The Grambling State University football team not only made more people aware of the campus’s financial struggles with their boycott of last Saturday’s game against Jackson State, bu they also may have also cost the school funds it currently does not have.
Yahoo Sports is reporting that Jackson State is planning to sue Grambling State University over millions lost from that forfeiture during their homecoming weekend.
For its part, Jackson State said late Tuesday night that its losses over canceling its homecoming game Saturday could cost the school and the city millions and that it ”plans to pursue litigation against Grambling State and others,” which could cause Grambling even more headaches.
Jackson State’s director of university communications, Eric Stringfellow, talked about the financial losses by the school and the city of Jackson, Miss., in a message on the schools website.
Th homecoming gaming routinely draws at least 20,000 fans. and instead of revenue from tickets and merchandise, Jackson State is currently refunding the purchase of tickets for a canceled game.
”We have a fiduciary responsibility to Mississippi taxpayers and the JSU community to mitigate our ongoing and substantial losses,” Stringfellow wrote in the message. It also said it plans to sue the Grambling, La., school.
Grambling’s president Frank Pogue, now seems to be backpedaling from the initial aggressive stance he took on the football team, and is all for the players taking that stand.
Grambling President Frank Pogue told the University of Louisiana System board that oversees the historically black college that ”it’s a rarity for any athletic team to come together to abandon their commitment to an institution by walking off the field. It’s a very unique experience. But we’re using this as an opportunity of learning, a teachable moment.”
Pogue said he’s used the national attention Grambling has received as a way to highlight campus academic and facility needs and that the complaints lodged by football players about inadequate facilities are symptomatic of larger financial troubles on campus.
Pogue wasn’t finished there, and said “if you want to help Grambling, write them a check.”