UCF Director of Athletics Danny White provided insight in a letter to Knight Nation as to how the UCF Athletics mitigated a projected $15 million loss due to COVID-19, and budgeted to an approximate $5 million shortfall.
White said in a Friday letter that UCF Athletics began to strategize and plan the budget for the 2021 fiscal year when COVID-19 shut down the athletics world in March.
He said over the past five years, the athletics department has been able to grow its budget by more that $20 million — White said UCF Athletics will be entering the 2021 fiscal year with that budget growth mindset, but will need to push pause for one year.
“We didn’t want to lose momentum, but we knew we had to mitigate the damage, make decisions during a time of extreme uncertainty and attack the issue,” he said in the Friday statement.
White said UCF Athletics is projecting a $12.7 million loss in revenue — and approximately $2 million in increased COVID-19 related expenses — for a total loss of approximately $14.7 million.
White provided a breakdown of UCF Athletics’ approach for mitigating the nearly $15 million loss to a about a $5 million deficit.
- White said UCF Athletics worked with every sport and administrative unit to cut 10% from projected fiscal year 2021 budgets.
- He said the department also set aside additional revenue they expected to receive.
- “In total, we were able to enter [fiscal year 2021] with a $5.14M buffer in anticipation of reduced revenues,” he said.
- UCF Athletics established hiring and spending freezes and opted not to immediately fill any open positions, he said.
- “Ultimately, we eliminated plans for hiring 32 full-time positions and 40 additional part-time football gameday positions,” he said.
- “Ultimately, we eliminated plans for hiring 32 full-time positions and 40 additional part-time football gameday positions,” he said.
- The athletics department created and launched the ‘Keep Charging On Fund’, a one-year initiative to maintain the UCF Athletics momentum, with a goal of raising $2 million.
- “I’m thrilled to report that our UCFAA staff and coaches donated $1M of their salaries to this fund and Knight Nation has donated an additional $540,000,” he said. “We still have some work to do to reach our $2M goal, but we’re pleased with the current contributions.”
- “I’m thrilled to report that our UCFAA staff and coaches donated $1M of their salaries to this fund and Knight Nation has donated an additional $540,000,” he said. “We still have some work to do to reach our $2M goal, but we’re pleased with the current contributions.”
- A second round of sport and administrative unit budget cuts was conducted and led to an additional $2.8 million in savings, White said.
- “This savings coupled with our initial round of budget cuts reflect a 20% reduction compared to the FY20 budget,” he said.
- “This savings coupled with our initial round of budget cuts reflect a 20% reduction compared to the FY20 budget,” he said.
- UCF Athletics paused construction projects of approximately $4.5 million.
- Based on all the above factors, White said the department accounted for $10 million to $11 million in fiscal year 2021’s budget loss — the projected $15 million reduces to a shortfall of about $4 million or $5 million, he said.
White thanked Knight Nation for their year-round support, the staff and coaches for their tireless efforts, and the student-athletes for their positive attitude during this unprecedented time.
“Let’s stay safe, stick together and Keep Charging On!”
