Ray Tanner more optimistic, but football uncertainties mean finances still a mystery
This time of year, South Carolina Athletics Director Ray Tanner usually comes to South Carolina’s board of trustees flush with information.
Ahead of the end of the fiscal year, he presents how the department did the last year, usually several million dollars in the black and paying down debts. He shares the projections for everything from uniform costs to how much money each football game should make the university.
On Friday, he came to the board without all that data, but instead offered a message that hopefully it could be presented soon.
Simply put, the uncertainty surrounding football amid the coronavirus pandemic makes efforts at predicting the future a fool’s errand of sorts. The school doesn’t know how many fans will be allowed into games (because of social distancing guidelines) and isn’t 100% sure every game will be played as planned.
The school has been modeling different attendance outcomes, from no fans to full stadiums, though no specifics were presented Friday. But Tanner did say he was growing more bullish about the prospects for the fall.
“I’m more optimistic today than maybe I was a few weeks ago,” Tanner said. “But we don’t know the number yet, which will certainly affect our budget. We will be prepared, whatever that circumstance turns out to be.”
He could only say “at some point” a decision will have to be made on the attendance issue. He also called a budget without fans “not a pretty sight.”
Tanner did not mention the 2019-20 athletics budget, which will be finished up at the end of the month. He stated multiple times that one big goal is turning a profit despite drops in the money distribution from the NCAA.
At one point Friday he was pressed about when a budget might be available for the coming year. A meeting in two weeks was mentioned, but it was also pointed out how little can be projected without football.
“We’ll have a budget when the numbers firm up,” board member Mack Whittle said. “If the numbers firm up next week, we’ll have it next week. If we don’t know how many fans we’re going to have in the stadium and (if) we don’t know how many games, we’re gonna play. A budget at this point is meaningless.“
He added the guidance for the board in terms of the budget comes with the models the department has run, but at this point, it’s far from clear which one will actually reflect reality.
The department made more than $140 million in revenue the last fiscal year with $65 million from football alone, plus likely some non-sport specific income having at least some ties to football.
Other notes:
▪ Tanner said the construction work on Williams-Brice Stadium is still on track to be done in time for the season. There was a slight delay with work on the new “2001 Club” but nothing major.
▪ The athletic director also praised the work of the academic staff, led by Maria Hickman, in terms of keeping student athletes on track despite the disruptions in the classroom. He said he was cautiously optimistic the department could hit an average GPA of 3.0, which would be a first in school history.
This story was originally published June 5, 2020 at 12:28 PM.
