NMSU has had to reduce athletic budget
Cash-strapped department trimmed nearly $1 million
LAS CRUCES — New Mexico State University has had to shave just under $1 million from its athletic department budget in the past two years, a significant amount for a cash-strapped department at an institution struggling to make ends meet.
Since the 2014-15 school year, the NMSU athletics budget has had $248,300 cut from state appropriations, $251,300 cut from tuition and fees and $454,301 cut from the instruction and general fund, which included the elimination of the equestrian program before the program was saved for at least one more year over the summer.
“We have had significant reductions in those three categories, and I think that is important for people to know,” NMSU athletic director Mario Moccia said.
Budget reductions have been a constant occurrence since Moccia was hired in January of 2015.
There was a $112,100 student fees one-time cut midyear for the 2014-15 athletic year. In 2015-16, there was a mid-year state reduction of $20,400, a permanent student fees cut of $196,300 and an additional one-time reduction of $154,400 from student fees.
So far in 2016-17, there have been two state cuts: first a $62,200 reduction going into the year and then a $165,700 reduction as a result of a late October special session of the Legislature. There has also been a permanent student fees reduction of $108,000 in addition to a $59,100 midyear reduction from student fees due to continued enrollment declines.
Prior to any mid-year cuts being made, the 2017 fiscal
year athletics budget of $17.3 million included $3.3 million from the state, $3.375 million from student fees and $4.739 million from the university transfer in addition to private donations to the Aggie Athletic Club, game guarantees and ticket sales.
“We had postponed the search for the marketing director position (to replace Steve Macy, who left the university in October 2015) and we budgeted for that position for this year but we have yet to fill it so we have savings there,” Moccia said. “When (head track and field coach) Orin Richburg retired (in August 2016), we appointed two of the assistants co-interim coaches so there was a savings there. We want to hire a full-time coach at some point this year, but we are delaying that search up a few months for now.”
Nicole Gomez is a part-time employee who is responsible for Aggie Athletic Club fundraising, along with Deputy AD Chet Savage.
For the most part, NMSU has addressed the cuts by leaving additional vacant staff positions open within the athletic department. But all NMSU coaches have also been affected in some form or fashion.
As an example, Aggies football coaches were only able to recruit on 10 of the 21 possible recruiting days in the last fiscal year.
“Coaches are willing to find ways to make it work,” Moccia said. “It certainly puts you at an unbelievable competitive disadvantage. But we are starting to run out of creative options to cut.”
The Journal has reported that the University of New Mexico athletics incurred a $1.54 million deficit for the 2015 fiscal year, which was covered by main campus reserves.
Cutting additional sports isn’t an option for NMSU, which is scheduled to pay an average $1,144,808 back to the university for the next five years, including a $1.4 million payment in fiscal year 2017.
According to a university spokesperson, the athletic department remains responsible for cutting $454,301 from the budget, and the future of the equestrian program, “will be the subject of a Regent’s vote in the near future.”
Moccia added that another midyear cut from the operational budget could be necessary due to poor ticket sales in the 201617 school year. The university missed its ticket sales projections by more than $400,000 last year, but despite conservative projections this season, Moccia said ticket revenue is currently $150,000 in the red for fiscal year 2017. Moccia hopes that a January 21 Pack the Pan Am promotion and a potential “bounce” in single-game revenue for the four remaining home games would lessen the hit.
Moccia said additional cuts to make up the difference would occur following the January 21 home game against Missouri-Kansas City.
“We budgeted $5,000 for that game, so if I can sell another $40,000 for that game like I did last time, there is another $30,000 I could eat out of that,” Moccia said. “It’s kind of a living, breathing thing, and we are trying to sell as many tickets as possible and try to get that to a $0.
“With equestrian, if that program ultimately does not return next year as an intercollegiate sport, that will leave us with the FBS minimum of 16 sports,” Moccia said. “The reality is that there is not a whole lot of places left to cut.”