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Director of Athletics Jim Sterk

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Join Washington State Director of Athletics Jim Sterk Friday, June 20 at 11:00 a.m. PDT.

Moderator: Good morning Cougar fans and thank you for visiting wsucougars.com and today's online chat with WSU Director of Athletics Jim Sterk. Before we begin, the next edition of Cougar Chats will be with Men's Basketball Coach Tony Bennett on Tuesday, June 24, at noon. Check back to wsucougars.com later today for more details. Jim thank you for joining us today.

Jim Sterk: I apologize for being a little late. I was conducting my annual evaluation with Coach Tony Bennett. I want to thank all Cougar Fans for their support this past year. It's been one of the most enjoyable and I'm looking forward to the future.

Moderator: Okay, let's get started.

Derek, Pullman: Hi Jim, can you provide us an update on Martin Stadium naming rights? I have heard an announcement may be coming but haven't seen anything yet. Thanks!

Jim Sterk: There's no impending announcement; however, we are working with our incoming media rights holder, ISP, on possibilities. Phases I and II are moving along and will be completed before this upcoming season. We will also have a new scoreboard and sound system for the stadium in operation for the first game, Sept. 6, versus California. It will create a great game day atmosphere for Paul Wulff's first season at WSU. For Phase III, we are just beginning the most public phase of seeking support for this $40 million project. You will continue to see more and more information come out this summer as plans develop. You can help us in two ways: either in donations to make the project become a reality, and also in purchasing premium seating.

Reed (San Francisco): I would like to know why there are no longer tickets available for away basketball games. I live in the Bay Area and want to see the cougs play, but i'm stuck buying tickets from the Cal ticket ofc, and trying to scramble and bid on tickets for Stanford, which are really difficult. What's happening to the WSU allotment of tickets?

Jim Sterk: Thank you for your question Reed. We are limited to 100 tickets to most away basketball games and from that, we need to accommodate players' parents and families. Because of the demand we have used the TPS system to fill any orders for the remaining available tickets. I appreciate the tremendous interest in our basketball program and I'm sorry we can't accommodate all the ticket requests we receive.

Bruce Johnson (Virginia Beach, WSU '74): Jim - My sincere thanks for your stewardship of our Athletic Department. Your enthusiasm, vision and dedication to our University is unequaled in my time. My questions are first...what is the liklihood of PAC-10 expansion? (Or is 10 teams optimal?) Second...I question the TV contracts for PAC-10 football and mens/womens basketball. At a glance, they don't seem to be as favorable as the contracts for other conferences (u$C being the notable exception). Are the conference TV contracts receiving any attention, with thought being to enhance coverage/viewership? Thanks, and GO COUGS!

Jim Sterk: Bruce, I do not see any expansion of the Pac-10 in the foreseeable future. The expansion that took place in other conferences was driven by the opportunity to capture more revenue from TV contracts and/or conference championship games. Four years ago, I was on the TV committee for the Pac-10 and asked an ABC vice-president whether the Pac-10 should be looking to expand or whether it would be a financial boost to current members. He did not think it would. In responding to your second question, the contracts for the Pac-10 in football and basketball were negotiated three years ago. We are in our second year of a five-year agreement. At that time, we explored all options and ESPN came in with ABC for football to hold our primary rights. We retained FOX as our secondary rights holder in football. In basketball, FOX was the primary cable network that was interested in broadcasting a complete season, as well as maximizing conference revenue.

Kyle (Pullman): What is the biggest challenge facing WSU athletics for the next 5 years, and what measures are being taken to address those concerns? Academics and athletics are synergistic to the WSU student experience and we appreciate your efforts as AD.

Jim Sterk: Kyle, I think the biggest challenge for us over the next five years is financial, which has a direct relationship to the long-term competitiveness of our programs. At present time, we are $11 million below the next lowest conference member in total budget. This comes at a time when we also are facing increased travel operations, salaries, benefits, and tuition increases for the department. Last year, if we would have sold all remaining football and basketball tickets for the year, we could have generated only $700,000 in additional revenue. This is why Phase III, and Phase IV in the future, of the stadium renovation is so important for the long-term financial solvency of our athletic program. As you may know, we are undertaking the Phase III portion of our stadium plans; premium seating revenue from Phase III will be able to generate almost as much as we generate with our current 35,000 seats in the stadium in ticket sales (i.e. $4 million in ticket sales for the year vs. approximately $3.7 million in premium seating). We will probably have to use a portion of the premium seating revenue to build and bond Phase III; however, once the bonds are paid, the entire amount will be free and clear to use as operational dollars. I probably won't be able to reap the full benefits of this because the bonds will be at 25 years (unless I rival Doc Bohler in tenure :) )

Terry(Coeur d'Alene): What new athletic facilities will be constructed this year beside the improvements at Martin Stadium?

Jim Sterk: Terry, facilities are extremely important to the success of our programs. It is important to have the right people to lead the program; however, if the facilities are not comparable with our competition, our coaches have a disadvantage in recruiting high-quality student-athletes to WSU. We don't have to have necessarily the most expensive or flashy facilities, but they need to be on a level playing field. In May, we broke ground on a new hydrotherapy building next to Holingbery track and the stadium. This will house hot and cold tubs as well as a state-of-the-art hydroworx underwater treadmill. This is needed to address both treatment of injuries as well as enhancing the recovery process. Also this summer, Bohler Pool will be renovated into an indoor rowing facility. This will allow our nationally-ranked rowing program to train throughout the winter. For the basketball programs we have a number of improvements to facilities occurring this summer. We are converting the larger PE gym into a beautiful practice facility for both our men's and women's programs. At the same time, the team's locker rooms in Bohler are being renovated as well as the women's soccer locker rooms. We are in the planning stages of a master plan for renovating the women's soccer field as well as a baseball press box. Improvements to Beasely is also on the horizon, both in the short-term and long-term.

Barry (Spokane): Why add Portland State to the football schedule. Nothing against them but is that really the direction you want Cougar football to take? We need higher caliber teams.

Jim Sterk: Thank you for the question Barry. The Pac-10 is one of the toughest conferences in the nation. A few years ago, with the addition of the 12th game, the league went to a nine-game schedule. In a conference such as ours, a school like Washington State University does not need, for bowl and positioning purposes, three other BCS games. In the SEC, Big 12, ACC, and Big East you will notice that those universities actually have more than one game in the Portland State category. My feeling is you need a tough enough schedule to prepare you for the Pac-10 but also one that helps build confidence and experience for our team to compete in a grueling nine-game schedule. If you look at our history, in 2003 for example, when we made it to the Rose Bowl, we had Nevada, Idaho, Ohio State and Montana State as our non-conference opponents.

Moderator: We have time for one more question.

Lewiston: We've enjoyed a tremendous increase in a higher caliber of sports with the Cougs recent basketball seasons; we're hoping for the same with our upcomiing football season. Recruitment and retainment of quality coaching staff is a factor for our continued success, have your expectations for finacial support through avenues such as AD's Fund for Basketball Excellence been met? And are you confident such funding mechanisms can provide the level of finacial support needed to continue retainment of our most appreciated coaching staff?

Jim Sterk: I feel we have a great group of coaches and staff in the department at this time. You are right, the external support is very important in the hiring and retention of those individuals. Last year, the basketball excellence fund drive came to a total of over $600,000 in cash and pledges. This year, it raised an additional $200,000. Although those efforts will not cover all of the increases in salaries and facility upgrades that are occurring, it sure helps in that effort. We cannot lose sight of the annual donations to our scholarship fund. This needs to remain as the primary focus of ensuring that our student-athletes have one of the best experiences in the nation. To drive home the point, our annual scholarship costs have reached over $5 million and is increasing around 7 percent every year. We currently raise just over $3 million in scholarship funding. I deeply appreciate your support in ticket purchases, donations, and sponsorships. This support is vital to us in our future success in the Pac-10 and nationally.

Moderator: That's all the time we have. Jim, thank you once again for joining us today.

Jim Sterk: Thank you. I appreciate all of your personal and financial support to WSU. I feel blessed to be your Athletics Director.

Moderator: Thank you to everyone for your questions. Please check back to wsucougars.com for future online chats, the next with Tony Bennett on Tuesday, June 24.