jeff Kiewel (1982) to make the all-conference first team. I wondered if the Marana program has another where Morgan came from, and was impressed to watch the 2023 highlight film of junior offensive tackle Tyler Evans. At 6-4, 275 pounds (with a 3.4 GPA) Evans looks to be a strong prospect. He has already received offers from Division II schools in Utah and Nebraska. Last week, Evans was chosen to the 5A All-Region team and is now being discovered by major-college recruiters. Keep your eyes on him. ...

• When Salpointe Catholic and football coach Eric Rogers parted ways last week — he was 35-12 in four seasons — it was a reflection on how high school football at the highest level has changed the Lancers. The former CDO baseball/football standout had prepared for the Salpointe job by coaching for almost 20 years at Salpointe, Tucson, Pima College and CDO. Somehow, with four kids and a full-time job at a commercial cleaning operation, Rogers kept Salpointe competitive as it moved into a high-level 6A league with Phoenix teams. But the landscape changed. It all felt different. Salpointe's home schedule was a bunch of strangers: Mountain Pointe, Corona del Sol, Valley Vista and Desert Vista. Its road games were all in Phoenix. By comparison, when Dennis Bene coached Salpointe to the 2013 state title, the Lancers had home games with traditional foes Sabino, Sunnyside and Tucson and road games at Rincon/University, Ironwood Ridge and Mountain View. Times have changed. Expectations are extreme in an unfamiliar setting. Good luck to Rogers' successor. It's going to be difficult to find someone to match his record. ...

• When underdog Delaware upset Sean Miller’s Xavier basketball team last week in Cincinnati, Delaware guard Jalun Trent scored a game-high 27 points. Jalun Trent? Sound familiar? He was an All-ACCAC player on Cochise College coach Jerry Carrillo’s Region champions of 2021 and 2022, a key rival of Brian Peabody’s top teams at Pima College. Trent was the Region defensive player of the year at Cochise, the type of player Miller or any coach could use.

My two cents: Expensive Reid Park plan senseless, compromises Tucson golf jewel

The Tucson City Council this week is scheduled to discuss the senseless plan to spend $29 million to remake the Randolph North golf course, shrink its footprint and damage the Dell Urich Golf Course — the jewel of Southern Arizona municipal courses — by eliminating hole Nos. 2, 3, 4 and compromising the No. 7 hole.

The key component of the plan is to put a pedestrian walkway between the two courses, eliminating Randolph hole Nos. 1, 2, 10 and 11, and creating more green space for the public with about 50 acres taken from the golf course.

One problem is that Dell Urich is also a water detention basin. Altering that layout would create a years-long study and plan from both the Army Corps of Engineers and the Pima County flood control district. That would cost millions.

This unnecessary shutdown and rebuild of the Randolph Golf Complex would come at the expense of attention to Tucson's police, fire and road issues, all of which should be a priority to an unnecessary golf course re-do. Money could be better spent on a combination of all the other recreation parks in Tucson.

Three years ago, the city had the opportunity to get the backing of the Tucson Conquistadores and the UA for a project that would rebuild the Randolph course. But the city dallied and lost that support: the UA moved on and spent $15 million to build a golf complex at Tucson Country Club. The Conquistadors signed a contract through 2027 to hold the PGA Tour Champions event at La Paloma Golf Club.

Talk about missing the boat.