The Univ. of WI football program "accounts for nearly
half of all" the revenue generated by the school's 23 sports
teams, according to Don Walker of the MILWAUKEE JOURNAL
SENTINEL, who reviewed documents containing a breakdown of
finances. The program "turned" a $10M profit in the last
fiscal year. The football team reported revenue of $18.18M
in the FY ended June 30, '99, with expenses of $7.68M.
Walker notes, "The revenue represented 42.7% of all of the
money raised by the school's sports teams, which totaled
$42.61 million." But the "cost to play" football was 17.6%,
"compared with the cost of running" the rest of the school's
sports teams. Walker adds that "total expenses" for all
sports were $43.7M, and the athletic department reported a
$1M deficit in the last FY. Among highlights: The univ.'s
athletic dept. spent $676,991 last year in recruiting, an
increase of $25,522, with 70% of the budget used for men and
$277,676 for football recruiting; more money ($67,865) was
spent recruiting women's basketball players than men; men's
basketball and ice hockey "raised" $7.6M and $4.3M,
respectively; women's basketball "generated" $1.24M, but
reported expenses of $1.3M (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 10/14).
