With its resurgent football program as the “driver” of new revenue, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga athletic department will avoid any major repercussions from the latest round of budget cuts.
Athletic director Rick Hart said Monday that of the $186,000 in cuts UTC had to make from its projected 2010-11 fiscal year budget of about $9 million, it was able to “conservatively” project that football revenues “would help to mitigate $150,000 of that $186,000, so then there was $36,000 left.”
The football program, which went 6-5 under first-year coach Russ Huesman in 2009, had a budget of $540,000 last year and realized revenues of “a little over $677,000,” said Matt Pope, UTC’s associate athletic director for internal operations, finance and marketing.
That’s $137,000 on the plus side and UTC is expecting similar numbers this year. A record 2,527 season tickets were sold last season, more than double the amount (1,271) sold in 2008. The Mocs have sold 1,800 for the 2010 season, well ahead of last year’s pace.
“We were able to come in to the (2010-11) budget and increase our base revenue expectations for ticket sales, sponsorships and other donations resulting from football, based on performance, not on a projection or a hope — on actual data from last year,” Hart said. “Every sport benefited from football’s success, and that’s what we’ve said all along: If we can get football operating at high level, then it will make the entire department stronger.”