Greenspan: 'We will meet football revenue goals'
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Michael Sanserino
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Michael Sanserino |
POSTED AT
12:00 AM ON Oct. 19, 2005
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IU Athletics Director Rick Greenspan said Tuesday he believes increased football revenues will ease the burden of a repeal of the student athletics fee.
During the Bloomington Faculty Council meeting, Greenspan said his goals for the athletics department include developing and ratifying a balanced budget and achieving revenue objectives, which have increased from previous years.
Kevin Clark, athletics department financial business office manager, said the expected 2005 football revenue is $4.3 million, up $1.1 million from last year.
Greenspan would not disclose how close the athletics department is to reaching its projection, calling ticket sales a "work in progress."
"We will meet our revenue goal this year," Greenspan said in an interview. "We've got three games left so I'm confident we'll get to it. If we keep winning and go to a major bowl game, then we won't have to worry about revenue."
With a record of 4-2, the football team is two wins shy of bowl eligibility.
The athletics department's 2005-2006 budget relies on increased football revenue in addition to the $30 student athletics fee that has already been collected.
Greenspan said the addition of coach Terry Hoeppner and an implementation of a new marketing campaign will help bolster ticket sales.
With an expected trustee vote in May, next year's athletics department budget includes an expected increase in football revenue, a repeal of the athletics fee, raising basketball ticket prices and a reduction of student seats from the lower level of Assembly Hall.
With the plan, which Greenspan proposed to the trustees in September, the department expects to be in the black by the 2007-08 fiscal year. No timetable is set for paying back the department's debts to the University.
BFC member and associate professor in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs Robert Kravchuk, who helped Greenspan review the proposed budget, said football attendance is crucial to the budget's success.
"If you meet your numbers, you'll meet the plan," Kravchuk said to Greenspan during the meeting. "If you don't, you won't."
Greenspan said the strategic plan was not finalized until a few hours before the trustee meeting.
"We wanted to make sure we did due diligence, and that's what took us to the end," he said.
Darren Rovell, sports business reporter for ESPN.com, said Thursday budget deficits like IU's are common at universities.
"College athletics programs, at this point, are not set up to make money," Rovell said. "There are only 10 to 15 schools that budget a profit each year. Having a deficit isn't a sign of trouble."
But he said he was surprised with Greenspan's proposal.
"Especially when you're in a deficit, you can't gouge the students," Rovell said.
During the meeting, Greenspan expressed his pleasure with the University and said he hoped to repair the image of an athletics department that had "lost its way" by helping to find its "strategic and moral compass."
He said he hopes to add a seventh home game to the football schedule next year, up from six this year and five in 2004.
Greenspan also addressed reorganizing academic support for student athletes, enhancing the business model, becoming more active in the community and encouraging partnerships between sports and coaches.
"I think we made some positive headway with this football staff in their willingness to assist other sports," Greenspan said during the meeting.
Many board members prodded Greenspan and Assistant Athletics Director for Academic Services Grace Calhoun to assist student athletes wishing to change majors and others trying balance practice and class.
The next BFC meeting is Nov. 1 in Ballantine Hall.