Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1276571
A D M I N I S T R A T I O N Fiscal concerns force pay cuts in athletic department College athletic departments across the country are looking for places to cut now that the COVID-19 pandemic has not only forced the cancellation of the lucrative NCAA men's basketball tour- nament but is also impacting the 2020 football season. With its primary rev- enue generators either long since can- celed or now under threat, schools are trimming payrolls and eliminating sports. Stanford, one of the wealthiest schools in the country and winner of the past 25 Directors' Cups, made headlines in July when it announced plans to drop 11 sports after the 2020- 21 academic year. Athletic director Bernard Muir explained in an open let- ter to Cardinal supporters that contin- uing to fund 36 sports was "not sustainable." Prominent schools such as Connecticut and Cincinnati have likewise been forced to eliminate teams, while others such as Michigan, Michi- gan State, Oklahoma and Oregon have cut coaches' salaries. Penn State joined the latter group in July when it enacted department-wide pay cuts, reportedly ranging from 5 to 10 percent. According to a July 27 story in the Centre Daily Times, the depart- ment's higher earners will face salary re- ductions at the top end of that range. With Penn State facing a significant drop-off in revenue this year, the cuts did not come as a surprise. Athletic di- rector Sandy Barbour had said in early July that her department was looking at ways of reducing its anticipated losses. "We certainly are modeling a number of different scenarios," she said. "I've had the conversation with our head coaches, I've had the conversation with our management team, about what the possibilities might be around pay reduc- tions. We had an all-staff [meeting] where I mentioned to the entirety of the staff, just so that they would be aware, that I do think our financial challenges, our revenue shortfalls, are going to be of a magnitude that we will need take some steps around pay. I've had these conver- sations collectively and in many cases individually with coaches and our lead- ership team, and to a man and a woman they're prepared to step up and help with this cause should that be the case. At this point, I think it's safe to say that will be the case." Barbour said that one of the reasons for her reluctance to institute pay reduc- tions during the early stages of the pan- demic was that she didn't yet know the extent of the fiscal challenges Penn State would be facing. "I didn't want to ask for too much, but I also didn't want to ask for too little," she said. "I didn't want to have to come back again. I didn't want to say, OK, let's do 5 percent, and then come back in July and say, guess what, I need 10. So that's why I hesitated to really nail anything down." Even if college football is played in the fall or spring, it will generate less rev- enue than schools and conferences are accustomed to bringing in. Attendance will be limited, and it may not be possi- ble to have any fans in attendance. In Philadelphia, city officials announced in July that the Phillies and Eagles will be prohibited from welcoming fans into their venues during their 2020 seasons. The move followed an announcement by Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney that the city would not host any large-scale events until February 2021 at the earli- est. Penn State is 200 miles from Philadel- phia. It's located in a mostly rural part of the state, and its COVID outbreak has been correspondingly smaller. But there will still be restrictions on the size of crowds, and those limits are expected to have a major impact on the athletic de- partment's finances. "We're looking at reduced crowds in Beaver Stadium, reduced crowds in Peg- ula, the BJC, Rec Hall and our other ven- ues, so we're looking at a significant reduction in terms of those revenues," Barbour said. "We're looking at lots of different operational ways to reduce our costs. Certainly, as a conference we've looked at some things and have come up with some good cost savings while try- ing not to impact the competitiveness of any of our programs. We've looked at all of that first. But given the severity of | DECISION MAKER Barbour said that Penn State didn't institute salary cuts in the spring because school officials didn't yet know the extent of the fiscal chal- lenges the univer- sity would be facing. Photo courtesy of Penn State Athletics