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The people affected by high fuel prices include the people who give you college athletics. Thousands of athletes, trainers and coaches will be traveling to games this fall, and that will cost the visiting teams enough to give a whole new meaning to the phrase home field advantage. Wyoming Public Radio's' Peter O'Dowd reports.
PETER O'DOWD: If you thought planning a trip this summer was bad, try moving a soccer team across the country.
Mr. DANNY SANCHEZ (Soccer Coach): I think it's just the beginning, and it's only going to get worse.
O'DOWD: Danny Sanchez is the University of Wyoming's head soccer coach. As he supervises a practice, he's feeling a bit worried. He'd been planning to charter a jet for the first game of the year at Western Michigan, but the price tag caused a little sticker shock. It would have cost UW almost $50,000, nearly double the price from last year. So the team is flying commercially and now facing another reality.
Mr. SANCHEZ: On the baggage side of things, you know, if you get one free, then you can lay your life that if they have extra makeup, they're leaving it at home because we're going to take one bag.
O'DOWD: Athletic departments across the country are holding their breath as airlines institute fees for extra baggage. A hockey team with a few dozen bags of skates and pads can't exactly leave its gear at home.
At the University of Wyoming, Bill Sparks says that's just one reason why pressure is building on UW's $1.7-million travel budget. Here's another. Teams here used to partner with Frontier Airlines for its group travel benefits. Since the company filed for bankruptcy, UW has gone to other carriers. Each ticket now costs up to $200 more.
Mr. BILL SPARKS (University of Wyoming): Most of the sports travel at least 25 to 30 people. Track and swimming, we travel as many as 50 people. So I think it's going to have a significant impact on our budgets.
O'DOWD: Things are just as bad on the ground. Mike Murphy(ph) organizes charter transportation for professional and college sports in southern Illinois. He says universities have seen bus rates go up by as much as 35 percent this year. To cope, Murphy says many schools have been forced to downgrade to something like a mini-bus.
Mr. MIKE MURPHY (Transportation Organizer, Illinois): It's not the big charter coaches that have the video screens and a lot of the amenities that the big 55-passenger coaches have, but it's what they have to do to meet budget demands.
O'DOWD: Even the sporting giants are vulnerable. Ohio State had the largest athletic budget in the county, but the Buckeye's Jen Bulla says that doesn't matter much these days, when charter flights are facing up to $30,000 fuel surcharges for every trip.
Ms. JEN BULLA (Ohio State University): We had no idea that fuel was going to go as high as it did, and I don't think anybody did.
O'DOWD: Bulla says coaches are scrambling to trim expenses. Some have reduced their travel squads from 12 to 10. Others are eliminating road trips altogether.
Ms. BULLA: That money has to come from someplace. We don't have blank checks here at the university.
O'DOWD: So how are the college athletes feeling about all this? I caught up with goalie Jamie Scarcliff and teammate Tanya Halliday as they practice at the University of Wyoming's soccer field. Halliday says she'll do her part to cut back on extra baggage.
Ms. TANYA HALLIDAY (Soccer Player): I think I'll have to buy the little mini-sized shampoo and conditioners and just put it in my carry-on instead of bringing the big bottle.
O'DOWD: Scarcliff says she has a plan too.
Ms. JAMIE SCARCLIFF (Soccer Player): Probably try to slim back on my books and stuff, maybe copy the pages so I'm not taking a 25 pound book with me.
O'DOWD: For administrators, though, the problem is more complicated. Wyoming's Bill Sparks says the school may be forced to play more big-money games. That means UW would offer up the Cowboys to a national powerhouse in men's football or basketball to bring in extra cash. Those games almost always end in embarrassing defeat.
Mr. SPARKS: But economically, sometimes you have to do that.
O'DOWD: Travel is not the only cost that's going up. The price of insurance, food and recruiting are crimping budgets too. Schools say they won't know the full implication of the problem until the season's final whistles are blown. For NPR News, I'm Peter O'Dowd.
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