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When Rick Costello took the job of athletic director at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he said he would look into the possibility of adding football to the athletic program.

He has kept his word. And so UWM is paying a Washington, D.C., consulting firm $87,450 to put together a strategic sports plan for the school. Part of that study will look into the possibility of fielding a football team.

The company is Brailsford & Dunlavey, which has a lengthy list of schools it lists as clients.

Costello said it made sense that football should be studied. There is interest in football in the region, he says, and UWM is a large, urban university.

And football is not the only sport that will be reviewed, Costello said. The plan will look into ice hockey, for men and women, maybe women's rugby, maybe women's lacrosse.

"There are no shortage of suggestions," Costello said.

Costello says he is a realist. He knows he'll have to find a way to pay for a sport. And football is not for the meek. It will cost millions of dollars to field a team. Never mind the fact that UWM has no place for a football team to play.

"We would have to put a funding plan together," he said.

But Costello is dreaming. "There's nothing like a football Saturday," he said. "It's a great marketing tool."

The strategic plan is expected to be ready for review either by the end of the year or January.