Mark Anderson
Posts: 12203
Joined: 9/1/2007
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Mr. Ed In an "open letter" email from the U The COVID-19 pandemic and the Big Ten's decision to postpone fall 2020-21 sports has greatly increased the financial concerns. Our athletic department is now facing a projected loss of revenue of approximately $75 million just this fiscal year. This is a significant deficit and one that will have an impact for years to come. At the same time, we remain steadfast in our commitment to provide Title IX gender-equitable participation opportunities that are closely aligned with our male and female undergraduate enrollment percentages. We are mindful that our sport programs have worked to adjust their participation opportunities to keep pace with our growing female undergraduate population percentages. As a result, we have determined that Athletics is no longer able to financially or equitably sustain 25 varsity programs, and pending approval of the Board of Regents, we will discontinue men's indoor track and field, men's outdoor track and field, men's gymnastics and men's tennis at the completion of their 2020-21 competition season. Should health and safety precautions allow, these teams will have the opportunity to compete during the 2020-21 season. In addition to adjusting our sport offerings, we are also announcing a personnel cost-reduction plan for Athletics. This is in addition to the University's previously implemented furlough and pay-reduction plan, which members of the athletic department already participated in. Most academic professional and administrative employees will be subject to a 10 percent reduction in appointment, while civil service and labor represented employees will be furloughed for 17 days. These impacts will continue for the remainder of the fiscal year. Employees who make $40,000 or less will not be impacted. The athletic department is also eliminating eight positions in addition to those that will be eliminated because of program discontinuation. The department anticipates a savings of $1.3 million this fiscal year related to its personnel cost-reduction plan. It was previously announced that Director of Athletics Mark Coyle and head coaches P.J. Fleck, Hugh McCutcheon, Bob Motzko, Richard Pitino and Lindsay Whalen volunteered for a 10 percent salary reduction. That reduction will now be extended through the entire fiscal year and will result in a savings of an additional $1.2 million. In short, we have tried to find a way to avoid these difficult decisions. Unfortunately, we could not overcome the challenges presented by these unprecedented times. We fully understand that these decisions will have a significant impact on our student-athletes and employees, especially those who are directly affected. We will continue to explore ways to mitigate our deficit and will continue to support our remaining student-athletes and staff. Granted, there won't be fans in the stands, but UM might have a football season after all. Will they still go ahead with the cuts?
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