UW Athletics' 2016-17 operating expense budget set to increase by more than $8 million

13 February 2016

The University of Wisconsin athletic department expects to lose $3 million from the absence of a seventh home game during the Badgers’ upcoming 2016 football season and likely won’t receive a previously expected $1.5 million in state funds to assist with a new roof for the Kohl Center.

Still, the university’s athletic board approved an operating expense budget of nearly $122 million for 2016-17 at its meeting Friday, an increase of more than $8 million from the previous year.

Some of the jump comes from the decision to add three new departments to the athletic department’s budget — camps and clinics, the W Club and University Ridge Golf Course — that will add about $6.1 million in both revenue and expenses.

Those three aren’t new entities, but Mario Morris, associate athletic director for business operations, said the athletic department added their finances to the athletic department’s budget this year to “streamline financial reporting” and to "include all financial operations on all financial reports."

Aside from those additions, UW Athletics has budgeted more financial spending for 2016-17 despite some atypical setbacks in revenue.

The Badgers’ football team will travel to Green Bay on Sept. 3 to open its season against LSU in a neutral-site game, and the addition of a ninth Big Ten Conference game this year will give UW five conference road games instead of the usual four.

UW will receive $3 million for the game at Lambeau, but that’s $1 million less than it made for a season-opening game against Alabama last season.

The athletic department also must likely pay the entire bill on a $2.7 million project to build a new roof for the Kohl Center after budgeting just $1.2 million in 2015-16. The other $1.5 million was originally expected to come from the university via state funds.

"What we know is, we’ve been told that we’re probably not going to get that money that we were originally allocated,” Morris said. "The state gives the money to the university. Obviously they have budget issues. The university has to make a decision on what projects they’re going to fund, and more than likely we’re going to have to pick up the tab for that."

Morris said that project will begin this summer if approved by the building commission.

The athletic department’s new apparel contract with Under Armour, which begins July 1, has helped cancel out these extra expenses.

UW will receive $4 million in cash on top off $3.3 million in product in the first year of a 10-year deal after receiving between $750,000 and $800,000 annually under its current contract with Adidas.

“That has helped and will definitely help us in the future overall,” Morris said.

The athletic department will contribute a total of about $11.5 million to the university in 2016-17, which Morris said was the same amount that was budgeted in 2015-16. UW Athletics increased contributions by $2 million last year after Gov. Scott Walker proposed $300 million in cuts to the UW System.

When asked if that total will increase in 2017-18, Morris said the athletic department is currently having conversations with UW-Madison chancellor Rebecca Blank regarding that issue. A new Big Ten television deal, expected to begin in 2017, could factor into future contributions.

Morris said he still did not have final cost of attendance expense numbers after the new NCAA rule went into effect last fall. UW budgeted an extra $1.5 million to account for that during 2015-16 along with adding the extra expense of improving its meal plans for student-athletes.

"I’ll know at the end of June what the real cost (for cost of attendance) was,” Morris said. “We still have a couple tuition bills to go, but it seems like it’s going to come within the budget at this point."

 

Source : madison.com