Iowa State "has a proposed" $70M athletics department budget for FY '16, up from $62M last year, according to Randy Peterson of the DES MOINES REGISTER. The new proposed budget is the "price of doing business in this age of cost-of-attendance," a stipend that pays each ISU scholarship athlete "between $2,430 and $2,903." The proposal "includes a line or two about football travel costs increasing from last year." The team will "use chartered planes for all six road trips" -- to Toledo, Texas Tech, Baylor, Oklahoma, Kansas State and West Virginia. The football team "bussed last year to Iowa and Kansas." Football ticket sales for ISU’s six home games also are “expected to increase by around $465,000 from last season.” ISU has a “favorable schedule” of Northern Iowa, Iowa, Kansas, TCU and Texas. The schedule also features “just one November home game -- against Oklahoma State.” Big 12 and NCAA revenue "is pegged at" $29M, up $3M from last year. Sponsorship revenue "is projected to rise" from $4.1M to $5.3M. ISU's athletic department will receive $13.5M "from the university foundation, up from" $10.8M in FY '15. ISU's athletic budget in '05, when Jamie Pollard became AD, was $28.7M (
DES MOINES REGISTER, 8/3).
JAMIE'S SONG: Peterson noted Pollard, who is now "recovered from a March heart attack," starts his 11th season as AD with an academic calendar year that will "include a new men's basketball coach guiding a team some say has Final Four potential, a season that could be critical for the future of the football staff and a season that includes more financial issues than ever before." The "long-anticipated enclosed south end zone finally became reality during his watch, but that's not all." The Sukup Basketball Complex, Bergstrom Football Complex and Cyclone Sports Complex "up the street from the football stadium" were all completed since Pollard took over. He said, "We have those great facilities because people have chosen to come to football and basketball games -- and to donate like they have -- and the television revenue, which has allowed us to have the resources necessary to be able to do what we've done." When asked what his most significant accomplishment has been, Pollard responded, "What we've been able to accomplish facility-wise -- I think it's about $160 million of facilities either new or improved. What allowed that to happen is the excitement that we've been able to foster amongst the fan base by growing season tickets in all sports and significantly increasing fundraising to the athletics program" (DES MOINES REGISTER, 8/2).
