The "net impact" of the pandemic on the Univ. of Wisconsin athletics budget this school year is projected at $47M, according to Todd Milewski of the WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL. UW Associate AD and CFO Adam Barnes told the Athletic Board's Finance, Facilities and Operations Committee that "revenue losses compared to the pre-pandemic budget" will be around $73M. UW was able to cut $26M in expenses this FY while revenue has "plummeted compared to what was expected" before the pandemic. The savings, however, "covers just more than a third of what the department is projecting to lose in revenue." Despite the financial challenges, Deputy AD Chris McIntosh said that he "doesn't anticipate UW will have to consider cutting any of its 23 sports, calling it a 'last resort'" (WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL, 1/28).
NEW LOW FOR RUTGERS: In Newark, Keith Sargeant notes Rutgers in '19 earned an average of $266,550 per football home game -- the "lowest figure since SHI Stadium was expanded" in '09 and a 63.3% "decrease from the 2018 season." Rutgers earned $1.87M in "home-game profit" during the '19 season, which accounted for 1.8% of the department’s revenues in FY '20. Compare that to Rutgers’ inaugural season in the Big Ten, when Rutgers' football-game profit accounted for 20.4% of the school’s athletics revenue. The FY '20 report shows Rutgers spent $33.4M on its football program during the '19-20 school year. Not only did that "mark a record," it was a 23.3% increase from a then-record $27.08M expenditure on football during the previous year. The financial report shows Rutgers spent $33.4M while bringing in $10.28M, and the end result was a $23.12M "shortfall on football" (Newark STAR-LEDGER, 1/28).
