Budget cuts imperil University athletic programs

Failure to generate revenue for North Carolina’s athletic department could result in the elimination of entire programs, challenging the University’s commitment to broad-based athletics.

The proposed $45 increase to the pre-existing $274.50 fee, which would have provided the athletic department with approximately $1.2 million in revenue, was voted down by the student fee advisory subcommittee Wednesday.

Now the athletic department will start considering other sources of revenue.

“(Eliminating programs) would be our last option, but it is certainly an option that we would have to consider,” UNC athletic director Dick Baddour said.

Earlier debate in the student fee subcommittee watered down a proposed $100 increase by more than 50 percent, and failure to come to a complete consensus on that reduced fee has left the issue undecided.

Dwayne Pinkney, associate provost for finance and academic planning, said that the larger tuition and fee advisory task force rarely overturns the subcommittee’s recommendations.

The fee was initially intended for operational and personnel budgets of Olympic sports and departmental scholarships.

But earlier this month, the subcommittee diverted the reduced fee exclusively toward scholarships.

“We need it on either side,” Baddour said. “We just absolutely need it and feel like we’ve got to have it on both sides.”

The athletic department does have other sources of revenue, including sales in Kenan Stadium’s Blue Zone and contracts with Learfield Sports and Nike, he said.

If those and other revenues aren’t enough, Baddour said he would rather eliminate entire programs than financially cripple a broad swath of the University’s sports.

“In a matter of weeks, I won’t be athletic director, so I’m hesitant to say what (my successor’s) actions will be,” Baddour said.

However incoming director Bubba Cunningham decides to resolve these funding gaps could have a major effect on the budgets of the University’s non-revenue sports.

“It is a frightening possibility because we’ve prided ourselves for decades on a broad-based athletic department, supporting all the programs,” said Rich DeSelm, head UNC swimming coach.

UNC’s men’s and women’s swimming budget increased roughly $23,000 from last season into this year — the largest percentage increase among UNC’s varsity sports programs.

In the same period, the men’s basketball program saw its budget drop more than $100,000 to about $1.9 million.

“We will operate on whatever we’re provided, and we’re grateful for whatever we can have,” DeSelm said.

“If we have to operate underneath a budget that was not as favorable, then we’ll do what we have to do. And if times are tough, then times are tough, but we’ll survive.”

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