The athletic department’s plan to stream Contra Costa College’s home football games online has foundered due to a lack of funding.

“We have no money,” Athletic Director John Wade said. “We had planned on utilizing funding from the Associated Students Union, but they aren’t doing their grant program this year.”

The ASU’s Grant for Support program, which the ASU used last year to grant money to various departments across the campus, was cancelled indefinitely after a $20,000 debt was created between the ASU and the college last year.

Wade said the athletic department has a limited budget, and the needs and demands of the teams take up the vast majority of that budget.

“We have so much we have to pay for. We need to provide meals for the athletes, we have to buy all the equipment and we have to pay for physicals to make sure our athletes are healthy,” Wade said.
The costs associated with streaming any of the athletic teams’ games on campus would be $350 per game, according to Bay Area Sports TV camera crew chief Tim Banks.

Banks said this would cover the cost of having two cameras manned by camera people to capture the game from multiple angles, two sports commentators and cover a small insurance fee that his equipment will be unharmed.

Banks said the cost for streaming could easily be reduced.

“Two commentators isn’t necessary,” Banks said. “It makes the commentary much more dynamic and interesting, but if the college just wanted a basic, simple commentary, one man could do it. That would reduce the cost by $100.”

He said using only one camera would reduce the cost further, but would also make the game less interesting for those watching.

“Advertising could also drive the cost way down,” Banks said. “I could help find advertisers myself, or the college could source sponsors and I could edit their advertisements into the video.”

Every Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. in AA-207, the ASU holds a meeting in order to discuss and vote on how to spend the student activity fee, yet no mention has been made of Wade’s request for the ASU to fund the football streaming venture since he made the proposal.

ASU President Antone Agnitsch said that in wake of canceling the Grant for Support program, the ASU decided to not fund requests from departments.

“We really want to take the time to make sure that every department has a fair and equal chance at any funding we offer,” Agnitsch said.

He said the decision to not vote on funding the football streaming venture also came in part from the timeliness of doing so.

Agnitsch said with only a few home games left, it just does not feel worth it to fund the streaming venture.

Agnitsch said that the ASU would consider funding the football streaming venture as a special project if a large enough group of students came forward to show their support.

Wade said that the ASU never told him they would reconsider their position if he could show evidence of student support for the webcasts.

“I’ll try anything,” Wade said. He said hosting a signature drive illustrating students’ support of the venture was something he would seriously consider doing.

Streaming football games is something that already has student and faculty support.

English professor Ben Jahn said, “I would totally watch the college’s games if they were streamed online.”

Student Malik Bruit said that he would also tune into a webcast of CCC’s football games.
“The ASU should pay for it,” Bruit said. “I mean, it would directly help students.”

English as a second language major Sulaiman Lawadeai said he would watch the football games online, but disagreed with Bruit over who should fund the venture.

“The college should pay to have the games streamed,” Lawadeai said.