KU Athletics reports projected $30 million shortfall in revenues for fiscal year 2021
Kansas Athletics is projecting a $30 million reduction in revenues this fiscal year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
During a KU Athletics board of directors meeting Wednesday, chief financial officer Pat Kaufman revealed that the department had reduced its revenue projections in the fiscal year from $100 million to $70 million. The biggest chunk of that loss came from a roughly $15 million decrease in NCAA/Big 12 money from $38 million to $23 million, based on fewer games being televised in both college football and basketball this year.
KU also saw its ticket revenues plummet. The men’s basketball projection for ticket revenues fell from $13.7 million to to $2.3 million, while football ticket projections were altered from $4.2 million in revenue to $519,000.
Following some reductions, KU Athletics is projecting $89 million in expenses to go with its $70 million in revenues, while also carrying over about $5.5 million in surplus from last year. The additional $13 million shortfall will be covered by a credit line that KU chancellor Douglas Girod began setting up in August to help in case “emergency liquidity” was needed.
During the meeting, KU athletic director Jeff Long reiterated that this would not be a one-year problem or one-year financial crisis for KU. The department will have to make plans to pay the potential $13 million line of credit back in future budgets while also planning further reductions in travel next year.
Long also said it remained to be seen how much ticket and donation revenues would return in 2021.
“We have our work cut out for next year,” he said in regard to the budget. “As you know, it’s a challenging time. I really appreciate the efforts of our team here in Jayhawk Athletics to meet this very difficult challenge.”
KU Athletics previously set a budget of $100.9 million in July, which even then was reduced from a pre-COVID-19 proposed budget of $108.7 million. Long, at the time, made cuts to the budget in anticipation of losing 20% in revenues this year.
