The University of Michigan Athletic Department expects a budget surplus of $1 million for the current fiscal year and projects a balanced budget for the coming fiscal year that begins July 1.
Warde Manuel, the Donald R. Shepherd Director of Athletics, presented the year-end financial projections and the budget for the coming year to the Board of Regents on June 20.
other budget news
For the fiscal year 2019 operating budget, the Athletic Department projects an operating surplus of $1 million based on operating revenues of $190.7 million and operating expenses of $189.7 million. Looking ahead to FY ’20, the department projects a balanced budget based on operating revenues of $196.3 million and projected expenses of $196.3 million.
Highlights of the FY ’20 operating budget are as follows:
- Spectator admissions revenues are projected to increase $3.1 million between FY ’19 and FY ’20 primarily as a result of an increase in non-student football ticket prices.
- Conference distributions are projected to increase $2.8 million between FY ’19 and FY ’20 due to a projected increase in conference television revenues.
- Salaries, wages and benefits are projected to increase $2.9 million between FY ’19 and FY ’20 due to inflationary salary increases and contractual obligations.
- Team and game expenses are projected to increase $2.2 million between FY ’19 and FY ’20 primarily due to a football game cancellation payment in FY ’20.
- Transfers to the university are projected to increase $2 million between FY ’19 and FY ’20 due to early payment of FY ’19 transfers in a previous year.
- Included in operating expenses is a $4 million transfer to the deferred maintenance fund. This fund is used as a means to provide for major repair and rehabilitation projects for athletic facilities. The Athletic Department expects to continue to set aside additional funds in future years for this purpose.
Based on preliminary results, the Athletic Department has a projected operating surplus of approximately $1 million for FY ’19 as compared to a budgeted amount of $2.5 million for FY ’19. This variance is primarily due to higher-than-budgeted transfers to the deferred maintenance fund.
As part of the presentation, Manuel also shared some of the department’s top achievements, both on and off the field.
Michigan earned eight NCAA Public Recognition Awards for ranking among the top 10 percent of its respective sports in the most recent multiyear Academic Progress Rate report, including men’s basketball for an eighth-consecutive year. Seventeen athletic teams earned perfect APR scores for the latest report year.
A record 372 student-athletes were named Academic All-Big Ten Conference compared to 358 in the previous year. Women’s swimmer Siobhán Haughey and men’s soccer’s Robbie Mertz were U-M’s recipients of the Big Ten Medal of Honor.
Through June 16, 10 student-athletes earned first-team All-America honors during the year with a total of 56 All-America selections. Michigan had 47 student-athletes earn All-Big Ten first team honors with 16 student-athletes winning individual conference titles.
In the community, Michigan student-athletes worked in collaboration with numerous local nonprofit organizations. A few of the student-led initiatives included the weekly visits with patients at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, local elementary schools, Michigan Buddies mentoring program within the Ann Arbor Public School System and Lunch with a Wolverine for elementary school children, in addition to programs with the Tim Tebow Foundation, Wounded Warriors and Adopt-A-Classroom.
The Wolverines recorded top-10 national finishes in the Directors’ Cup standings in 13 sports: men’s basketball (9), women’s cross country (4), field hockey (5), men’s gymnastics (4), women’s gymnastics (5), women’s lacrosse (9), women’s rowing (3), women’s swimming and diving (3), women’s tennis (9), women’s volleyball (9), women’s water polo (5), wrestling (5). Baseball, which is currently competing in its eighth all-time College World Series, will finish no lower than sixth in the nation. U-M teams have also garnered seven additional top-25 finishes.
At the Big Ten level, Michigan earned championships in six sports — women’s cross country, field hockey, women’s gymnastics, softball, women’s rowing and women’s tennis — as well as winning conference tournament titles in softball and women’s tennis, and regular-season crowns men’s and women’s gymnastics. In addition, the U-M water polo team won the Collegiate Water Polo Association championship.
