$20 million payday for one game

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BLACKSBURG -- There's a lot of haggling to do before a $40 million football game matching Tennessee against Virginia Tech at Bristol Motor Speedway becomes reality, but Tech athletic director Jim Weaver is dreaming about what he could do with an extra $20 million.

O. Bruton Smith, the chairman and CEO of Speedway Motorsports, Inc., is prepared to offer the universities $20 million each to play at the track in Bristol, Tenn. SMI owns Bristol Motor Speedway and five other tracks where NASCAR Nextel Cup events are held. Weaver said he had e-mail correspondence Friday with Jeff Byrd, president and general manager of the track. Smith said Thursday he would knock down all the structures on the infield of the track at Bristol to build an artificial turf football field for the game. He also said he'd increase the track's seating capacity from 160,000 to 175,000 for the game.

Meanwhile, Weaver is already pondering how to make the game fit in Tech's schedule, and how much of a boost $20 million could give to upgrading athletic facilities.

"If they're interested in paying Tennessee $20 million and Virginia Tech $20 million, I'm betting (Tennessee athletic director) Mike Hamilton and Jim Weaver could work it out," Weaver said. "We'd be fools if we didn't."

Weaver said $20 million would pay for a new field house that would serve as a football indoor practice facility, plus new practice courts for the men's and women's basketball teams. He said those are the next two construction projects on the agenda when the $52.5 million project on the west side of Lane Stadium is complete.

Tech doesn't have any openings on its football schedule through the 2011 season, but Weaver said openings may soon emerge in seasons between '06 and '09.

He did not discuss how the openings would come about, or if he is in negotiations with other universities about vacating games.

Check out last season's Bowl Championship Series payouts to get a better perspective on how much $20 million equals for one athletics program.

The Big 12 Conference received $14 million when Oklahoma played in the Orange Bowl national championship game against Southern California. The conference got an additional $4.5 million when Texas played in the Rose Bowl against Michigan. That's $18.5 million for one conference putting teams in arguably the two biggest games of the season.

So, an additional $20 million would obviously be a huge increase in Tech's athletic department's annual operating budget. The budget for the current year, which ends June 30, 2006, is $34.5 million, according to Randy Butt, Tech's associate athletic director for financial affairs. The money pays for normal daily operations of the department, scholarships and maintenance.

Tech's budget also does not include money allocated toward construction projects, like the west side or south end zone projects in Lane Stadium. The cost of the two projects combined was $89.5 million. Tech raised $15 million from Hokie Club donations for south end zone construction, and has raised about $13.9 million of a targeted $15 million in club donations for the west side, according to Butt. Naming rights on the west side will cover an additional $10 million. The remaining $49.5 million has been financed and is being paid via suite and ticket sales and a $3 surcharge on all tickets.

http://www.dailypress.com/sports/motorracing/dp-74568sy0aug27,0,2187126,print.story?coll=dp-sports-auto

[Markeymark]

No way they will pay out that kind of dough.

The only one benefiting so far is the racetrack with all the publicity.

Do the math.

[BigShoop]

I think it would be great for everyone.

How can a game, for ANY college football team, be bad if yuo have 160,000 fans in attendance?!