University of Houston athletic director Chris Pezman on money, coaches, Big 12 and state of program

Tom McKrackin · May 5

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — As he sat in the lobby of a posh resort last week, athletic director Chris Pezman reflected on the changes the University of Houston has undergone in the nearly 12 months since joining the Big 12 Conference.

Fittingly, perhaps, the Hyatt Regency at Gainey Ranch was in midst of a massive renovation as the league’s three-day spring meetings were held in suburban Phoenix. The same can be said for UH’s athletic department as it continues to evolve to life in the Power Four.

Q: What’s the biggest challenge right now for the athletic department?

Pezman: Our biggest challenge right now, honestly, is money. We’re trying to catch up to a lot of other schools that have had greater resources for decades. I would tell you right now we’ve got a pretty big hole to fill. We’re trying to figure out a way to either manage our business better or enhance new revenue streams. Everybody chases the same things: self-generated revenue, ticket sales, donations, multimedia rights, those are the main ones. We’ve been way behind on that. If you look at UCF and Cincinnati, we are about $10 million behind them on self-generated revenues. There’s not any reason for it. We could make excuses all day long, but until we meet or exceed that we’re failing and that’s on me.

Q: How do you close that gap?

Pezman: You’ve got to continue to grow the season ticket base. Obviously, we saw a huge spike last year, first year in the Big 12, obviously the Texas game was a big part of that. Our whole goal is to maintain those numbers, don’t regress. We want to get where we are 33,000 to 35,000 season tickets sooner than later.

Q: With UH not receiving a full media share until 2025-26, where does your total budget currently stand?

Pezman: We’re at the $95-$97 million range for this year. Our goal is to get to the average ($120-$125 million) as soon as we can. We have to figure out ways to do that in a challenging environment with NIL. That’s the challenges. That same dollar used to go to us, now it’s to the kids, a million different ways, capital projects. It’s a very difficult problem that nobody has figured out the solution yet.

Q: What type of impact has the $14.8 million buyout for former football coach Dana Holgorsen had on the athletic department?

Pezman: It’s impactful. We’re carrying it on our books. I’ve got to solve it. It affects us how we move forward. I knew we had lost our momentum, and to see the response that we’ve gotten with Willie it justifies the decision. It was really expensive, and it was really painful for a lot of reasons. We want it to work. We have to make it work. But you also have to be smart enough to realize when it’s not and move on. (The school is currently on the hook for roughly $300,000 in monthly payments through the 2027 season). It’s a lot of money. It’s a heavy number. When we hired Dana we were still on the outside (Group of Five) looking in. We were trying to prove that we were investing and that athletics is important to us. We needed to do something like that. I don’t want to say to make a statement, but it was proof of commitment. Dana is a good coach. It just didn’t work.

Q: How much has the belt tightening limited what you can do?

Pezman: I would tell you 95% of our budget is locked. It’s scholarships, meals, insurance, game guarantees, salaries. It’s not like I can walk in and lay off a thousand employees and make it up. It limits our ability to do further investments in other areas that we want to invest in. In the long run it’s going to even out, because I think the success that we’ll find in short order with football will offset it.

read more: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/texas-sports-nation/college/article/state-of-university-of-houston-athletics-19437324.php