Taming the 10-million-pound gorilla

CHENEY – In a career that spans nearly three decades, Jim Sarra Jr. has been in positions of many levels with institutions both small and large.

He’s battled through the ever-present challenge of fundraising and marketing with what he termed a “10-million-pound gorilla” as his chief competition for money and fan support.

Sarra is experienced in dealing with the NCAA over compliance and when all the T’s are not crossed and I’s dotted what happens then.

And, perhaps, something he considers is a strength as he seeks to become the next athletic director at Eastern Washington University might be time Sarra’s spent in the classroom teaching high-level athletics administration classes.

Sarra concluded his visit to Cheney where he went through the interview process with Eastern administrators and the Board of Trustees on May 25. He later met the public in a question-and-answer session at the university’s Catalyst Building.

He engaged in answering unscripted questions posed from the audience of about two dozen, as well as those supplied online.

One of the many issues the person who replaces the retiring AD, Lynn Hickey, is the decades-old battle with the contingent of faculty who have sought to dismantle athletics.

“I do know that people were wondering why athletics is still important,” Sarra told the audience.

With some 300 athletes at University of Illinois-Springfield, “We were a third of the incoming class every year, if not more,” he said.

Athletics, he reminded, was “Bringing people for you to teach; we’re bringing people that are going to major in your major.”

Additionally, athletics was bringing people to campus that maybe would not have thought of University of Illinois as their first choice.

Part of the issue with the debate over athletics and its future in Cheney — something that was solidified with a Board of Trustees vote in its favor of staying a Division-1 program in June, 2021 — is the portion of EWU general operating budget money athletics requires to balance its budget.

That number, incidentally, is about 2-4% of about $275 million.

One thing that would show up should Sarra get the job out of three candidates is possibly initiating zero-based budgeting. It’s method in which all expenses must be justified.

“People hate it,” Sarra said. “But once they do it, it works. It’s amazing what people think they need versus what they really need,” he added.

Sarra was appointed Deputy Director of Athletics at The University of Texas San Antonio in 2009. There he was responsible for the day-to-day administration of the athletic department.

His battle for fundraising was the San Antonio Spurs NBA team. “I called them the 10-million-pound gorilla,” Sarra said. “I lost a huge deal to the Spurs.”

One of Sarra’s sales pitches, at least for UTSA basketball tickets, was for the price of one seat at a Spurs game someone could enjoy a season’s worth of D-1 basketball.

As University of Illinois-Springfield athletic director from 2016-19, despite being about 100 miles away, his programs lived in the shadow of University of Illinois. Doing some market research helped develop a fan following for soccer since UIS did not have football.

Sarra was familiar enough with the Cheney-Spokane market to suggest, “Gonzaga’s probably your 10-million-pound gorilla.”

“How do you compete with that?” he asked.

Job one is to identify fans Sarra said. “Not everybody can get a ticket to the Zags, right? But they sure as hell can get a ticket to the Eagles.”

Sarra has spent over 28 years in various internal and external administrative roles at NCAA Division I and II athletics departments, the jack-of-all trades required in Cheney.

If selected Sarra would leave his current career — call it a passion — for teaching. He is currently serving as an Assistant Professor of Sports Management in the graduate program at Western Illinois University.

To which the question of why on earth he would laves the cushy job as a professor?

“A lot of people would say I’m crazy, I think I’m crazy at times for thinking about this,” Sarra said.

“But I love this industry, I’m extremely passionate about intercollegiate athletics,” he said. “I can impact more people in an athletics department than I can in the classroom.”

Other candidates include Tim Collins who will interview Thursday, June 1 and then appear in the public forum, also at the Catalyst. On Monday, June 5, Elizabeth Jarnigan will repeat the process.

All public meet and greets are at 3-4:30 p.m.