virginia tech announces 'reach for excellence' campaign

Chris Hirons

April 20, 2021

BLACKSBURG — For several years, Virginia Tech has contemplated what to do in order to ‘Keep up with Joneses’, a trend that requires athletic departments to shell out massive amounts of money in order to stay relevant in today’s state of collegiate athletics.

For Virginia Tech, a school with a football team that has been meddling in merocity for the past half-decade, the price tag to stay relevant comes out to be around $400 million to fund facilities, salaries and athletic scholarships, a figure expected to be raised by December 2027.

Tuesday morning, Virginia Tech’s athletic department announced its “Reach for Excellence” campaign, a part of the state-funded university’s “Boundless Impact: The Campaign for Virginia Tech”, which is designed to raise $1.5 billion for Tech.

“We are going to advance our athletics budget into the top third of the ACC,” school president Tim Sands said.

According to Athletic Director Whit Babcock, the department has already raised $150 million of its $400 million goal since the campaign began in 2017.

Tech’s athletic department currently operates with a budget around $100 million each year. Babcock wants to raise that number to around $125 million in order to compete with the best in the ACC and around college athletics. Seven years ago, Tech’s budget was significantly less — around $63 million.

Like most schools and businesses around the country, the pandemic took its toll on the Hokies’ athletics budget. In FY2020, Tech fell short by about $2 million and in 2021, the athletic department is looking at a shortfall of $15 million, though the department was able to work the deficit down from its initial $47 million figure.

“Many of our staff have heard us use the analogy of a pitstop,” Babcock said. “All 15 schools in the ACC are coming into the pits about the same time after the toughest year ever — All of our cars are damaged. We are working to come out of the pits quickly and in a better, faster, more efficient car to gain ground on our momentum.”

Highlighting the campaign, a ‘football enhancement fund’ is set to allocate $30 million over the next five years for recruiting, assistant coaches salaries, quality control coaches, facilities and player development.

“We must give the money to be competitive in the ACC,” Babcock said. “We must move from the challenger to champion brand. … Our goal is to win ACC championships in football, get to the College Football Playoff and win the National Championship.”

Immediately, the plan is to renovate the football team's player lounge, which is set to start in July and be completed by the start of the season. A revamp of the team's training room and locker room are in the works to be renovated next. Babcock and head coach Justin Fuente echoed the football team’s needs for additional meeting space and offices.

Some of the money that has already been raised has been put into a new $4.5 million weight room that was unveiled a few weeks ago, and a $20 million dining center for all student-athletes. The weight room was retrofitted with new weights and the money has allowed the team to add more support staff roles — eight have been added in recent years.

“I’ve been really interested in the student-development part of it,” Fuente said. “I think it’s a part where we have chances for potential growth here. It’s not necessarily academics, it’s not football, but it’s everything in between.”

The university also pledged that $75 million — $50 million of the figure has already been raised, the other $25 million is budgeted to come from ticket and suite sales — will go towards further renovations of Cassell Coliseum, which include enhanced club seating, a glass entrance along Washington Street, an extended concourse for fan access and more amenities. The renovations will begin “as quickly as the funding comes in,” Babcock said.

The renovations to the 50-year-old building are expected to be completed over the course of the next ‘four-to-five years’. The construction will lower capacity from around 9,250 seats to just under 9,000 seats to make room for the new club seating.

“It is loud, it is uniquely Virginia Tech,” Babcock said. “We just want to spruce it up a little bit, generate some revenue, some point of sale and get people club seating options, and other things. But it’ll still have a great student section, and we’re going to be really proud of it.”

In the last five years, Babcock said that the department’s Hokie Club membership had increased from 10,000 donors to 20,000, which took the Hokies from ninth to fourth in the ACC. Babcock expressed the need for more donors to join the club in order to fund the school’s growing budget needs.

The school is also pushing donors to give additional endowments, which will go towards athletic scholarships. According to Babcock, the athletic department already has $70 million in scholarship endowments that foot just under $3 million of the school’s annual $16 million scholarship bill.

“We never have to find [the money],” Babcock said. “It’s always there to fund scholarships.”

And finally in the last part of the plan, the athletic department plans to spend the remaining funds on improving all 22 of the the Hokies’ varsity sports in multiple ways  — operating expenses, recruiting, facilities improvements, nutrition, strength and conditioning, academic services, psychology and former player relations.

“As far as the campaign number, $400 million, it’s pretty aggressive,” Babcock said. “It’s going to take a lot of work and a few years to get there, but again, we felt like it was bold, and we don’t need to take a back seat to anybody.”