Currently, the average national price of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline is roughly $3.63. Consumers are feeling the pinch as train and airplane ticket costs have skyrocketed, energy bills continue to rise, and packages at the supermarket keep growing smaller as prices keep getting higher. These ever-expanding fuel costs have had a particular impact on a department that routinely sends groups of students hundreds of miles away: Athletics.

According to Athletic Business Manager Tom Wantuck, transportation costs increased 12 percent during fiscal year 2008, as opposed to a 13 percent increase in 2007 and an eight percent rise in 2006. Wantuck, who came to the University in August 1998, estimates that transportation costs have increased a total of 168 percent during his 10 years in Middletown. (Athletic Department policy prohibits the disclosure of specific dollar figures.)

Wantuck explained that he typically agrees upon gas rates with the bus company at the time he makes transportation reservations. However, he added that some companies are now adding fuel surcharges onto their rates.

“At the time we make the reservations, we lock in the rate,” he explained. “This year, they’ve done something different. I got a quote that said, ’This is subject to surcharges if diesel fuel goes over $5 a gallon.’ They’ve never done that before, so you can see what’s happening—they’re trying to cover themselves.”

Wantuck noted that making travel arrangements for teams that qualify for the NESCAC Championship is particularly difficult, given the high number of potential destinations. Often, the team does not know where it will play its first-round game until the final day of the regular season, complicating attempts to make long-term travel reservations. He also noted the difficulty in attempting to predict which teams will qualify for the Championship when setting yearly budgets.

“First of all, budgeting is difficult because you don’t know how many teams you’re going to get in,” he said. “So we have a set amount that we have set aside for postseason play and we just hope it’s enough. On the tournaments—occasionally, depending on the last week of play, we don’t know [where the team will play], or they may have three different places to go, so I’ve got to have a bus standing by and hotels booked in all three different places to cover the possibilities.”

Wantuck does not set an individual travel budget each year. Rather, he sets a budget for each team that includes travel, lodging, meals, officials, and other miscellaneous costs.

“It’s all [part of] the department budget, but it is separate,” he explained. “Each team kind of runs on its own, if you will.”

He added that the department-provided budget is augmented by each team’s concession account, which includes money from concession operations as well as outside donations to the team. While unused funds from the department budget do not roll over from year to year, the concession accounts are endowed accounts, meaning unused funds at the end of a season are not lost.

The department currently uses three different transportation companies: Peter Pan (based in Springfield, Mass.); DATTCO (based in New Britain, Conn.); and Kelley Transit (based in Torrington, Conn.). The University also previously used Hartford-based Premier Limousine but has opted to stop using the company due to previous service problems, according to Wantuck.

He characterized decisions regarding which company to use as based primarily upon on cost and availability of buses.

“This fall, we’re using primarily DATTCO,” he said. “It’s primarily based on cost—I get quotes from all the companies. Peter Pan’s a little high, but they provide great service. They have the most buses, so if I get in a bind, that’s the company I need to go to. If it’s a busy, busy weekend throughout New England, I can usually get a bus from Peter Pan. That’s especially important at tournament time. But DATTCO is very good. I like them; I’m using them the most this year.”

Destination is not a factor in selecting the company; as each option travels to all 11 NESCAC cities.

Wantuck noted that the addition of 36-passenger mini-buses, which are significantly less expensive than motorcoaches (which seat 55), has helped ease some of the pressure on the budget. Smaller teams such as men’s and women’s soccer and field hockey can now be placed on a mini-bus rather than a coach for midweek games. All three teams travel to the same location on weekends once NESCAC play begins, and Wantuck explained that all three teams can typically fit on one motorcoach.

Some teams, such as softball (14 players in 2008) and golf (12 players currently listed on the roster) take University-owned 12-passenger vans to destinations within 90 minutes, such as Trinity and Amherst. However, Wantuck noted that the department is attempting to curtail the use of vans.

“We were using a lot of vans when I first started here,” he said, but “[about] six years ago, we made a push to reduce vans because of the safety issues….Now, our criteria is, if it’s within an hour and a half and the team’s small enough, we’re going to take vans. Anything over an hour and a half, you’re on a bus, unless it’s such a small team that it doesn’t make any sense.”

Through an agreement with Transportation Services, the Athletic Department does not pay a rental fee for the vans, though they are still responsible for fuel costs.

“I used to contract all the vans myself—I would get them from different companies, and I got them on a nine-month lease,” Wantuck explained. “It’s worked out very well to have the Transportation Services department help. And we gave up part of our travel budget to use the vans….Three years ago, I transferred part of our athletic budget to the Transportation Services department budget, and they gave me exclusive rights to all the vans I needed, as many as they have, whenever I need them, and I just pay for gas.”

The department also has a contingency fund, should they run out of money before the schedule is completed.

“It’s an endowed account; we spent a little bit of it last year,” he explained. “But that’s what that’s for. If we end up with some crunch in the end, we can tap into those funds.”

Ultimately, Wantuck emphasized that, despite the financial pressure, the department is not planning to change its policies with respect to transportation, lodging, meals, or any other factor that could affect a team’s performance.

“We don’t want to create a competitive disadvantage versus other teams in the conference by doing stuff like that,” Wantuck said.

This is the first in a series of articles exploring the effect of rising fuel costs on the athletic department.