Minnesota State-Moorhead would spend more than $1 million a year in coaching salaries and benefits if it starts men’s and women’s Division I programs, according to an article in the Forum of Fargo-Moorhead.
In documents the paper obtained from MSUM through an open records request, the university would pay a head men’s coach $240,000 and a women’s head coach $120,000 in salaries in the program’s first year.
“We’re trying to do this at an extremely high level so that we can we can be successful,” MSUM athletic director Doug Peters said to the Forum.
To start the programs, the university would $37 million in commitments to support an endowment model business plan.
Peters said the next step is to get to 80 percent of the $37 million ($29.6 million) by January 2012. The school announced in July that it had $15 million in soft commitments, about 40 percent of the goal.
“The time is now,” added Peters. “If this community is ever going to get Division I hockey, this is the best opportunity it’s ever going to have.”
