CS Dominguez Hills Athletics on Solid Ground : Colleges: Despite the California budget deficit and state-mandated cuts, the school may be able to increase its athletic budget.

Cal State Dominguez Hills, unlike other state universities, is not faced with massive cuts in its athletic programs, Athletic Director Dan Guerrero says. In fact, thanks to past fiscal restraint and a successful fund-raising effort, the school may be able to increase its athletic budget next year.

“I don’t see a tangible impact,” Guerrero said of state-mandated budget cuts. “With the kind of program we have, we will still produce teams that will play competitive schedules.”

The state of California is facing an estimated $14.4-billion budget deficit. As a result, fees for enrollment at schools in the California State University system will jump 20% next fall. Yet Guerrero said he plans to enhance the athletic budget with more scholarship money.

“That has been something that we have decided we are going to do, no matter what,” he said. “We have the capability of doing that because of the success of our fund-raising program.”

Dominguez Hills spent about $150,000 on its eight teams last year.

Guerrero said the athletic department is facing a 7% cut next fiscal year. But most of that is expected to be trimmed from an operational budget that pays for office supplies and travel expenses for administrators.

“We’re not at the point where cutbacks in personnel are necessary,” he said. “Those institutions that have relied on large allocations of state funds (to pay for their athletic programs), when they are asked to make cuts, a lot of their budgets are tied up in personnel.”

Other schools are facing more drastic cuts. At Cal State Bakersfield, which competes with the Toros in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn., cuts in the range of 15% have been ordered. Division I programs at Cal State Fullerton and Cal State Long Beach are facing similar cuts.

Bakersfield, which offers 12 sports, has an athletic budget of about $850,000. A spokesman there said the university will eliminate three full-time coaching positions and about 15 part-time positions. Some travel restrictions also may be imposed.

At Dominguez Hills, Associate Athletic Director Greg Bistline has raised about $200,000 since he was hired to create a fund-raising campaign 2 1/2 years ago.

Most of the money is intended to increase the school’s number of athletic scholarships. But Bistline has also been successful in generating an “in-kind” program, in which corporations donate supplies to offset cuts in those areas. That program is expected to take up the slack in the operational budget next year.

Said Bistline: “I don’t think we have a nest egg, but under Dan’s direction we have been living within our means.”

The fund-raising effort at Dominguez Hills is many-sided. This weekend, for example, soccer Coach Marine Cano will play host to a seven-aside tournament, with the proceeds helping fund the school’s two soccer teams. Other coaches run camps or clinics to produce revenue.

In the past two years, Bistline has sold more than 300 memberships in a new booster club, with prices ranging from $25 to more than $1,000 per person.

A corporate sponsorship program allows businesses to advertise at athletic venues in exchange for donations. Those funds are expected to pay for new electronic scoreboards on the school’s soccer, baseball and softball fields.

Other cost-saving measures include negotiating dollar guarantees for men’s basketball road trips. For instance, the men’s basketball team will fly to Louisiana in December to play Louisiana State, a Division I school. LSU has guaranteed the Toros $10,000 to help defray costs.

“We have guarantees from every team we play, with the exception of one basketball trip through Northern California and our appearance in Arizona against Grand Canyon College,” Guerrero said.

Bistline said the recession has made it more difficult to raise funds, but he added: “We aren’t assuming that the state is going to bail us out. That’s why we are aggressive in our fund raising.”

The athletic program at Dominguez Hills got a boost last spring when students voted to allow the university to spend money from student enrollment fees on the sports program. At $9 per student, Guerrero said, the athletic program expects to receive $113,000. He expects an increase in an instruction-related activities fund could add another $64,000.

As for the problems faced by other schools, Bistline said: “I think it’s interesting that schools like those are now coming around to see us (to see how we live within our budget).”