Year-end athletic numbers even out
Eastern Athletic Director Barbara Burke said Wednesday the Athletic Department’s expenses did not exceed its revenue for the 2008-09 fiscal year. But she said there were several aspects of the budget she plans to make changes to going forward.
Burke presented the end-of-year numbers to the Board of Trustees at the Sept. 4 meeting, and said while the amount of money allocated to expenses was less than the budgeted revenue, it doesn’t always work out as planned.
At the beginning of the year, the department budgeted $4.98 million in local revenue, $4.69 million in appropriated funds, and $9.47 million in expenses.
“The revenue doesn’t always come in at a level we budget or anticipate, or sometimes the expenses are higher than anticipated,” Burke said.
She did say, however, that the department ended the year without its expenses exceeding its revenue.
Overall, the department’s biggest expenses were in scholarships and salaries. The scholarships are divided into three different categories – Talented Student Awards ($692,114), Gender Equity Waivers ($346,903), and Grant in Aid ($2.05 million) – and made up 33 percent of the department’s total expenses.
Likewise, salaries made up $1.67 million of the department’s expenses, or 18 percent.
Burke acknowledged that salaries and scholarships are an integral part of the athletic department’s success, but said she would like to make some changes to the way the department spends its money, namely, she would like to increase the amount of money that goes toward sport programs and support units.
“I would like to be able to flip-flop sport programs and operations, or at least make them equal expenses” she said. “Our support unit needs to increase as well. That is the training and strength training and also helps us overall as an academic unit. There needs to be some focus placed on those units.”
Currently, operations make up 16 percent of expenses, or $1,48 million, while sport programs makes up 13 percent, or $1.22 million. Support units garner only 2 percent of the budget, $236,500.
Burke, who is now in her second year as athletic director, said no changes were made to the budget her first year because all the money was already allocated by the time she arrived. However, she did say she was happy with how the department has spent its money as a whole because she knows they are an important part of the program’s success.
“While I would like more resources to go into our actual sport programs, a direct benefit to the programs, our two biggest expenses, salaries and scholarships, are necessary to be successful,” she said.
Collin Whitchurch can be reached at 581-7944 or cfwhitchurch@eiu.edu.
