A tough play
What will it take to get UNM’s athletics budget out of the red? Readers share their thoughts
Dropping football may be best fix
WHILE ATTENDING the April 10 UNM Board of Trustees Fiscal and Facilities Committee meeting, I was most impressed with President (Garnett) Stokes’ opening statements, and how she feels athletics fits into the overall university mission. New AD Eddie Nunez also interjected several times about the “opportunities” facing the athletic department at UNM — opportunities indeed to regain the community’s trust in being good stewards of our public dollars. I was also encouraged by President Stokes’ commitment to rectify the increasing deficit the Athletics Department is incurring by developing a repayment schedule over the next 10 years, rather than seeking forgiveness from the Board of Regents. Such a responsible approach will sit well with the community, and in the long run, help reestablish a committed fan base.
Additionally, it was clear ... that to balance the budget, the department will have to cut programs, and the easy targets are the minor sports that don’t draw as much community support. I am a season ticket-holder for both basketball and football and for years have thoroughly enjoyed the entertainment value of these two programs, but looking critically at where the department is now, financially, I feel serious consideration needs to be given to cutting football altogether. I never thought I would ever support such a move, but now may be the time, for several reasons.
It may be the most efficient way to recoup money, giving UNM the biggest bang for the buck — eliminating one under-performing program, and not five or six programs that are performing well. Of all the UNM athletic programs, football is the biggest drain on the university, financially. Attendance has been in free-fall, and despite some recent success under Coach (Bob) Davie, the program remains as one of the weaker ones in the conference. Personally, I would hate to see UNM football disappear, but it needs to be on the table for consideration. Gonzaga University, while not a public institution, has survived, and even thrived, without a football program.
Over the years, I always rejected the notion that Albuquerque is a basketball town, and not a football town. History has proven me wrong. We simply have not supported our football program to the extent that we have our basketball team. While basketball ticket sales have also trended downward as of late, I firmly believe it will be easier to reverse that trend with basketball than with football. While coaches come and go, I expect Paul Weir to remain at UNM, at least for the short term, and he is doing all the right things to engage the students, faculty, staff and community into supporting the basketball program.
So, as Eddie Nunez says, the opportunities to right the ship are at our fingertips. I believe we now have the right people in place to make some informed, albeit difficult, decisions and move the UNM Athletics Department forward to becoming good financial stewards and regain trust from their support base.
ROBERT FERGUSON Albuquerque
Please explain Overhead/Bank Fees
THE ALBUQUERQUE Journal has recently had thoughtful articles about the future of the UNM Athletics budget. In the April 7 “Day of Reckoning for UNM Athletics?” you presented information about the FY 2018 original budget compared to the current year-end projections . ... You continued with guest columns by Dick Minzner and Sherman McCorkle. The Athletics Department’s budget has been in deficit for many years and there does not seem to be any end in sight. Decisive action needs to be taken by the Board of Regents now. As Minzner points out, resources at the university are limited and should be allocated in a way that reflects the strategic priorities of UNM.
The FY 2018 budget data was an eye opener. Almost every major revenue category was overestimated by UNM, and every major expense category was underestimated, resulting in a $2 million deficit for FY 2018. What business executive would put up with this type of budget planning?
One item that needs further explanation is the “Overhead/ Bank Fees” expenditure line item, which is $2 million below budget, reducing the reported fiscal year deficit. Overhead costs are usually costs that benefit a variety of different products and services of an organization — for example, water and electricity costs of UNM that benefit both athletics and classrooms — but which cannot be accurately charged directly against a particular product or service. There is always management discretion as to how these overhead costs are assessed to each product or service. Has UNM used this discretion to reduce the reported Athletics Department deficit?
BRIAN MCDONALD Albuquerque
It should be education first
UNIVERSITY: “an educational institution designed for instruction, examination, or both, of students in many branches of advanced learning, conferring degrees in various faculties, and often embodying colleges and similar institutions.”
What is to say for a university administration that sacrifices its “educational institution” and drains the funds that should have priority for the maintenance of the “educational institution” in favor of a failed athletic program that fabricates its budget?
What is to say for a university athletic program that fabricates its budget in order to take money from the university whose main purpose is not athletics, but as an “educational institution”?
What must it look like to the underpaid UNM professor, or the professor who thinks of coming here, upon seeing the millions in educational funds paid out to an athletic program that has operated in the red for eight out of the last 10 years, to see a line item in the Athletics Department budget for $1.8 million for “supplies” or to see the amount of “educational funds” allocated instead for sports programs the university cannot afford?
But worst of all, what is to say for the UNM Board of Regents, charged with the responsibility of maintaining and upholding the “educational institution” that instead, year after year, sits back and watches this drain on the universities’ financial resources originally paid in for the educational institution that “borrows” from state education funds, from taxpayer monies, to pay for the UNM Athletics Department deficit; to continually approve the millions spent in the name of a failed athletics program; a Board of Regents that, year after year, whitewashes the fabricated athletic budget presented to it without recourse; a Board of Regents that has forsaken its responsibility to protect and preserve the university as “an educational institution designed for instruction, examination”?
RON TAYLOR Albuquerque
Ending football a no-brainer
I DON’T KNOW why UNM is having such a hard time deciding how to balance their athletic budget. It is so simple: cut football, the most expensive sport. Just think — no stadium with its monstrous upkeep, no huge parking lot vacant most of the time, no coaches’ multi-million dollar contracts to buy out, no “students” taking up space that could go to those serious about learning, the list goes on and on. What’s the problem?
ANN P. BOLAND Albuquerque