Citadel slashes athletics budget deficit by more than half

In 2008, The Citadel's athletic department needed a subsidy of about $1.25 million from the military school's trust fund in order to cover a budget deficit.

In fiscal years 2009 and 2010, that number will be less than $500,000 for each year, athletic director Larry Leckonby told the Board of Visitors' athletic committee Thursday.

"Everybody has sacrificed to get where we are," Leckonby told the committee members. "We're very happy with the turnaround."

The athletic committee voted Thursday to approve a department budget of $9.79 million for the 2010-11 school year, an increase of about $472,000 over the 2009 budget.

Leckonby projects a deficit of about $498,000 in 2010, virtually the same as the $497,000 shortfall for 2009 and below the target of $500,000 set by school president Lt. Gen. John Rosa.

The two guarantee games The Citadel's football team played at Clemson and Florida last season certainly helped with the 2009 bottom line, boosting football revenues to $1.5 million.

And Leckonby has cut back on expenses by trimming staff travel and keeping vacant positions open as long as possible.

Leckonby, hired in June 2008, also has broken areas such as compliance, sports information and sports medicine out of the general administrative budget, making the head of each of those offices responsible for making their budgets work.

But the 2010 budget presented an even more difficult challenge.

By NCAA rule, the football team — the department's largest revenue-producing program — is allowed to play only 11 games next season (the Bulldogs played 12 in 2009). Only five of those games will be at home, and only one will be a big-money guarantee game, at North Carolina on Sept. 5. There's also a road game at Princeton that will require a $59,000 airplane flight (a bus ride was deemed too long).

All of that adds up to about $420,000 less in football revenue next year than in 2009, money that has to be made up elsewhere.

Where? The Citadel's basketball team will play three guarantee games next year, boosting basketball revenue by more than $275,000. And Leckonby projects another $180,000 in revenue from the school's new athletic department fundraising initiative, headed by new associate AD for development John McAleer.

"Obviously, basketball will have to take up some of the slack," Leckonby said. "And part of our initiative was to start an athletic fundraising campaign, the first real initiative for athletic fundraising standing alone, trying to do for athletics what The Citadel Foundation does for the campus and the Brigadier Foundation for our annual scholarship fund."

Leckonby also expects an increase of almost $200,000 in student athletic fees, and the Brigadier Foundation will be asked to raise $1.45 million for scholarships, an increase of $200,000 over 2009. That increase is due to a better retention rate for student-athletes on scholarship, Leckonby said.

"We had our best year in five years as far as attrition goes," Leckonby said. "We think we're just doing a better job of identifying student-athletes who recognize what The Citadel is about, and therefore will stay at a higher rate."

The state of the economy also will have an impact.

"Bus trips will cost more next year," Leckonby said. "Expenses will go up, but our budget will not."

Other notes

--Revenue from basketball was up about $136,000 over budget for 2008-09, due to $90,000 in guarantees and increased attendance due to the Bulldogs' success, Leckonby said.

--Concession sales, budgeted to make $70,000 last year, netted only $53,846. That was due to the new skybox suites at Johnson Hagood Stadium, where people are eating catered food and making fewer trips to the concession stand. The suites, Leckonby said, are necessary to help pay off the debt on the stadium's renovation.

--The Citadel's share of NCAA money for Davidson's run to the Elite Eight of the NCAA basketball tournament in 2007-08 will be about $45,000 a year for five years, Leckonby said.

--The largest budget increase for 2010 will go to the basketball program, up from about $658,000 to $801,610. "That's the one budget I did not think was realistic when I got here," Leckonby said. "As far as travel and recruiting goes, they were under-budgeted, I thought."