Track success a good value for the money.

Byline: Ron Bellamy The Register-Guard

Some of the best decisions in Oregon athletics have come down to spending money to make money.

Call it investing in success, or taking a leap of faith, or gambling.

By any term, though, there has been some risk involved. You look at the sports empire that has evolved - the expanded Autzen Stadium, the Moshofsky Center, the practice fields, the Casanova Center - and it's hard to remember that in the 1980s, some folks wondered whether the Ducks would be better off in the Big Sky Conference.

You wonder how different things would be now, if Athletic Director Bill Byrne hadn't bought Oregon's way into the Independence Bowl in 1989, if he hadn't built the skyboxes after the football team went a lofty 6-5, and then the Cas Center.

You wonder how different things would be if Bill Moos hadn't built on that by building more.

It's in that tradition that, two years ago, Moos hired Vin Lananna as director of track and field, and began directing a significant increase in money toward that program - almost $1 million more now than in the Martin Smith era.

Moos worried that Oregon was on the verge of losing a unique place in the sport. There was desperation in Oregon's attempt to revive the heartbeat of track and field before it flatlined forever.

And so Moos, who wasn't exactly dealing from a position of strength, went out and hired the best coach in the country, in part because of all Lananna already had accomplished, in part because his vision, philosophy and personality made him a perfect fit for Eugene.

It wasn't a matter of whether Oregon could afford to get Lananna; the Ducks couldn't afford not to get him. Track and field is at the heart of Oregon's sports history, and it's deep in the heart of Oregon's most prominent donor, Phil Knight.

Now, track and field might never make money in terms of the bottom line; it might forever be running in the red. But there are financial benefits in less direct ways, and community benefits - without Lananna, there would be no Olympic Trials here next year - and benefits for the image, nationally and globally, of Eugene and the university.

Sure, in one sense, you can put a price tag on that - it's the $2.6 million the Ducks will spend on the sport this year, against projected revenues of less than $100,000, and the annual salary of $400,000, plus incentives and $200,000 per year in deferred compensation for Lananna.

And in another sense, you can't put a price tag on that at all.

That Tuesday's examination in these pages of Oregon's increased spending on the sport - based on records provided by the university after a request by this newspaper - caused nervous knickers in the Cas Center is puzzling, but maybe that's just me.

Once upon a time, the Ducks would have marketed this stuff big-time - hey, we spend more on track than any public school in the Pac-10, and paid what it took to get the biggest-name coach out there. Would have been a billboard.

But, once upon a time, it also didn't take formal public records requests to get public records. You wanted a coach's contract, and someone pulled it out of the file cabinet. You wanted budget information, in the late 1980s and '90s, and you went to the athletic department's business manager, Sandy Walton.

Now, Walton never struck me as a fan of reporters; it was also great fun to follow, in The Oregon Daily Emerald, as she negotiated Autzen Stadium seating allotments with the students, because they'd be in a dither, and her quote would be the equivalent of "Let them eat cake."

But Walton had all the budget and salary information that you'd want; all you had to do was ask.

There's more process now, a letter to the UO counsel, and even money to cover expenses for compiling and copying documents, and a newspaper can afford that, though on Feb. 12 I personally delivered a check for $339.50 to the counsel's office and still haven't received everything for which we paid.

Ah, well. Some things aren't just about money.