WSU's athletic department has run a deficit of up to $13M per year in recent yearsWashington State Univ.
An internal audit has found "extensive mismanagement within the budget-challenged Washington State athletic department, including the possible inflation of home football attendance figures and the improper distribution of free tickets to football games," according to Nicholas Geranios of the AP. The report come as school leaders grapple with a $67M "athletic budget deficit built up over recent years." WSU "responded to the audit by saying changes were coming" with the hiring of new AD Pat Chun and other top administrators. WSU has the "smallest football stadium (32,700 seats) and the smallest athletic budget and revenues in the Pac-12 Conference." The school "spends about" $70M per year on athletics, and the department has "run a deficit" of up to $13M per year in recent years. The deficit is "now down to about" $9M per year and the school is "developing a plan to balance the sports budget" (AP, 5/3). In Idaho, Dale Grummert in a front-page piece reports the auditors' concerns with complimentary football tickets "focused largely on the school's relationship with vendors like IMG." The WSU audit "noted a 'lack of transparency and accountability' and said IMG had been given more tickets than indicated in its written contract with the school." It "suggested all agreements with IMG be put in writing, and the athletic department agreed, saying it had started doing so last September" (MOSCOW-PULLMAN DAILY NEWS, 5/4).
MOOS ON THE DEFENSE: Nebraska AD Bill Moos, who left WSU last October after seven years as AD, said the athletic budget he put together was "all aboveboard" during his tenure. Moos said the two parts of the audit he saw "that were of question" related to the unused tickets and football attendance numbers. Moos: "This was an inventory of seats once we built the facility that were not sold so we would utilize those to hopefully market people to get up there from the outer seating bowl. Let them sit up there for a game in hopes that they would end up moving up there full time." Moos called the "padding of attendance numbers a 'common practice in the industry of counting sold tickets, whether those (people) actually passed through the gates.'" He added that the audit "played no factor in his decision to come to Nebraska" (OMAHA WORLD-HERALD, 5/4).
