Long Beach St. Football May Be Dropped : Community Asked to Help End Fiscal Deficit, Newspaper Reports

The Cal State Long Beach football program may be dropped in order to solve a fiscal deficit being run up by the school’s athletic department, a newspaper reported Thursday.

Long Beach President Stephen Horn has asked the community to raise $300,000 by the end of the year or the football program will be dropped, the Long Beach Press-Telegram reported.

Horn said that if the initial figure is raised, another $500,000 will have to be raised by June, 1987, if the program is to be continued.

If the football program is dropped, the university will save $1 million annually after players and coaches are relocated, the newspaper reported.

Horn made the announcement Tuesday at an emotional four-hour meeting, set up to let representatives of the community and university know that the proposal was being considered.

“I told them that I had before me the most difficult decision . . . in my 17 years here, and I did not intend to make that decision without input from the people who had been with us through thick and thin,” Horn said.

According to the newspaper, Long Beach’s athletic department has a deficit of $719,000 and it will grow to more than $1 million by June, 1987. The school’s athletic budget is about $4 million annually.

The issue behind the possible decision is the $700,000 needed annually to pay for athletic grants-in-aid. That money comes from three sources of revenue: game receipts, game guarantees and community contributions.

Each grant-in-aid at Long Beach is valued at about $4,800 for in-state students and $8,000 for out-of-state students.

“And the current level of contributions and the current level of attendance is simply insufficient to fund our current level of grants-in-aid,” Horn said.

The Press-Telegram said that four years ago Horn announced that he would approve an increase in the number of football grants-in-aid from 55 to 85 “if the community would support the increase.”

The extra grants were handed out even though the extra money needed was never received by the school.

A decision was made in August to drop the program. However, Horn decided after a recent game to rethink the decision, the newspaper reported.

After Horn met with school officials last Friday, it was decided that the issue should be discussed with university and community leaders, which led to Tuesday’s meeting.

Many at the meeting said they believed that the community will respond to the challenge of raising the needed funds.

“I don’t think football is dead,” said Fran Schaafsma, a former university administrator and coach who was on hand. “Based on the people who were there, and the commitment they made, I think there will be an overwhelming show of support.”