Washington State University President Kirk Schulz says the university’s $13 million athletic budget deficit is shrinking and he expects that within three years the department will have a balanced budget.
Schulz, who spoke Tuesday morning with the Daily News, said spending in the department is down between $3 million and $4 million from thre previous year.
“We’re on track so that three years from now revenue and expenditure would match,” Schulz said.
Schulz credited Athletic Director Bill Moos and other athletic department staff with finding creative ways to cut spending, including cutting travel costs and leaving some positions empty on the cost reduction side.
Plans to increase revenue have been a bit trickier.
In September, Schulz and Moos spoke to the WSU Board of Regents about the possibility of a student fee to help fund athletics, as well as expanded alcohol sales at Martin stadium.
Under the student fee proposal, undergraduates at the Pullman campus would pay an additional fee of $50 per semester, which would raise $1.7 million annually. The proposal was expected to have appeared on the Associated Students of Washington State University’s November ballot, but it did not.
The request to serve alcohol in all but the student section at the stadium has been hung up for several months with the Washington Liquor and Cannabis Board in Olympia. Schulz told Pullman Radio last week the university has remained in contact with the board, which has shared some concerns about the request.
“We’re continuing dialogue,” Schulz said. “Taking our time to do it right.”
The university has, however, seen an uptick in ticket revenue.
“We’ve been really aggressive on ticket sales,” Schulz said, adding part of the plan introduced in September was to work with an outside firm for ticket sales.
“We actually had a better year than expected with ticket sales and ticket revenue. Some of those things we put in place this summer are starting to pay off.”
While increased revenue and cutting costs within the athletic department has made a difference, the university has taken a share of the struggle upon itself as well, helping to support such department expenses as Pac-12 dues, care of facilities and the academic support unit, which assists student athletes by providing assessment, counseling and skill development services. The university is also providing partial compensation for receiving less revenue than expected from creation of the Pac-12 TV network.
Schulz said once the gap between revenue and expenditure is matched, ideally within the next three years, there will still be work to do.
“Then there will be an accumulated deficit and we’ll work on ways to repay that — and it will be repaid at that time,” he said. “Right now we’re just working on making those two things balance.”
Shanon Quinn can be reached at (208) 883-4636, or by email to squinn@dnews.com.
