UConn generated $40M less in revenue than it spent last year

Revenue generated by UConn athletics was more than $40 million less than the department spent last year, according to a report issued by the school.

The school’s annual NCAA financial statement shows UConn’s operating expenses at $80,905,645 for 2018. The school reported operating revenues at $79,308,421, but that includes $30,360,423 in direct institutional support.

The school also reported $8,529,02 in student fees “assessed and restricted for support of intercollegiate athletics.”

“The long-term goal is obviously to move athletics closer to financial selfsufficiency,” UConn spokeswoman Stephanie Reitz said in a statement. “As recently as 2013, the Athletics Division’s budget did not require a significant subsidy. In recent years, declining conference and media licensing revenue, along with rising costs, have created the current deficit. It is not sustainable and the Division of Athletics is continually working to identify savings and drive up revenue in order to help close this gap.”

What’s changed since 2013? That was the year UConn moved to the American Athletic Conference after the old Big East evaporated.

With revenue from conference and media rights declining — and at a small fraction of what school in the Power Five conference receive — UConn is left with a shortfall. UConn received $7.1 million in conference distribution and $1.1 million from its media rights deal.

Schools in Power Five conferences receive between $27 million and $41 million from conference media right packages.

The budget gap was mostly closed through institutional support. In 2017, the school provided $34 million in institutional support.

The financial statement describes the support as, “Unrestricted funds allocated to the athletics department by the university (e.g. state funds, tuition, tuition discounts/waivers, transfers), Federal work study support for student workers employed by athletics, (and) Endowment unrestricted income, spending policy distributions and other investment income distributed to athletics in the reporting year to support athletic operations.”

Of the overall expenses, $17 million came from coaches’ salaries, $16.0 from athletic scholarships and $14.4 million on support and administrative staff.

“It is worth noting that a large portion of this deficit is associated with student scholarships,” Reitz said. “The university operates numerous enterprises that do not turn a profit — including entire academic departments, schools, colleges, and regional campuses — because it is important that we do so as a university.

“That is what we contribute. We could save money by closing down schools, colleges, and campuses or by eliminating men’s and women’s basketball at UConn, for example, but they all play an important role in the life of the university and the state.”

The football program operated at a $8.7 million deficit. The Huskies were 1-11 last season and ticket sales generated $2.4 million, down $1.1 million from 2017.

The men’s basketball program lost about $5 million and the women’s program lost about $3 million, Ticket sales brought in $3.1 million from the men and $2.4 from the women.

“UConn is today a top-20 university with outstanding academics and it is safe to say that we would not have gotten here without athletics,” Reitz said.” It is not a coincidence that the university saw skyrocketing applications and a greater appetite for investment in UConn on the part of the state at the same time as successful athletic programs were raising the university’s profile statewide and nationally.”