We could soon have a new addition to the college football landscape. Today and tomorrow, UNO students will vote whether to pay a fee to build a UNO Privateers football team.
UNO Director of Athletics Tim Duncan says this is hardly a whim -- they have been working on this for a while.
"Two years ago we commissioned a study to look at adding football and what the benefits are, and the main benefit we want it to do, and what it's proven to do at urban commuter campuses like ours, is to increase enrollment," said Duncan. "We studied six other institutions who are urban commuter campuses, and it increased-- after five or six years, it increased enrollment by 37 percent."
Duncan says that is what happened at schools like UT-San Antonio, the University of South Alabama, Georgia State, Charlotte, and Old Dominion.
And UNO has been struggling with enrollment, Duncan says from a peak of around 17,000, they have fallen to around 7,000.
"We need a significant boost," he said. "In order to make a dramatic leap, we need to do something dramatic."
The student fee would be up to $400 per semester, and would not only create football, but also a marching band, and women's soccer and women's golf teams.
Duncan says they also have plans for a lakefront stadium of around 15 to 20,000 capacity. He says that would not be paid for by students, but by private donations.
