Deborah Olson didn't just buy the best seats in the house at the Gophers soccer stadium. She bought the benches and the grass and the goalposts, too. In the late 1990s, Olson donated $900,000 towards the construction of a $2.1 million facility, which was named Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium in memory of her trailblazing mother.

You can often find Olson cheering for the Gophers at the soccer field, or at Ridder Arena or TCF Bank Stadium. You will not find her in the athletic director's office, demanding to be included in hiring decisions. Olson is among those appalled by the hubris of University of Connecticut booster Robert Burton, who wants the football program to give back a $3 million contribution because he didn't get enough say in the hiring of the Huskies' new coach.

Burton wrote a scathing letter to UConn athletic director Jeff Hathaway after Paul Pasqualoni was named to the post. The verbal equivalent of a toddler's meltdown, it depicts Burton -- CEO of Burton Capital Management -- as a bully consumed by an outsized sense of entitlement. After telling Hathaway he wanted to be involved in the hiring process, Burton wasn't sufficiently indulged, prompting a letter filled with threats, insults and a demand to be repaid the money he donated toward the Burton Family Football Complex.

The $7 million Burton says he gave to UConn football apparently had more than strings attached. It had chains. While it's not exactly a news flash that a rich guy expected power in exchange for his money, Olson still was disgusted to see Burton's apparent act of generosity unveiled as an act of baldfaced selfishness.

"It's ridiculous," said Olson, a St. Paul resident and longtime financial backer of the U. "It's foreign to the whole concept of giving. You give because you want to assist an institution, and it should indicate you respect and admire it.

"This person has no right to expect to be involved in hiring decisions. The money you donate, the time you volunteer, you're doing it to support the organization, not to buy your way in."

College sports -- especially football -- have long cultivated wealthy patrons to pay for the players' lounges and coaches' perks. Oregon has Phil Knight, co-founder of Nike and donor of more than $300 million to Ducks athletics. Oklahoma State has T. Boone Pickens, who has given about $265 million to the school's sports programs.

That is the cost of doing business in a culture that lavishes millions of dollars on "amateur" competition. Judged by those standards, Burton's money is chump change, but he is the undisputed champ of the chumps.

Olson said she's seen some Gophers sports donors who think they should exert substantial influence in the athletic department. She hasn't seen any on the order of Burton, who apparently is willing to ruin the program he's supported. His letter lays bare the sordid relationship between money, football and ego, which is becoming an increasingly combustible mix for athletic directors to manage.

Burton scolds Hathaway because he "listened to others" and hired Pasqualoni, whom Burton criticized. (Burton's son Joe played for Pasqualoni at Syracuse, and it has been speculated that Burton holds a grudge because his son was not named a captain.) He claims "you did not listen to your No. 1 football donor," though a UConn statement said Hathaway did "receive and acknowledge" Burton's opinions.

After bragging he was a scout for the Vikings while in graduate school -- which Vikings officials were unable to confirm -- Burton says he "earned his voice" in the hiring process because he gives the program a lot of money, which he mentions approximately one time for every $10 donated. Now he is ceasing all donations and trashing the athletic department's leadership. He also wants his name taken off the Burton Family Football Complex after his $3 million contribution is returned; in an interesting side note, the Hartford Courant reported that $31 million in public funds were spent on the building named for him.

Unlike Burton, the public has not hired a stable of lawyers, threatened to move companies out of Connecticut or whined they are "hurt and embarrassed" because they didn't get to pick the football coach. Instead of telling UConn how to run its business, Burton ought to take a cue from Olson and other donors like her. Give to college sports from your heart, not from your self-interest. In return, you'll receive the only thing you have a right to expect: the satisfaction of real generosity.

Rachel Blount • rblount@startribune.com