After months of speculation, Northeastern Athletics Director Peter Roby announced a series of recommendations aimed at committing additional resources and funding into the university’s 19 sports programs.
The plan, announced Tuesday following a review panel that met twice at the end of last year, includes launching an athletics-specific fundraising effort in conjunction with the university’s development office. The fundraising push will be headed by George Behrakis, who graduated from Northeastern in 1957 and has since given more than $8 million to the university.
“George gets asked to lead in many capacities, and the fact that he chose to lend his credibility and support and commitment to Northeastern to benefit athletics is a tremendous affirmation of what we’re trying to achieve,” Roby said during a press conference in the Makris Varsity Room at Matthews Arena.
The recommendations, which Roby said are still pending approval from the university’s board of trustees, included plans to increase funding. This funding can be invested in coaches and scholarships for student athletes, 40 of whom are just shy of being completely supported.
Roby also said he intends to develop a long-term concept for improving existing athletics facilities, citing examples from upgrading the turf at Parsons Field to renovating the locker rooms in Matthews. He said he is “committed to working with a number of constituency groups at Northeastern to find a solution.”
Not left off the table was the potential for a multipurpose athletics facility, which has been a perennial discussion since the university approved a recreation fee for students in 2004.
Administrators at the time said they would use the fee to contribute one-third, or $10 million, of the stadium’s projected cost. The mandatory tag has since covered admission for students to attend home athletic events as well as the use of current athletic facilities.
“As much as there might have been conversations on the periphery” with city officials about building a stadium in the past, Roby said, “it’s really not part of the conversation until it’s part of the master plan,” referring to the institutional blueprint of construction projects designed to integrate development with the surrounding neighborhoods.
Roby had been conducting an assessment and preparing recommendations for the future of the department since he was named to its top post last June.
The financial overhead associated with funding a football program made many Husky fans speculate the possibility of the sport being cut, after Roby indicated to The News last October that he was considering eliminating a program in an effort to realign his department’s financial resources.
Two months later, following the conclusion of the review panel, Roby told an alumni group there was “no reason to believe” Northeastern would not be playing football four years from now, an intention that was reaffirmed Tuesday.
Roby said he learned from the review that “there is a large and growing faction of Northeastern’s community that is passionate about Husky athletics,” and said “athletics plays a vital role in the future of Northeastern as an institution.”
Northeastern football headcoach Rocky Hager, who attended the press conference alongside administrators and a majority of review panel members, said he was glad to put the “negative buzz” behind him and the team.
“When Peter addressed us previously, meaning myself and recruits, the statement that he made was, ‘yes, you can expect a full five-year experience at Northeastern, and that would include football,” Hager said. “I would say that was a pretty good indicator that we were coming out of the storm maybe a little wet but we weren’t going to drown.”
