I condensed this big time but it hits to the heart of the matter.
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Big 4 athletic directors face uncertainties in creating budgets during a pandemic
As Bill Maher drafts the next budget for the Canisius College athletic department, there’s only one certainty.
Other areas that could be impacted
The SUNY system has refunded athletic fees, and Alnutt estimates that could be a “million-dollar hit.”
“For the fiscal year 2020, we noticed that we’re having these hits, and we know that our expenses are going to be as high as before because of the pandemic era,” Alnutt said. “From a budgeting standpoint, we realize there’s some revenue that, from a forecasting standpoint, helped us out. We budget conservatively for basketball and football, and with ticket revenue, we surpassed that by a decent amount.
“If everything was back to normal by July 1, we would be fine for fiscal year ’21.”
However, Alnutt says that while keeping in mind that there are plenty of athletic departments across the country that face uncertainty, many face the same issues as Big 4 schools.
Maher, Kenney and Alnutt anticipate that financial gifts to athletic departments will decrease, too, but Gray did not want to project how gifts would be immediately impacted.
“We rely heavily on that,” Maher said. “Our Blue and Gold Fund is a critically important element of that, and we’re going to continue to persevere with that revenue to preserve the student-athlete experience. But everyone is going to expect that they will make different decisions with philanthropy. I’ve been heartened, though, by people who are still saying, ‘I will give my pledge to Canisius.’ ”
At Bona, Kenney also anticipates that corporate sponsorship could be impacted.
“Will businesses who are our valued supporters be able to do this next year?” Kenney asked. “Who knows how long this will last? We got lucky, and I use that term loosely, that we got through basketball season. We didn’t lose out on corporate or ticket money, but we’re waiting to see if people have to postpone. Here, there are so many pots, that it’s going to be affected.”
UB's biggest wild card is football season, which is scheduled to begin Sept. 5. If the 2020 season is amended or canceled, UB could lose a significant amount of money. According to contracts obtained by The News through open records requests, games at Kansas State on Sept. 5 and at Ohio State on Sept. 19 stand to garner UB a potential payout of $2.7 million – $900,000 from Kansas State and $1.8 million from Ohio State.
A clause in the Kansas State contract, however, states that “in the event of fire, flood, tornado, earthquake, war, invasion, hostilities, rebellion, insurrection, confiscation by order of the government, military of public authority or prohibitory or governmental authority … making it impossible or impractical to play one or both games, both parties shall be relieved of any or all further obligations under this Agreement.” The contract with Ohio State holds a similar cancellation-without-penalty clause, that includes “unforeseen catastrophes or disasters beyond control of either party.”
“If football doesn’t occur, or we’re delayed until Jan. 1, there are going to have to be significant decisions made,” Alnutt said. “And I don’t want to get into that.”
Potential ways to alleviate financial losses
LEAD1, an association of athletic directors from 130 Football Bowl Subdivision schools,
released a study last week that found athletic directors at the nation’s biggest sports schools are bracing for a potential financial crisis because of the pandemic.
According to LEAD1 and USA Today, 111 athletic directors responded, including 62 from Group of Five schools. Only 8% of the athletic directors project a decrease of more than 30% in revenue for 2019-20, but 35% are preparing for that steep drop for 2020-21.
Forty percent of the 95 athletic directors who responded to the survey said they strongly approve that high earners should voluntarily offer to make a personal financial sacrifice during the financial crisis.
Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard announced on April 1 a temporary pay cut for coaches and certain staff, and a one-year suspension of incentive bonuses for all coaches.
Wyoming athletic director Tom Burman posted April 1 on Twitter that he will take a 10% salary cut through Dec. 31.
Louisville athletic director Vince Tyra said April 9 that the school’s head coaches in 21 sports and 12 senior athletic administrators have agreed to a 10% salary cut for the 2020-21 academic year.
On Monday, Washington State announced that its football coach, men's basketball coach, athletic director and president will each take temporary salary reductions of 5%. Washington State's coaches also will forgo all bonuses through the end of the 202o-21 academic year.
The Associated Press reported that at Stanford, football coach David Shaw, women’s basketball coach Tara VanDerveer and men’s basketball coach Jerod Haase volunteered to take less pay.
On Tuesday, Cincinnati officials announced the school was dropping men's soccer, effective immediately.
The fact that the remainder of winter and spring sports aren’t being played immediately helps the bottom line of athletic programs, including those at Canisius, Niagara, Bona and UB. An NCAA mandate created a dead period in recruiting through May 31, and prohibits on-campus or off-campus visits or evaluations for coaches and players. As a result, expenses for the remainder of each school’s fiscal year will be reduced because those teams and coaches are not traveling.
St. Bonaventure has frozen its athletic budgets, unless it’s for necessary spending, such as insurance policies. Niagara has shut down its spring sports, but Gray said the athletic department is honoring all of its bills and invoices, and has not added expenses.
But there isn’t a one-size-fits-all design for athletic departments when planning for their future finances.
“You have to think about realistic measures, but each institution is so unique that you’re not going to see one way or another to be a common trend. Our operations are different than what the other Big 4 schools are.”
Story topics:
Rachel Lenzi– Rachel Lenzi is a college/high school sports enterprise reporter at The Buffalo News. She has worked newspapers in Texas, Colorado, Maine and Ohio, and in digital in Michigan, covering high school, college and professional sports."
https://buffalonews.com/2020/04/14/...mark-alnutt-bill-maher-simon-gray-tim-kenney/
