The pass is good for admittance to all Olympic Sports for the current school year. Kids enter free. Charge $200 - $300/pass. No pass, then admission costs $10/event. Last year there were approximately 125 to 130 Olympic events held here in Blacksburg. Just a thought.

So, there are ways to fundraise that are not being used.

With exclusive perks. Think mbb is “front court “. Understand several sports have been encouraged to establish similar groups.

to a lesser degree, basketball. They're the sports that will keep us in a big four conference or help us stay in the upper tier of college sports. We were in good shape in the late 90's and early 00's, but Whit's presentation made it obvious we're not there any more. I'm expecting fewer non-revenue sports, and the ones that survive will need to generate more of their own funding. I've advocated for years charging for wrestling tickets and creating events to draw in bigger crowds. This means things like tri- and quad-meets that make a trip to Blacksburg easier to justify. It could also mean a Christiansburg dual paired with a VT dual or a wrestling/basketball combination. Imagine a cold, dreary January weekend, but in Cassell a UNC/Stanford/VT tri-meet with duals at noon, 2 pm and 4 pm. I'd pay $20 for a ticket and make the drive to see that. I also think the wrestlers would like that format better - less weigh-ins during the season and bigger crowds for whom to perform.

A slightly lower % of 200M is probably a win compared to whatever our tiny % of $140M is right now. If the funding doesn't go through we need to win and self-fund as much as possible though. I am a big fan of tri-meets. Only one I wouldn't want in that format is NCSU and I'd pay for that ticket for one dual alone.

increase. $200MM is only the beginning, and we don't have the donor base, the numbers of alumni, the ticket revenue or the TV contract revenue of the large Big10 and SEC schools. And we don't have billionaires like Phil Knight or Larry Ellison pumping in money. I definitely agree with you on high profile duals like NC State, and also top out of conference duals like Ok State, Cornell and Ohio State. Heck, Stanford is going to be a big dual too.

Wrestling is partway there with SERTC, but still runs a significant deficit, which needs to be narrowed through a mix of increased fundraising and revenue generation (start charging for tickets, for example). The sports that get cut will be the ones that aren't winning and are losing significant money. Wrestling has been winning, but increasing revenues would provide insulation from whatever happens with football and basketball. ** Edited by UpperQuad at 8/20/2025, 11:34:08 PM

From my perspective AD's push for more funding is so that VT can be competitive in all sports in a similar manner that we are accustomed to. So as we have more money our sports should stay funded the same or better. If things don't get worked out, some major things are likely on a chopping block to bolster revenue sports. I am hopeful that it will all work out, but I wouldn't expect any significant boon for Olympic sports. ** Edited by TheFacts at 8/21/2025, 8:02:51 AM

a long way. Also, as you mentioned if it doesn't go through they could have to get creative in a negative way to get $$ toward football. I don't want to have to choose between success in football/wrestling the two sports I follow the most. Sounds like the BoV is responding positively though and we could hear something as soon as November.