Colby rugby’s $2.5 Million problem

We have been following the surprising announcement by Colby College to cease funding the Men’s and Women’s rugby teams following the Spring 2014 season. (See notice that was reposted onto the Colby Facebook page below.

https://www.facebook.com/colbycollege/posts/10153536827020245

According to Colby, the decision was made “against a backdrop of increased concern over college costs and a growing awareness of the health and safety risks of a high collision/contact sport…”. Reaction has been swift, including an online petition that has already received more than 3,000 signatures.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/save-colby-rugby

Certainly the reference to player safety being a priority is admirable. Many, many thoughtful comments have been posted on Facebook and elsewhere, among the more notables I saw were ones by Sam Kaplan and Jack Clark. Clark’s in particular was interesting, as he cautioned against falling into an “us v them” mentality. Since Clark has recent experience with school administrators cutting funding, his thoughts are valuable.

The eye-popping number with the announcement was that Colby stated the cost of running the men’s and women’s teams would run about $115,000, which surely made everyone associated with any rugby club in the country wonder what would be included in that number. Other than conference fees (maybe $1000), USA Rugby fees (maybe $1000), coaches (a reported $10,000), busses to away games (maybe 5,000), referee’s fees (maybe $1000); if the team doesn’t have to rent practice and game fields, the majority of the other costs are minimal or borne by the players individually.

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Without a breakdown of the $65,000, it is somewhat of a guessing game to wonder how that number was arrived at. Let’s look at the costs for a certified athletic trainer. How many hours a week would a trainer be needed? Six hours practice per week, plus another three for home games. Throw in some office hours, but still likely a max of ten hours per week. Even if both teams played all home games, and had no economies of scale from sharing the same practice field, probably no more than twenty hours per week. With the teams playing ten weeks in the Fall and ten in the Spring, that’s 400 hours max. Even at an hourly rate of $100, that’s still only $40,000. If the trainer traveled, of course, that might change the numbers somewhat, or if there was a minimum number of hours required to get coverage, and if they required an ambulance to be available that might drastically change everything.

So maybe the school wanted to hire a full time person rather than paying an hourly rate to the local provider. OK, fine. If the school hired a full time person at say, $50K, could not those costs be spread out among other varsity sports / club sports/ general safety? Why hit the rugby clubs a full time charge for part time coverage? It does not seem to make sense.

That leaves coaching salary, perhaps a budget of $50K to cover both teams. Of the 200+ coaches in New England, very few coaches are paid much more than a stipend. This would make such a salary very attractive. But would you leave your job, perhaps relocate your family for such a salary for a job like this? No recruitment budget probably, and a recent track record from Colby demonstrating somewhat less than stellar college support for the game?

More back of the envelope calculations suggest the rugby players contribute some $2M to the College each year, one could conclude some portion of that would be allocated towards funding of school total budget for club rugby was activities such as club sports?  Or are we getting into an “us v them” mentality again?

The clubs have apparently been told that if they come up with a fund of $2.5 million the clubs will be funded. Approximately a 5% return or drawdown on that number would be required annually.

Very little seems to add up here, perhaps we are missing something?