Why Merrimack College Is Making a Big Bet on Adding Sports - The Boston Globe

Merrimack College is aggressively expanding its athletic department, aiming to increase its student-athlete population by nearly 50 percent—from 680 to close to 1,000—by 2030. The institution views this strategic growth as a vital tool to bolster campus enrollment, improve its brand, and secure new revenue streams in an era of demographic decline.

The Strategy Behind the Roster Growth

The push to add new sports is not just about competition; it is a calculated effort to stabilize the school’s bottom line. The school’s leadership believes that a larger, more diverse athletic program will attract students. This comes as many colleges struggle with a national drop in birth rates and rising operational costs.

Merrimack has already transformed, having completed its transition from Division 2 to 1 sports two years ago. The results on the field have been notable, with the men’s hockey team capturing its first Hockey East championship this year and the men’s basketball team securing a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title. These successes have helped raise the school’s profile, creating a momentum that leadership intends to use.

Which Sports Are Joining the Roster?

The school is diversifying its offerings by investing in sports that align with modern athletic trends and, in some cases, provide large roster sizes to maximize student enrollment. Plans include adding women’s flag football, which is backed by the NCAA and the NFL, as well as acrobatics and tumbling, swimming, and men’s rowing.

The scale of this expansion is substantial. Athletics director Joe Foley explained that the school expects to see its student-athlete population rise by roughly 300 by 2030, a figure that accounts for the 40 members of the newly elevated varsity cheer team and about 120 “managers” tasked with supporting both the teams and new staff members.

When asked about the mission, Foley stated, “We value athletics and what it does for young people, what it does for our student-athletes, and we really want to try to make that available to even more students ― as many as we possibly can ― because we think it’s important, it’s mission aligned, it helps fulfill what we’re here for, what we stand for, and that’s really important to us.”

The Economic Reality of Division 1 Athletics

Expanding a sports program in the current landscape requires significant capital. Merrimack’s “Agenda for the Future” includes an investment of “approximately $50 million-$75 million in capital improvements necessary to elevate Merrimack’s academic, student, and athletic facilities to a level that represents its ambitions,” including an expanded football stadium, a seasonal dome for a full-field indoor practice facility, a baseball facility, a gymnasium, and a boat house along the Merrimack River.

The financial logic is rooted in the idea that these sports can drive revenue through increased enrollment and game-day revenues, philanthropy, and corporate opportunities.

Peter Stokes, the Boston-based managing director in the higher education practice at Huron Consulting Group, told The Boston Globe that Merrimack stands out as an outlier because it is growing while other regional institutions are struggling. Stokes noted that Merrimack’s approach to “contemporary” sports helps increase enrollment without driving down net tuition revenue.

Can Growth Outpace Rising Costs?

Despite the optimism, the school faces the same financial pressures as other Division 1 institutions. Rising costs mean that the athletic department must be self-sustaining. To address this, the department now has an athletic development operation with three full-time staffers soliciting and raising money.

The institution’s growth is not relying solely on athletics.

In addition to athletics, the school is working to boost its profile by introducing a three-year bachelor’s degree program, growing its nursing department, and offering new pricing structures alongside expanded graduate studies. Athletics serves as one pillar of this broader, entrepreneurial strategy. For now, the leadership is focused on the immediate goal of building the necessary infrastructure to support these teams, while watching changes in collegiate sports.