Return of football doesn't change financial reality

It’s a question athletics director Gary Barta has been fielding since Wednesday’s announcement by the Big Ten that there will be a nine-game fall football season, instead of what was planned to be a winter or spring season.But even with that decision, Barta’s response to the question hasn’t changed.

“The short answer,” Barta said during a video conference with the media on Thursday, “is no. Four sports — men’s tennis, men’s gymnastics, and men’s and women’s swimming and diving — are being cut at the end of this academic year. Within the athletic department, there have been job reductions, pay cuts, and furloughs."

Barta said all of that is “still in place, and those decisions won’t change.”

Barta had estimated a deficit within the athletic department of approximately $75 million after the Big Ten announced on August 11 that it was going to postpone all fall sports, including football, to later in the winter or spring because of medical concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Even with fall football, Barta said, there will not be much of a revenue improvement. There will be increased costs with the daily testing of athletes and coaches in all sports. The likelihood of no fans in Kinnick Stadium for home games means a significant loss of revenue. There will be greater costs associated with travel because of protocols related to social distancing.

“The financial crisis is certainly still in play, and is still going to be very, very significant,” Barta said. “We are going to have more revenue at the end, because having these games televised will bring more revenue, but it will be a much reduced amount because we’re not playing a full schedule. Also, with no fans, we have no ticket revenue, we don’t have the donations that go with the seats. And we’ll have much reduced revenue in all other categories."

“We had previously projected a deficit in the range of $60-75 million. I still anticipate it might be within that range.”Barta called the deficit “significant.”

“Maybe our deficit goes from $75 million to $60 million or $55 million,” Barta said. “The deficit that we will take on this year is going to be … I hate to use the word ‘catastrophic,’ but that’s really what it is. And I say ‘catastrophic’ because it led to people losing jobs, it led to people taking pay cuts, it led to student-athletes in four sports after this year not having an opportunity. And unfortunately, that’s still going to be the case. It will be better.

But far from relief.”Barta had said in August that the athletic department would have to take out a loan of approximately $75 million. That loan amount may be slightly reduced, and the department may be able to pay it back sooner than expected.

“In this scenario, I would anticipate it being lower than $70 million, but it will still be in the tens of millions,” he said. “It will still be a very, very large sum of money. It’s still going to be a huge financial impact.”