UW Basketball = Cash Money

Step 1: Hire Romar
Step 2: Profit

The most pertinent line in this recent Seattle PI article was:
"Basketball donations at the UW have increased from $250,000 during Romar's first season, 2002-03, to $2.5 million last year."

That's a ten fold increase in just 4 years. While this bodes well for the future of UW basketball, it is directly linked to increased season ticket prices, which sucks for me. I would expect this number to continue to climb as Romar piles on Sweet 16 appearances and continues to put players into the NBA. Boosters like winners. Additionally, long standing programs like Duke get millions from past players flush with NBA cash, and I would expect UW, who is winning with prominent local players, to see similar (by similar I mean less) give backs from Alumni.

While it's sad to say, cash is king in the world of college athletics, and fully funded teams have advantages over cash strapped programs. While Romar certainly doesn't need any help getting the players he wants, removing potential roadblocks from his path to a title will only make the journey smoother, and strong financial backing will make it harder for another school to pull him away from us.