Athletics at USU is ‘front porch,’ but deficit looms
The athletic department at a university is one of the most visible and recognized of any other at an institution, and USU’s is no different, said USU Athletic Department Director Scott Barnes.
“Athletics is to USU as the front porch is to someone’s home. It’s not the most important room in house, but it’s the most visible. The athletic department gives the opportunity to show your university on a regional and national level,” Barnes said.
Raymond Coward, executive vice president and provost, said the athletic department is a valuable asset, not only to USU, but the Cache Valley community.
“This is an enormously visible program. It brings our community together with our students,” he said.
And while USU athletes are able to compete alongside – and often above – other schools in the Western Athletics Conference (WAC), Barnes said the USU athletic department is considerably underfunded in comparison to their WAC counterparts.
“We have the smallest budget of any school in the WAC,” Barns said. “This year we had a $12.8 million operating budget, and we went far beyond that. We have for years.”
Barnes said the athletic department found themselves in their current financial dilemma through poor planning four years ago when USU decided to leave the Big West Conference and join the WAC.
“When you guide a program into a new conference, you have a new set of investments to think about. We relied more on the opportunity of gaining new revenue rather than planning a new referendum that would increase student fees and ask for more money from the institution,” Barnes said. “Now, four years into the WAC, we are seeing the reality of our mistake and we need to fix it.”
Barnes said the athletic department was at a tipping point before the economy turned and has been accumulating a significant deficit over the years. The USU athletics department is expected to run a $2.3 million deficit this fiscal year, he said.
Currently the department runs off of a three-legged stool funding model, one that is ineffective without the support of all three legs, Barnes aid.
The three legs include self-generated revenue, student fees and support from the university. However, Barnes said in light of current economic problems on campus, the athletic department cannot expect any more support from the university for the time being.
While Coward admits the university is unable to assist the athletic department drastically right now, he said athletics is an essential part of the university. He also said he responded to suggestions that USU’s budget problems would be taken care of by simply cutting the athletics program.
“There is a great misunderstanding with these budget cuts. People write to us and say, ‘Cut athletics,’ but the reality is it doesn’t save us that much money because we don’t put all the much money into it,” he said.
To combat the lack of financial support from the university, Barnes said they will move onto the next leg of the stool: student fee increases.
Barnes said the athletic department will be asking for a student fee increase of $65 a semester. This proposed fee increase will be voted for March 23 and 24, Barnes said.
“Student fees by themselves will not even out our budget, but they will help us with the two other pieces of the model,” Barnes said.
However, because a student fee increase would not take effect until next semester, Barnes said the athletic department will be focusing their efforts on self-generated revenue. This includes both revenue collected at games and fundraising, Barnes said. Currently, the athletic department has been involved in a fundraising campaign from which they’ve already collected $1.1 million. Barnes said these funds were essential to the hiring of the new football coach Gary Andersen.
While the athletic department is currently relying heavily on self-generated revenue, Barnes said the size of USU’s athletic venues and market limits the university to the amount that can be brought in through self-generated revenue.
“When you consider how small our market is and the size of our stadiums – and the amount of tickets we give away to students – our ability to generate revenue is lessened. We can certainly put ourselves in a position to compete, but we need student fees and institutional support over time. (The athletic department) can’t generate as much as those two sources,” Barnes said.
Barnes said the goal now is to stabilize the athletics department, sustain the excellence of our sports programs and grow.
–greg.boyles@aggiemail.usu.edu