The Clemson Univ. athletics department "might join its peers by implementing a student tax to supplement" its $72M budget, according to Ed McGranahan of the Columbia STATE. A plan to "levy $350 annually" beginning with '15-16 freshmen would raise another $6M a year "as a brace for escalating expenses." Clemson currently "does not have athletics fees, and students can attend athletic events at no cost." Though an official proposal "has not been tendered and additional fees require sanction by the board of trustees, conversations about the student fee began shortly after Dan Radakovich arrived as AD nearly two years ago." Radakovich said, "It’s about putting something into effect that will allow Clemson athletics to be strong for the next decade and beyond. It is currently a revenue source that is not tapped.” McGranahan noted "most, if not all," members of the ACC levy student athletic fees. Current Clemson undergrads "would not be affected, and grad students could have an option to participate or not." Meanwhile, the athletics operating budget "will likely finish" the '14-15 school year with a surplus. Radakovich "anticipated steadily increasing costs in health care for student-athletes, employee benefits, travel in the expanded ACC and marketing potentially outstripping recent gains in tickets sales, donor levels and TV revenue" (Columbia STATE, 11/12).
