 "Photo: Photo courtesy of Theresa Doffing (MCT Campus)")
As the stock market falls and gas prices rise, college campuses across the country are feeling the wrath of the nation’s weakened economy.
Many university athletic departments, however, seem to be flourishing despite the nation’s dismal economic forecast.
According to Athletic Marketing Director Gil Swalls, University of Tampa’s teams may actually be benefiting from the suffering market.
“I don’t know if it’s a result of the economy or not, but we’ve definitely noticed an increase in attendance this year,” he said.
“It could be that people don’t want to go out and spend a lot of money on expensive tickets and are coming to our games instead.”
Smaller Division II campuses like UT are faced with a much different situation than that of Division I universities.
Last May, the University of South Florida faced a 35 million dollar budget cut, the largest in school history.
The athletic department, however, was not greatly affected as the majority of athletic funds come from private sources and Title IX, as opposed to instructional funds which come from the state.
Despite losing 20 million dollars in state funds, the University of Kentucky is working on a 400 million dollar plan to build three new stadiums.
Football powerhouses such as Texas and University of Florida generate millions of dollars in profit from athletics each year and are often self-funding.
Ohio State University, for example, generates over 28 million dollars of profit each year from football alone.
Home to the 101,000-seat Ohio Stadium, the university budgets over one hundred million dollars towards athletics each year and generates about the same amount of revenue.
Texas and Florida ranked second and third in largest athletic budgets at 83 and 78 million dollars per year.
Despite the weakening economy, many large Division I universities are hesitant to cut from their budgets as athletics bring in a large amount of profit, especially at public schools where tuition is not as revenue building.
The Ohio State Athletic Department pledged five million dollars to the university’s library in addition to an annual 1.1 million dollar contribution to the school’s general fund.
The university’s athletic budget alone is only 20 million dollars less than UT’s entire allotted budget of 135 million dollars.
The University of Maryland faced a 12 million dollar budget cut last year, but said that ticket sales and private donations would prevent the athletic department from being affected.
“I think everyone expects tough budgetary times ahead,” UM President Dan Mote told the Diamondback. “People are not going to feel greatly impacted by this. It definitely makes a difference but it’s not going to be dramatic enough for it to be noticeable.”
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