Aztecs Face Big Jump in Deficit

Without a quick turnaround at the gate, an infusion of university or private funds or severe budget cuts, the San Diego State athletic department is facing its biggest annual financial deficit in almost a decade.

The situation is critical enough that the department has purchased half-page advertisements in local newspapers today and Friday, urging people to attend the Aztecs’ final two home football games against Wyoming Saturday and Brigham Young Nov. 25.

The ads, placed at a cost of $6,700, are in the form of an open letter to the community from Athletic Director Fred Miller explaining the importance of football ticket sales to the department’s financial health. The ads ask for the public’s support in light of the team’s four-game winning streak and 5-3-1 record, its best in three seasons.

But the late push might not be enough to ward off a crisis. The troubles, building for several years, are being compounded by a steep drop in home football attendance.

Attendance has averaged 19,161 for the first five of seven home games in 60,409-seat San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium. That is a decrease from last year’s average of 22,398 for five home dates.

University officials have declined to discuss actual sales figures until the end of the season. But if the trend continues, the department will finish more than $200,000 short in football ticket revenue, according to William Erickson, university vice president for business and financial affairs.

The department is in danger of adding significantly to its overall deficit of $510,000. SDSU President Thomas Day has said that a $700,000 deficit would endanger the athletic department’s ability to operate.

“We have been in such a desperate state for so long that this year we are finally having to pay the piper,” said Kathryn Wullner, chairman of the SDSU Intercollegiate Athletic Authority (IAA), the board that oversees the athletic department.

Wullner said that slashing the budgets of non-revenue sports such as tennis and golf might not be enough to solve the problem and that the board might begin looking at cutting football expenditures in areas such as accommodations and travel.

“I don’t know if putting the guys up in a hotel the night before a home game is really necessary,” Wullner said. “These are things we have to look at. We’re starting to feel a lot of pressure.”

The fiscal crisis has the potential to be the worst since a series of reversals took the department from a surplus of $427,000 at the end of 1979-80 to a $433,000 deficit three years later.

This year’s problems come after a 1988-89 budget year in which $39,000 was added to the deficit. That figure could have have been much higher, but the department avoided adding an additional $254,000 in new debt by transferring funds from other department and university accounts.

The majority of the money--about $184,000--came from surplus university funds in areas not related to instruction or student services, Erickson said. The money was used to help pay the salaries of department employees whose positions originally were to be funded out of athletic department revenue. “Athletics is part of the university, and we wanted to help them try to meet their budget,” Erickson said. “We could put a lot more into athletics, but we have been very reluctant to do that.”

The department also took $109,000 raised by individual sports for their use--called earmarked funds--and applied it to the general budget with the promise to repay those sports this year. But some of the repayment was offset by budget reductions in those sports.

Without similar funding measures or budget cuts, department officials are concerned that the department’s overall deficit for the fiscal year that ends June 30 could surpass its record level of $552,000 at the end of the 1984-85 fiscal year.

The potential for crisis exists because revenue projections for two of the department’s most significant revenue sources--football ticket sales and fund-raising by the Aztec Athletic Foundation (AAF)--appear now to have been overly optimistic.

Football season ticket sales brought in $612,000, almost $106,000 less than budgeted. Single-game sales for the first five home games have fallen short of projections, and early prospects for a two-game surge are not encouraging.

As of Wednesday, a crowd of 20,000 was expected for Wyoming and about 25,000 for BYU, said Vicki Larsen, SDSU’s ticket manager. Both would be substantially below preseason projections.

The department had counted on the increase from five to seven home games from last year would substantially increase revenues. But games such as Cal State Long Beach and New Mexico, each of which drew fewer than 14,000, have been little more than break-even propositions.

Athletic department officials are hoping attendance for the BYU game will increase if it has a bearing on the Western Athletic Conference race and Holiday Bowl berth.

But the lagging ticket sales are only part of the problem.

The department is counting heavily on the AAF. In the budget for the fiscal year that began July 1, approved three weeks ago by the IAA, projected revenue from the AAF is $772,000. That is $348,000 more than received last year, an 82.1% increase over 1988-89 fund-raising.

Department officials say that increased revenues from the annual fund-raising drive, its corporate sponsorship program and several planned special fund-raising events--including a Nov. 21 tennis exhibition match at the San Diego Sports Arena between John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors--will help the AFF meet its goal. But officials already have conceded privately that projected AFF revenue was over-budgeted by at least $100,000.

The fiscal crunch comes at time when the department is under pressure from the the office of W. Ann Reynolds, chancellor of the California State University and Colleges system, to operate a balanced budget. But at the same time, Miller has said he must put more money into women’s athletics because concerns over inequities.

There are some encouraging signs. Season ticket sales for basketball have already slightly exceeded last year’s total, reaching 1,371 with 3 1/2 weeks until the first regular-season home game. But it would take more than a slight increase in basketball ticket sales to offset the football losses.

Erickson said the hope is that an increase in basketball revenue, combined with improved attendance the final two home football games, will cut the shortfall to a manageable level that could be eliminated with mid-year cuts.

Because football and basketball account for the largest share of the department budget, it is those programs that likely would be trimmed the most, Erickson said.

“We’re hoping that the maximum we have to cut out is $100,000,” Erickson said. “We could probably peal that much away. It won’t be done without some pain, but it could be done.”