Ray Tanner and the intercollegiate athletics committee presented the athletic department’s budget for the next fiscal year with one big caveat.
"The only thing certain about this budget is it will change," board member Mac Whittle said.
With football, and subsequently fans in the stands, still in the air because of Coronavirus and the new fiscal year starting at the end of June, it means the Gamecocks have to present their budget with plenty of variables still set to change before the season starts in September.
“As we all understand, we’re in a period of uncertainty as it relates to football and the rest of our sports as well," Tanner said to the Board of Trustees. "I’ll go through a budget as we’ve prepared. Please note we’ll be well-prepared to pivot in the time we go forward in the next months and weeks to come.”
In his presentation Friday, Tanner said athletics are anticipating revenues of $127.1 million next fiscal year with expenses totaling $114.2 million.
After putting some of that money into athletic department reserves, Tanner is anticipating net revenue then of $11.4 million.
Right now Tanner is anticipating to take in $19.5 million in ticket sales, which is down from $20.9 from last season in large part because the home schedule is not as attractive as it was for the 2019 season, Tanner said.
Those ticket sale numbers—along with premium seating and other ancillary sales like concessions, parking, etc.—could obviously change if only a select number of fans are allowed to attend games this fall.
He's said many times the SEC is anticipating a football season this fall but it's a matter of if fans will be allowed.
Tanner did mention the premium seating revenue at Williams-Brice is expected to increase due to the renovations and increase in premium seating, saying the west side is sold out, the east side is nearly sold out and they’re getting close to 50 percent bought on the south side.
"Ray and his team have developed modeling capabilities so they can look at various scenarios for football revenue and other revenue and other expenses to jump from one scenario to other scenarios,” Whittle said. “They’ll be able to pivot once we're told and figure out how many games we'll play, where we'll play them and how many people can attend the games."
As for other revenue, the budget is planning for revenues of $47.4 million from SEC and NCAA distributions with Tanner said if the Gamecocks “produce live content, we're going to be in a very, very good place."
They’re also expecting to bring in $17.5 million in sponsorships, media and royalties.
The biggest expense for the department is personnel salaries totaling $54.2 million, up from last year’s $52.3 million after Tanner said they had to finishing paying off a few football contracts that should be off the books soon.
Tanner did mention that $54.2 million did not include the 10 percent salary reduction he, Will Muschamp, Dawn Staley and Frank Martin are all taking for this fiscal year so that number could go down.
He’s been in contact with all of the sports on campus and their operations director, he said, to discuss cutting some costs and making sure they’re taking every step to try and save money while building their budget for the 2020-21 fiscal year.
The goal, he said, is to get in a position to be able to take more cost-saving measures of close to $8 or 10 million and “mitigate the situation we have financially.”
"We've already made some decisions about future cuts we may make if we have to. Our coaches and their operations people have done a really good job to make sure their travel budgets and operating budgets are in line going forward. We have put some constraints on the way they travel, the mode of travel and what we're going to do going forward. Everything is on the table. We do have another model with operations that could include 10 to 15 percent more of cuts.”
