ASU Athletic Dept. spending ranked in middle of Sun Belt

By Grover Welch, Herald Staff

Fewer than half of all Division I-A athletic programs were self-sustaining in 1999, meaning they didn't need subsidization by their schools to turn a profit, according to a biennial analysis of athletic finances conducted by Daniel Fulks, a certified public accountant who oversees the accounting program at Transylvania University in Kentucky.

For the majority of I-A schools in the red, the average loss was $3.3 million.

When combined with comparisons of the ASU budget to other institutions, the study highlights the dual nature of athletics, both as producer and consumer.

Compared to other Arkansas institutions, the current $8,265,232 athletic budget puts ASU behind only the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville who currently spends $32,526,532. The large difference between the two schools lies in the forms of revenue that are generated by the programs.

The athletic program at U of A generates 93.1 percent of its budget, $30,276,532, from within its program. U of A only relies on $500,000 to be generated by auxiliary means.

At ASU, the athletic budget operates from several different revenue sources, chief among these the projected $3,100,000 generated by the student athletic fee allocation.

Comparing ASU with other schools within the Sun Belt conference, the budget ranks sixth out of 12 schools for the amount of money being spent. According to Collegiate Financial Services, in the fiscal year 1999-2000 ASU's athletic budget of $6,813,057 ranked 113 among 115 Division I-A institutions and was in keeping with the conference average of $6,222,373.

"The expense of an organization like ASU's creates strong demand to meet revenue needs," Abel said. "With current projections, it is necessary to balance incoming money and expenses very carefully."

"If we play football, the dimension is expensive and complicated," said Dr. Les Wyatt, Arkansas State University president. "I am confident in our ability to manage a way out of this," Wyatt said.

There is a projected athletic deficit of $2,100,000 in the October athletic budget analysis prepared by the Department of Finance. Some $250,000 of that is attributed to unsatisfactory ticket and concession sales from the past football season. The projected deficit is in keeping with mid-year analysis, Abel said.

"I would underscore the word projection. The projected deficit is done monthly by finance based upon the best available data at that point and time," Abel said.

"However, as you know things tend to change over time. For example, last year at this point and time the projected deficit was $1.554 million. At the end of the year, the result was $1.056 million," Abel said.