Watch Missouri State football coach Ryan Beard on media day
Ryan Beard speaks to the media during the Missouri State football team’s annual media day at Plaster Stadium on Saturday, August 3, 2024.
Missouri State athletic director candidate Roger Denny said during a public forum that he would like to invest $100 million in the Bears football program and double the athletic department’s budget to become more successful.
Denny, the current chief operating officer and executive senior associate athletics director at the University of Illinois, was the first of three finalists to speak to the Missouri State community. Patrick Ransdell, assistant athletic director at Appalachian State, will be on campus Friday, and Vince Volpe, assistant athletic director at Arizona State, will visit next Monday.
The three were the announced finalists to succeed Kyle Moats, who left Missouri State in June to accept the same position at Eastern Kentucky.
Speaking to about 25 community members in Glass Hall on campus, Denny said his top priority is getting Missouri State’s day-to-day operations up to standard. The focus will then shift to providing student-athletes with the resources they need.
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Missouri State AD candidate says Plaster Stadium and football program need over $100 million renovation project
Some of that attention is devoted to building renovations. There is perhaps no greater need on campus than the renovation of Plaster Stadium, home of the football team.
“To do this project right, there has to be a broad community partnership,” Denny said. “If you told me we need a $5 million project to update the branding, fix some bathrooms and repaint some things, we’ll get it done, but that’s not going to accomplish anything.”
“I spoke to President Williams and I know he said this: It’s going to be a $100 million-plus project.”
Denny said he did not tour the facilities but drove around Plaster Stadium. He called the parking lots south of Grand St. a place that could provide Missouri State with some “unique opportunities to develop new commercial operations.” He compared it to a recent visit to Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin, to see the Packers’ “Titletown” development near the historic stadium. It is somewhat similar to what is being built around Busch Stadium in St. Louis with Ballpark Village.
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“This is nothing new,” Denny said. “The NFL entered a strict environment where 51% of football revenue goes to the players. They had to find ways to generate revenue that had nothing to do with football. They put in large multi-use areas right in front of the stadium.”
Denny doesn’t expect the entire $100 million to go toward Plaster Stadium, but the money must be distributed among the needs of the football program. He said he’s heard that the football facilities are “really lacking in locker rooms, etc.,” but the rest of the money would go toward the fan experience.
Roger Denny would like to double the state of Missouri’s sports budget
In addition to a nine-figure project to improve Missouri State’s football facilities, Denny talked about his desire to get the university to virtually double its athletic budget.
According to Missouri State’s NCAA financial report for fiscal year 2022, the university had an athletic budget of $30 million. When the university announced its move to Conference USA in May, Missouri State’s previous administration said the budget would increase to around $36 million and be budget neutral.
“I think we need to have a $50 to $60 million program to have the success we want,” Denny said.
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Denny pointed to schools like Nevada, Colorado State and East Carolina, which have $50 million to $60 million programs in a similar metropolitan area as Springfield. He said those schools have found ways to use their resources wisely to have a bigger impact.
“I think if this community is really committed, it’s certainly possible,” Denny said. “If we do it, we’ll do it at a time where it’s cost neutral to the campus. We’re not asking for any additional input from the campus.”
The fact that Plaster Stadium will receive $100 million and the sports budget sounds good. But who will pay for it?
On paper, Denny is the most confusing finalist of the three due to his 15 years of legal experience as a tax attorney. He has only been with the Illinois athletic department for three years. His work as a partner at his previous law firm included many sports-related tasks, allowing him to represent coaches and build various databases for college expenses.
Some of his assignments also helped him make contacts in the Springfield area. He hopes those contacts will help him finance some of the expensive projects he has in mind.
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“There’s also an opportunity to engage the community transactionally, and I bring some unique skills,” Denny said. “Especially when you think about Plaster Stadium and some of the other facilities around here that need attention. I know the budget. We need to leverage that community and the affinity in that community in a big way to get the operating budgets in that department to a level where our teams can compete in Conference USA and win at the same level that we have in the past.”
“If we’re going to do that, we need to start using some of that capacity and we need to find new ways to do things like a big, large-scale project at Plaster Stadium or elsewhere. One of the answers that I think needs to be looked at is a big public-private partnership involving multiple government departments, private companies and public companies. We need to see if we can bring a community and its assets together in a way that benefits much more than just sport.
“Today I wouldn’t say it with all modesty, but you won’t find anyone in college sports who has done more work than I have.”
