USF trims athletic budget to $32.3 million

USF's athletic department has trimmed its budget for the 2009-10 school year by 0.8 percent, with $32.3 million projected to be spent on the school's 17 teams and support staff.

USF released its new budget Tuesday, and the biggest cuts are in team travel, which is due for an 8 percent cut, and in administrative expenses, with a 19 percent drop in costs related to "supplies/dues/copy/equipment."

The school's sports information department's budget was more than cut in half, from $191,000 to $82,000, though much of the cuts should coincide with the school not printing media guides this season and providing information online and digitally.

The school, like most in college football, will spend considerably more on "guarantee expenses" related to paying opponents to come to Raymond James Stadium for games -- this year's guarantees will cost $1.80 million, up from $1.43 million last season. The athletic program's overall expenses relating to athletic scholarships and compensation for coaches and staff remain within 2 percent of last year's figures, and the bowl budget remains set at $1.1 million.

-- Congrats to USF baseball, which took home the Big East Team Excellence Award for baseball after a strong year in the classroom, with the team GPA at 3.2 or higher in both semesters during 2008-09.

The Big East gave the awards to one team in each of 23 sports -- only 10 of the 16 schools had a team honored. DePaul led the way with seven teams, followed by Notre Dame, Syracuse and Seton Hall with three each. St. John's and Cincinnati had two teams, and USF, Louisville, West Virginia and Georgetown had one each.

Comments

[BullsFan]

Greg,

I wonder how much of that total budget is paid by Student Fees?(the manditory Athletic Fee that is added to each student's tuition) Last I checked, per student, it was over $11 flat fee plus a $10 per credit hour fee...

Quick estimation... There are roughly 46,000 students across four campuses (at $11 each), plus about 1 Million credit hours taken each year by USF students (at $10 per credit hour)... so thats about $10.5 Million...

Any way we can get the factual numbers on this Greg?

[G.A.]

"Private donations from the community, Alumn and boosters could offset much/all of the cost."

Steve, that's really not the case. USF has spent the past five years trying to raise significantly less for other facility upgrades and hasn't built anything yet (Except track, which the county paid for in full.)

To expect USF's fan base to make major inroads toward a $180-million-plus football stadium is giving them a lot more credit than they've earned from a donations standpoint. Not saying it couldn't happen as the program continues to grow, but not right now.

[Bulliever]

Hi Steve O,

We are on the home side (which is the west side, I think?)
We have just 8 seats... And we always seem to find friends that want to go see a game with our extra tickets :)

Only 58 days left until the season begins, thank goodness!... Go Bulls!

[Steve O'Neal]

Hey, Bulliever. I'm a scholar Bull donor also. I've had my 1st set of seats for about 9 yrs. They are now 2 levels above scholar bull to get these seast now(50yd line sect235). Last year my wife became a scholar Bull donor also(sect 135 50yd line). You should have seen the look of surprise on her face! Maybe surprised isn't the right word. Anyway we have a total of 16 seats on the east side now. GO BULLS!

[Steve O'Neal]

The average attendance 2 yrs ago was above 50k. Last year just below 50k. This year will probably be mid 40's the way things have been looking with other schools ticket sales. Why would we build something like BHNS that would already be at or over capacity. The attendance at the last WVU Friday night game was a sellout. We have had a few games that exceeded the capacity of BHNS. To be honest, I don't care about all the bells and whistles of some of the new stadiums, I just want to see a FB game. Look at the U of Minnesota and their new stadium. Seats 55k, I think and cost over 250 million to build. I know that the majority of USF fans would not like to go from something as nice as rayjay to a more basic stadium like BHNS though. That's not saying there is anything wrong with BHNS. USF may well have an OCS someday and that would be great, it's just not going to happen anytime soon.

[Bulliever]

Steve,

We are season ticket holders (Scholar Bull Donors) and we do not want a stadium right now... The money earned should go to all the other upgrades of our athletics facilities first and to the Sun Dome.

You are saying the "brass" wants a stadium, sounds more like you are talking out your brass, because most of the season ticket holders I know are happy at Ray Jay... and we will not compromise just to have some rinky dink stadium like FIU and UCF...

We would rather wait until the timing is right and build something that we can be proud of!

[Steve]

USFMikeB,

Your point is very valid, as it is hard to determine the overall value of ticket sales. However, ticket sales can be kept relatively cheap, but season ticket holders would need to increase their donation level to ensure they get and maintain their seats that they desire. My donation level is $1500 per season, while my ticket price is $27 per game to sit on the 50 yard line, 10 rows up. It is the donations that give UCF the ability to pay for the stadium (part of which is a loan from UCFAA) and to ensure money in the hopper for future projects. Now , not everyone pays at this donation level, my friend who sits in the second level, pays only $500 per season to ensure his seats. Most Universities do this, as I am sure USF does for Ray Jay, but not sure what/if you pay.

[Steve]

G.A.,

Don't you think it is fiscally irresponsible for USF to "build a stadium that USF wants" for $100-$200 million dollars in the future. Do you see any indication that USF can sell over 40,000 season tickets to sustain such a stadium (that is if you are thinking about building a large stadium of over 65,000 seats). The majority of CFB stadiums (about 85%) average between 50,000-55,000 seats. USF's average attendance has been in the low to mid 30,000 range. Why not have a plan as UCF did, to build a stadium that is expandable to grow with the program, if it indeed does grow to garner such an above average size stadium. I understand the want and need to focus on upgrading facilities, but once again, as UCF proved, Private donations from the community, Alumn and boosters could offset much/all of the cost. I just think USF has done a poor job at this, as I indicated from my conversation with many of the brass in the USF Alumni Association. It seems that there is no direction thus far concerning the future, only for the immediate short term.

[USFMikeB]

To the argument that UCF makes $1 million per game based on ticket revenue, keep in mind that you need to value the different number of tickets you would sell for a new stadium versus the existing stadium arrangement. We already make millions on ticket sales, how much more we would make from having an on campus stadium is uncertain.

[Steve O'Neal]

Bulliever, USF also now receives some of the parking revenues also at rayjay. As far as paying teams to come play at your stadium......all the visiting teams get paid!

[SuperBull]

UCF didn't have to pay Texas to come and play at the Alumabowl?

[Tim]

Very nice...

Congrats to USF baseball, which took home the Big East Team Excellence Award for baseball after a strong year in the classroom, with the team GPA at 3.2 or higher in both semesters during 2008-09.

[WilliamTell]

Way to go, Coach Prado! A 3.2 team GPA and a second place regular season finish in the conference. Proves you can win both on the field and in the classroom.

[n33x]

I like this blog. Puts people like steve in their place.

[G.A.]

Again, as Jim Leavitt has pointed out, the financial viability of a new stadium just isn't there right now. It would cost between $180 million and $200 million to construct a stadium like USF would want -- not many new stadiums going up in college football these days.

Yes, a new stadium would open new revenue streams, but the repayment of loans would offset that in a big way.

For the immediate future, USF isn't looking to build a football stadium, with lots of smaller more pressing needs to upgrade facilities first.

[Bulliever]

Steve,

I guess you are missing my point. I was referring to profitability...

If that is true, that USF pays $275K per game (and does not receive concession) ... but we take in an average $20/ticket and we average 50K in attendance/ game = $1,000,000/ game. Then USF is making $750K. (Also, I have not included the donations that are made by about 22K season ticket holders).

That is cheap, since we are not paying on the loans and the bonds to build it, I would bet the casualty and liability insure is $1 million for the year...easy. It would really be cheap rent if we are not paying TSA to secure it, staff to maintain and clean it, and the misc. police and Fire Depts. to be there in case of any problems that may arise.

Also, I believe that most universities have to pay at least a couple of teams to come to their stadium to play...even UCF. If I am not mistaken USF is getting paid over $300K to play FSU this year.

Greg please correct me, if I have said anything that might be inaccurate.

I just was hoping to see some cold hard numbers to see if the talk about a stadium is really "worth" the talk.

[Steve]

I believe the Bulls currently pay roughly $275,000 per game to play at Ray Jay, and get little or nothing from concessions. Not too mention they have are still paying teams to come play them at home. By comparrisons to other state schools who have on-campus stadiums, like a UCF, who make over $1 million per home game on tickets, concessions (100%), and have the ability to draw thousands of people to the campus to buy merchandis at some of the many on-campus stores.

[Bulliever]

I have been curious to know how much does our football team generate in revenue and are we more profitable than other universities with football programs? Would having a stadium really make USF more profitable?

The cost of building a beautiful stadium is extraordinary... USF would have to pay back the loans/bonds, and then add in the cost of the casualty insurance as well as liability insurance...

I am thinking that renting an NFL stadium is better than building one... Even Miami has decided to dump the "Orange Bowl"... Maybe, this is a "new topic" that could be discussed during the dog days of summer...

[G.A.]

We have relatively set rules for what gets comments deleted, so I don't have to stray far from those guidelines.

I try to stay on top of the comments as best I can. If you ever see something objectionable, shoot me an e-mail at auman@sptimes.com and I'll give it a look.

Thanks for the kind words.

[Brian]

@ Mike

If Greg started removing comments based on content other than language, racism, etc, it would damage his credibility. Some yahoo posting nonsense in the comment section has no effect.

[USFMikeB]

Just to clarify, by blatantly false posts I mean from the public, not from Greg.

Yes, chalko, that includes you.

[USFMikeB]

Thanks Greg. By the way, I've previously been critical of this blog specifically due to the method in which some posts are allowed to stay online even when it is clear that they are blatantly false. However, I've got to say that you're doing a heck of a job getting the news out to the USF population. Keep up the good work!

[G.A.]

Mike, will try to do more. Waiting for answers on some questions I've asked from USF about specific line items.

There are about 30 lines on the budget -- I have it as a PDF, but will try to get it online ... I don't want to post anything until I can answer for things that would logically generate questions.

[USFMikeB]

Greg,

Can you either run a full story on this, or post a link? I'd actually like to see the breakouts by the organizations within Athletics that you've mentioned. Of course, that's the kind of stuff I do for a living, so I'm a bit of a finance geek!

USFMikeB

[G.A.]

KB, I would expect the revenues to come in just ahead of expenses, based on previous years ...

[BA]

Greg,
I know this is just 'one line' on the budget, but any consideration given to not printing and mailing season tickets? They could be printed out at my home much like a boarding pass for an airline trip. Just a thought.

Thanks and Go Bulls!

[kb]

Greg,

What amount of revenue does the athletic department bring in annually? Are those numbers released and/or included in the budget?

[Dave Glaser]

Does that $82,000 for SID include salaries for staff? If so, they must have an all-volunteer staff. :-)

[Brian]

I wonder what the world would be like with a $100 million athletics budget.