Kansas State athletics lost $10.8 million in 2021, but AD says budget will recover
At one point during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, Kansas State athletics director Gene Taylor projected the Wildcats to lose as much as $25 million by the end of the 2021 fiscal year.
That was a scary number to think about.
Finishing in the red for any reason would be a concern for the K-State athletic department, which supports itself without any money from taxpayers or the university. But that type of loss would be hard to overcome.
So Taylor was understandably relieved when a series of cost-cutting measures allowed the Wildcats to report a budget shortfall of approximately $10.8 million in 2021 instead of that original figure.
“It’s not a small number,” Taylor said during a recent interview, “but there are other schools across the country that are facing $20 million or $30 million deficits. Some schools are having to borrow from the university. We’re not going to have to do that. Now, we’re going to have to be conservative over the next fiscal year, which we’re halfway through, and we’re doing fine. But, again, it’s a lot less challenging to make up an $11 million shortfall than a $30 million shortfall.”
Two notable athletic departments that operated at larger deficits in 2021 were Ohio State ($63.8 million) and Texas ($14.6 million).
Here is a look at K-State’s budgetary numbers for the 2021 fiscal year, which ended June 30, according to the athletic department’s latest financial report:
The Wildcats brought in $67.6 million in total revenues and spent $78.4 million. Both numbers were down significantly compared to normal years.
In 2020, K-State reported $86.4 million in revenue and $86.1 million in expenses.
K-State revenues were down in 2020-21 mostly because COVID-19 forced the Wildcats to limit attendance at sporting events. Without crowds of 50,000 showing up for football games at Bill Snyder Family Stadium in fall 2020, ticket sales across all sports were only $2.8 million. That number was down from $14.5 million the year before.
The Wildcats tried to cover the revenue loss by limiting travel expenses and asking employees to take furloughs and temporary salary reductions.
Team travel dropped from $6.9 million in 2020 to $3.9 million in 2021. Recruiting travel dropped from $1.4 million to $369,918 and athletic salaries dipped from $22.9 million to $21.6 million.
The biggest financial help came in the form of money from the Big 12, the College Football Playoff and the NCAA Tournament. There was a time when it looked like only a small number of games were going to be played at the start of the pandemic, which would have resulted in a major loss for everyone without TV money rolling in.
But K-State managed to play 10 football games and 29 men’s basketball games. The championship events in both of those sports also went on as originally scheduled.
K-State reported $35.7 million in the form of Big 12 receipts, nearly $1 million from NCAA receipts and $4.1 million from its radio and TV contracts. By comparison, the Wildcats received $40.2 million from the Big 12 in 2020, along with similar numbers from the NCAA and radio/TV in 2020. They feared a much bigger dip than $4.5 million.
“The biggest number that saved us was that we got a lot more from the Big 12 than we thought,” Taylor said. “Originally, we were hoping to get $15 million, because we didn’t know what our football status was going to be. To end up getting $36 million was a huge number. We got all our football games in and just about all of our basketball games in. So those numbers came in higher than we anticipated.”
Taylor said K-State offset the rest of its 2021 budget shortfall by dipping into reserves.
Employees across the athletic department have returned to their normal salaries, Taylor said. The Wildcats are now doing their best to move past a challenging fiscal year, but they are still being careful with how they spend money. For example, teams continue to travel by bus instead of plane to short road games.
One thing the pandemic didn’t hurt: fundraising.
K-State has brought in nearly $50 million in donations over the past two fiscal years, which has allowed the school to move forward with new facility projects. An indoor practice facility for football is currently under construction and should be ready for use in October. A new Olympic training facility and a new volleyball arena are also on the way.
This story was originally published February 10, 2022 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Kansas State athletics lost $10.8 million in 2021, but AD says budget will recover."