How badly did COVID impact the UNC athletic budget? The answer is surprising
North Carolina avoided taking the devastating hit to its athletic budget for the 2020-21 fiscal year that school administrators initially feared in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly a year ago, athletic director Bubba Cunningham projected a loss in revenue of more than $30 million.
The shortfall is actually less than $6 million, Cunningham told the News & Observer on Monday. Cunningham and Rams Club executive director John Montgomery also penned a letter that was emailed to club members Monday with an outline of the news.
“It was a combination of the hiring freeze, spending freeze, salary reductions — all of the things that we could do to manage our own expenses helped,” Cunningham told the N&O. “Then, you know, we had no recruiting because everyone was in a dead period. We reduced all of our schedules for regional competition non-conference and we reduced our schedules by 10 and 20 percent, even in the ACC, so everyone played fewer games.”
Myriad factors led to the reduction in losses, the biggest impact was playing football and men’s basketball. Cunningham said initial estimates of potentially $40-50 million in losses made around this time last year were projected in case COVID-19 caused all seasons to be canceled.
“It would have had a significant significant long term impact on our daily operation,” Cunningham said. “You know, carrying $6 million forward with interest is a lot different than carrying $30 million.”
During the 2019-20 fiscal year, with full attendance and sports playing their full schedules, UNC received more than $23 million in media rights payments. Cunningham said he expected the 2021-22 budget to return to normal, which will include revenue boosts from ticket sales and being allowed to have 100 percent capacity for football. (The Tar Heels also announced on Monday that football season tickets for 2021 have sold out.)
The big reason the financial impact wasn’t worse than $6 million was because of donations, they said. The Carolina Victory Fund, created to curtail pandemic-related losses, had a goal of raising $2 million. It topped off at $5.2 million, according to the letter. Including money taken from a reserve fund, Cunningham said about $10 million in donations helped to lessen their losses.
Football season-ticket holders from 2020 had the option of getting refunds or rolling their payments over to the 2021 season. But UNC received $2.4 million from season-ticket holders who allowed the athletic department to keep their payment as a gift.
“We just finished an unprecedented year, I couldn’t be more proud of how you reacted how our students reacted; and how our coaches reacted,” Cunningham said in a short video emailed to Rams Clubs members. “It was a challenge financially, operationally and in the classroom and each and everyone of you stepped up at the opportune time.”
Cunningham added the athletic department will defer some debt services through the university to future years to address its shortfall.
This story was originally published July 12, 2021 at 12:37 PM.