Investment in excellence: New facilities in play for UTSA’s student-athletes

A new, state-of-the-art volleyball and basketball training facility would provide UTSA's student-athletes with 24-hour access to a top-tier training center. Rendering courtesy of UTSA Athletics

FEBRUARY 28, 2024 — Editor’s note: The following message was sent today via email by Lisa Campos, UTSA vice president for intercollegiate athletics and director of athletics, to supporters of UTSA Athletics:

Turning the page on a new year afforded me a natural opportunity to reflect on all we have accomplished together for UTSA Athletics and to share a vision for the continued success of Roadrunners Athletics.

I am excited to share with you that, thanks to incredible institutional support, fundraising efforts and newly identified financial opportunities, we will be investing an estimated $57 million into facilities and capital projects for UTSA Athletics. This includes a new, state-of-the-art volleyball and basketball training facility that will provide our student-athletes with 24-hour access to a top-tier training center.

Over the next five years, this emphasis will also allow us to focus on existing facility enhancements for baseball and softball, including player development centers for both sports, a nutrition performance center for all student-athletes and a covered football pavilion. As the College Football Playoff expands to 12 teams in 2024, it is important for us to ensure our opportunities for CFP participation are maximized.

Bringing this ambitious vision to reality will be a collective effort, and your support is paramount.

San Antonio philanthropist Harvey Najim (third from left) recently gave a generous $2 million gift to the UTSA football program.

A Bold Step Forward

A common theme among our student-athletes, coaches, staff and supporters is that there has never been a more exciting time to be a Roadrunner. Last year, I challenged our athletics community to take a bold step forward as we moved into the American Athletic Conference on July 1. Our move into the American has increased our competitive excellence and provided countless new opportunities for our student-athletes, while further elevating the national profile of our great university.

Thanks to you, we have a lot to be proud of this year. We have achieved countless milestones in game attendance and ticket sales. We saw a record number of donors and philanthropic gifts through the Roadrunner Athletic Fund, led by Harvey Najim’s $2 million gift to our football program and a $500,000 contribution from Ed and Linda Whitacre as part of a joint gift to UTSA Athletics and the Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design. Our annual sponsorship revenue increased by more than 20% and we welcomed 16 new corporate partners in 2023-24, due in large part to our new partnership with Playfly Sports.

This year, our football team won the first bowl game in program history, we opened a new facility on our Park West campus, in partnership with Bexar County, to support our soccer and track & field athletes, and we inducted six incredible trailblazers into the inaugural class of the UTSA Athletics Hall of Fame. For the third time in four years, UTSA Athletics reached a school-record NCAA Graduation Success Rate with an 89% GSR in the 2023 report.

We are taking that bold step forward.

Student-athletes from the UTSA soccer team posed for a photo outside the new Park West Fieldhouse when it opened in July 2023.

A Vision for the Future

Although we are grateful for the past year’s successes, this is just the beginning and there is a lot of work to be done. An emphasis on student-athlete success in the classroom, graduation and community involvement remains our core objective, but developments over the past several years have caused institutions nationwide to reimagine the relationship between student-athletes and athletics departments.

For instance, Name, Image and Likeness, widespread conference realignment, ever-evolving rules regarding transfer student-athletes and litigation across the country will continue to chart the landscape. This presents incredible opportunities for our nearly 400 student-athletes, but also some new and unique challenges.

Further, we know that state-of-the-art facilities are imperative for attracting and retaining the best talent in all of our sports, and providing our student-athletes with first-class support in academics, strength and conditioning, athletic training and nutrition must continue to be an important focus.

As an institution, we benefit greatly from the support of our colleagues and peers who believe deeply in the vision of UTSA Athletics. Since my arrival in 2017, our Athletics operating budget has grown more than 50% from $30.1 million to close to $50 million, made possible largely because of institutional financial support.

To remain competitive, we will need to continue to enhance our existing facilities as well as build new ones. Moving forward, additional university funding for the Department of Athletics beyond those allocated for operating expenses, will be directed to capital projects. Along with our partnerships with the City of San Antonio and Bexar County, the university’s additional commitment will now focus directly on real estate monetization and the sale of university land to provide the capital we need to remain competitive.

Thanks to the visionary leadership and support of President Taylor Eighmy and the university leadership team, this important commitment by the university will be critical in helping us meet our $57 million goal in facilities enhancements and capital projects. Under the leadership of Chief Enterprise Development Officer and Executive Vice President for Business Affairs Veronica Salazar, the institution has doubled its financial support of our programs over the past five years.

However, we cannot rely solely on university funding to address the pressing need to provide diversified opportunities for our student-athletes, and to build state-of-the-art facilities and programs to serve all Roadrunners. We also need philanthropic support to fully realize the capital improvements.

Will you join us in taking a bold step forward for UTSA Athletics?

Your continued support is imperative to our future success, especially for our facility enhancements, our bold operational objectives and to support the over $7 million annual cost of student-athlete scholarships. While today’s announcement will help spark the start of needed facility projects, it is just that — only a start.

A heartfelt thank you for the support you have shown for our programs and our phenomenal student-athletes. I am incredibly optimistic about our future, and I look forward to partnering with you to make this vision a reality.