The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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the academic side of the house and coordi- nates very closely with us. We had a couple of best evers in there, and I'm proud of that." out of 12 teams in the ACC in average- per-sport expenditure and you wanted to be at least average in the ACC. Have you made any progress toward that? "We have made progress. We made prog- ress in our budgeting in terms of what we've been able to provide for our teams primarily because of the ACC TV deal that kicks in now, and also because of the new multimedia rights arrangement and the new apparel deal. "What we really need to do is get to Last year you told us that State was 11th the average per-student-athlete expense among all eight ACC public universities. We all have a different number of student- athletes, and all we are doing is taking that operational athlete budget and dividing it by the number of student-athletes that respective school has to get a per-student expenditure. "We were about $6.9 million away from that average a year ago, just the average. We just picked up $3.4 million in new rev- enue deals, so we're getting closer, but we needed another $3 million just to get to the average, or close to the average. If we can get to the average we will overachieve and will beat people with considerably greater financial resources than us. "But it's completely unrealistic to expect us to be able to continue to make forward progress without having at least the average per-student athlete expenditure. So that's our goal. "I'm talking to Bobby Purcell and the Wolfpack Club board about helping us. We're prepared to deal with our operational expenses, but we're paying $5.4 million every year on facility improvements. It's a crushing amount for a program of our size. "If they could take over a portion of that — which is one of their charges: scholar- ship fundraising and facility fundraising — it would change our world for the better. "They would become my heroes because they would make it possible for us to con- tinue to pursue that top-25 status." new multimedia and apparel deals, how they came about and what kind of impact you foresee them having? "It's four years for the apparel deal, by Could you talk a little bit more about the design. I think it's a point of pride: one of the three big apparel providers who wanted us to be a part of them. "We're in the process of getting all the teams organized and ordering the right things, but they don't make everything. You won't see all 23 sports in all-adidas apparel right away because it just takes time. "There are some sports that we have that we don't order new uniforms every year, and we explained that to adidas. Unless they are willing to pay for those too, then it will take some time to segue into adidas. The savings of $900,000 a year is very important. "With our multimedia rights, given that we had six or seven years left on the cur- rent arrangement, I think we squeezed out of that arrangement every penny that we could. I enjoy working with Capitol Broad- casting, and it's neat to have Learfield Sports involved now. "The founder of Learfield is a man named Clyde Lear. I met Clyde and Sue Lear in 1990. I have a history with them and respect their organization, as does obviously Capitol Broadcasting or they wouldn't have wanted to partner with them. It gives us a much greater reach. There will be benefits in that agreement that I am not even aware of yet." Are there any other revenue streams that you are working on right now? "We are working on several, but I don't like to talk about them while they are in progress, I'd rather wait and see if we can pull it off. "I spend a disproportionate amount of time fretting over whether or not we will have the money to secure great coaches, to keep great coaches, to travel. One of the more recent examples was when baseball went to the Super Regionals in Florida. "We were able to scrape together un- budgeted money to fly them down there on a charter for about $20,000. However, the charter cost back was $37,000, and we couldn't afford it. We had to send them commercially, and I didn't feel very good about it. "I think they're probably okay with it because they didn't expect us to do it, but for what they achieved and how I feel about that program, and what I want that coach and his staff to be able to achieve, we should be flying that team in charters both ways. That's just an example. "Those examples come up constantly when I can't meet the needs yet, because, again, of that $5.4 million that we have to pay every year on facilities. That was agreed to by former administrations. They must have said we can handle this, and that can be done if you want to be No. 89 in the country. "You can't do that and also be a top-25 program. I think the Wolfpack Club is go- ing to try to help us as much as they pos- sibly can." team, have you seen that carry over to sea- son ticket sales, and how much of a boost could that be? "We're focused on football season ticket Given the excitement with the basketball sales. We're not into basketball yet. What I have seen and observed at the caravans, a number of which I speak at, is just an amazing sense of pride and joy from our fans. That makes it all worthwhile just see- ing how happy they are." Any updates on season football tickets? "They're a little bit ahead of schedule. We think we are going to sell about 95 percent of the available inventory, and the other five percent we'll sell on a game-to-game basis." The postseason run of head coach Mark Gott- fried's men's basketball team has helped bring out a sense of pride and joy in Wolfpack fans heading into the upcoming season. PHOTO BY KEN MARTIN structure of the athletic department. Do you feel like you have it where you want to be? "I actually think we're one position You made some changes within the short. I think we need a senior associate AD for external operations. "Dick Christy is doing an amazing job for us in a newly created role for market- ing. We've needed, for so long, to have a person who has the right personality and a passion for State to be out there dealing with retailers and suppliers and trying to convince them to carry our gear. "Not everybody can do that, and Dick is perfect for that. He is still supervising his staff, in addition to doing that, but if he is going to be out on the road trying to get that done we really need somebody else here. We would add another person to that unit if we find the right person. I'm not in a hurry. I'm very, very pleased with what Dick is doing." JULY 2012 ■ 21