THE PACIFIC 10 TRACK AND FIELD MEET : For Dellinger, Budget Isn’t Very Ducky

In winning the Pacific 10 track and field championship Saturday at the Coliseum, the University of Oregon men did everything but sell tickets. Now it’s time to find out whether they can do that.

Even though track and field is the only sport in which the Ducks consistently excel on a national level, their budget for next year has been cut by $46,000 in an attempt by Athletic Director Bill Byrne to get out of the red and into the green.

The way Coach Bill Dellinger has it figured, by the time he pays three coaches their salaries and benefits and hands out the NCAA limit of 14 scholarships, he will have about $12,000 left over from his $202,000 budget to run the men’s track and field program.

“No-frills,” Dellinger called his program.

As a result, he is going to have to spend less time coaching and more time raising funds, including selling more season tickets to the meets at Hayward Field on Oregon’s Eugene campus.

How many more?

Dellinger said Saturday that he needs to sell at least 10,000 season tickets next year for the Ducks to have enough money to remain competitive.

How many season tickets did Oregon sell this year?

“About 900,” Dellinger said.

“It will be a real challenge,” he added.

His team learned something about challenges this weekend. Predicted to finish third, Oregon upset UCLA and Washington State. That left Dellinger in such high spirits that he did not dwell on his money troubles. He figured that the Ducks had spoken for him.

“I could not express it as eloquently as our track team showed it,” he said as the Ducks took a victory lap. “I’ll just say this has been a very satisfying day.”

But when the budget cut was announced this spring, Dellinger admitted he was “perturbed.”

It could have been worse for track and field. Byrne didn’t just cut the budgets for swimming and wrestling, he cut the sports.

Still, Dellinger said he felt too much of the burden for the athletic department’s financial difficulties have been placed on track and field.

After all, in Dellinger’s 14 years as Oregon’s coach, the Ducks have finished in the top 10 in the NCAA championship nine times, including first place in 1984. The conference championship Saturday was their second. They have finished second in the conference four times.

Shouldn’t that kind of success be rewarded, Dellinger wanted to know.

Actually, the Ducks might have been the victims of their success.

Because Oregon has been so competitive in the sport, Dellinger said that Bryne told him that track and field would have an easier time attracting donations than, say, women’s softball.

“I guess we’ll find out,” Dellinger said.

Even though people in Eugene like to say that they live in “Track Town, U.S.A.,” they have not been particularly supportive of the university’s programs.

According to Dellinger, the most season tickets Oregon has ever sold was 2,300. That was during a year in which the Olympic trials were in Eugene. Season ticket-holders received preference for seating at the trials.

It could be that track and field fans in Eugene are so accustomed to seeing some of the nation’s best meets that they won’t pay to see Oregon dual meets.

Since 1976, Eugene has hosted the Olympic trials twice and the NCAA championships once. The Mobil/TAC national championships will be held there this year. The Prefontaine meet is a regular on the international track and field calendar.

The university’s budget for men’s and women’s track and field this year was $470,000. The income they generated was $37,000. The women will have a budget next year for $194,000, down by $24,000.

“With a total budget of $7 million for athletics, the athletic director decided that we can’t continue to operate track and field at a $430,000 a year loss,” said Oregon’s sports information director, Steve Hellyer.

Hellyer suggested that the track and field budgets might have been cut even more if not for the tradition that Oregon has in the sports.

This is not a problem that is particular to Oregon. Washington State Coach John Chaplin, whose teams had won three straight Pacific 10 championships entering this weekend’s meet, said recently that his budget for next year has been cut significantly.

He said the Cougars may have to begin concentrating on competing regionally as opposed to nationally. They were second in the NCAA meet the last two years.

“In places where there’s not a lot of money left over from football and basketball, the track programs are going to be hurting,” Dellinger said.

“It could be that the big football powers like Alabama, Texas and Tennessee are going to dominate track and field because their athletic departments have money to spend on the non-revenue producing sports.”

But Dellinger said he is committed to Oregon, whether or not his track team continues to be no-revenue producing.

“I love Oregon,” he said. “I don’t plan on leaving. We have a great heritage. Whether we can continue it, I don’t know. But we’re going to make the effort.”