Cunningham: UNC athletic budget could lose up to $52 million; Coaches taking pay cuts
North Carolina athletic department coaches and staff members will take a pay cut or go on furlough starting Oct. 1, according to an open letter from athletic director Bubba Cunningham.
Cunningham said the school expects to lose between $30-52 million of projected revenue for the 2020-21 season because of the impact the Covid-19 pandemic. In a letter posted on GoHeels.com, Cunningham added that the university will reduce salaries for coaches and staff members beginning next month and running the fiscal year that ends on June 30, 2021. For those making more than $200,000 a year, like men’s basketball coach Roy Williams and football coach Mack Brown, it will be by 20 percent. For those making between $100,000-$200,000 it will be a 10 percent cut. And coaches and staff members making less than $100,000 will be furloughed for 15 days.
Cunningham said in his open letter that the school has already implemented a number of budget cuts including a freeze on spending and hiring for 17 full-time positions that are open, but that it still will not cover the projected losses in revenue. Football alone generated $39 million in revenue during the 2018-19 fiscal year.
Cunningham warned of the coming budget troubles during a video conference call with the UNC faculty last Friday. That was also when the university announced that fans will not be able to attend home football games this month against Syracuse on the 12th and Charlotte on the 19th. The school will re-evaluate that policy in the hopes that it can allow limited-attendance in its two home games during October, which includes N.C. State on Oct. 24.
Football and men’s basketball ticket sales and concessions, along with sponsorships and television revenues account for a large chunk of funding for UNC’s 28 sports. Cunningham said the projected revenue for the ‘20-21 budget from ticket sales and multimedia (sponsorships and television) was a combined $56.9 million, which accounted for slightly more than half of the $110 million estimated athletic department budget. Brown said on Monday while speaking to reporters via video that 70 percent of the school’s football season ticket holders either donated money spent on 2020 season tickets to the university or rolled it over to keep their seats for the 2021 season.
Cunningham said during the faculty meeting that the university has formed a budget working group to look ahead to the 2021-22 fiscal calendar to begin finding ways to combat the decrease in revenue.
“Our budget is going to take a beating this year, there’s no question about it,” Cunningham said on last Friday’s Zoom call. “Our budget is built on the revenue from football and basketball. There’s about 100 students that play in those two sports and they support the entire department. Television contracts, ticket sales. We’re not going to have ticket sales so we do hope that we can have television contract (revenue) for football and basketball.”
This story was originally published September 3, 2020 at 3:02 PM with the headline "Cunningham: UNC athletic budget could lose up to $52 million; Coaches taking pay cuts."