The Iowa athletics department is bracing for a budget deficit of between $60 million and $75 million, a direct result of the Big Ten Conference’s decision last week to cancel fall football.
Iowa athletics director Gary Barta outlined the gloomy financial forecast in a letter to season ticketholders on Monday.
In the letter, Barta says that Hawkeye athletics — which in fiscal year 2019 had operating expenses of $146.3 million — stands to lose roughly $100 million in revenues in the current academic year (FY2021).
“We recognize the conference’s decision will have a major financial impact on not only our athletic department,” Barta wrote, “but the many businesses that rely on Hawkeye events to support their livelihoods.”
This shouldn’t come as a surprise for anyone who has followed the importance of football on budget bottom lines, but it doesn’t make the dollar amounts any less staggering.
Football-specific revenues for FY2019 were nearly $82 million (the bulk of it coming from media-rights fees and ticket sales), and that figure doesn’t include $34 million in non-sport-specific contributions that are typically associated with the football team. How well Iowa can navigate its FY2021 budget will be partially impacted by what the athletics department can secure in charitable donations as we experience a 2020 largely without sports.
In Barta's letter, Iowa continues to offer fans the option of a full refund for their football tickets. Fans seeking a refund are asked to send an e-mail to tickets@hawkeyesports.com. That same e-mail address should be used for fans who would like to request refunds for their annual per-seat contributions. Barta told season ticketholders that their “priority and seat locations are guaranteed for next year. If you would like to keep your investment with us, it will be applied to the 2021 season."
Fans who choose to roll their payments to 2021 would help be a boost for Iowa's cash-on-hand during a challenging financial year.
Barta said the athletics department is "working hard to find solutions. These decisions will be very challenging."
As outlined in a Register analysis of four years of Iowa's athletics finances last month, the cutting of sports programs will likely be on the table. Of Iowa's 24 sports, only two (football and men's basketball) bring in more money than it spends. Even so, cutting a few sports programs would only fractionally slice into a potential $75 million budget shortfall, which means a combination of deep cuts and borrowing is likely. According to its FY2019 budget, Iowa's athletics debt was already $227 million.
A developing factor in budgets at all Big Ten schools will be the viability of a spring football season. The Big Ten is open to the possibility, and some coaches have already assembled ideas about how that could work amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
If Big Ten teams are able to play an eight-game spring schedule (as Purdue’s Jeff Brohm and Ohio State’s Ryan Day have proposed), it would salvage some of its media-rights fees from Fox and ESPN (Big Ten per-team distributions had been projected in the $55 million range, if this had been a typical sports year). But no matter what, as was outlined Monday, the financial reality of the cancellation of fall football will cut deep.
https://www.press-citizen.com/story...otball-gary-barta-kinnick-stadium/3375771001/
Iowa athletics director Gary Barta outlined the gloomy financial forecast in a letter to season ticketholders on Monday.
In the letter, Barta says that Hawkeye athletics — which in fiscal year 2019 had operating expenses of $146.3 million — stands to lose roughly $100 million in revenues in the current academic year (FY2021).
“We recognize the conference’s decision will have a major financial impact on not only our athletic department,” Barta wrote, “but the many businesses that rely on Hawkeye events to support their livelihoods.”
This shouldn’t come as a surprise for anyone who has followed the importance of football on budget bottom lines, but it doesn’t make the dollar amounts any less staggering.
Football-specific revenues for FY2019 were nearly $82 million (the bulk of it coming from media-rights fees and ticket sales), and that figure doesn’t include $34 million in non-sport-specific contributions that are typically associated with the football team. How well Iowa can navigate its FY2021 budget will be partially impacted by what the athletics department can secure in charitable donations as we experience a 2020 largely without sports.
In Barta's letter, Iowa continues to offer fans the option of a full refund for their football tickets. Fans seeking a refund are asked to send an e-mail to tickets@hawkeyesports.com. That same e-mail address should be used for fans who would like to request refunds for their annual per-seat contributions. Barta told season ticketholders that their “priority and seat locations are guaranteed for next year. If you would like to keep your investment with us, it will be applied to the 2021 season."
Fans who choose to roll their payments to 2021 would help be a boost for Iowa's cash-on-hand during a challenging financial year.
Barta said the athletics department is "working hard to find solutions. These decisions will be very challenging."
As outlined in a Register analysis of four years of Iowa's athletics finances last month, the cutting of sports programs will likely be on the table. Of Iowa's 24 sports, only two (football and men's basketball) bring in more money than it spends. Even so, cutting a few sports programs would only fractionally slice into a potential $75 million budget shortfall, which means a combination of deep cuts and borrowing is likely. According to its FY2019 budget, Iowa's athletics debt was already $227 million.
A developing factor in budgets at all Big Ten schools will be the viability of a spring football season. The Big Ten is open to the possibility, and some coaches have already assembled ideas about how that could work amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
If Big Ten teams are able to play an eight-game spring schedule (as Purdue’s Jeff Brohm and Ohio State’s Ryan Day have proposed), it would salvage some of its media-rights fees from Fox and ESPN (Big Ten per-team distributions had been projected in the $55 million range, if this had been a typical sports year). But no matter what, as was outlined Monday, the financial reality of the cancellation of fall football will cut deep.
https://www.press-citizen.com/story...otball-gary-barta-kinnick-stadium/3375771001/
