2024 Athletic Department Financial Report

[keith]

Did a quick look at the 2024 financial report published by the AD.  Here are a few take aways.

1.  Total revenue increased from $49,188,482 to $53,351,789 or $4,163,307.

2. Almost all of the increase was from a distribution of $4,005,000 from the AAC.  This is the largest conference distribution we have ever received.  The previous high-water mark was $2,255,251 in the 2016 report.

3.  While the conference distribution is large by UNT standards, it is less than half of what the legacy AAC members probably received.  ECU, Memphis, USF, Temple, Tulane and Tulsa all received in excess of $8.1M in the most recent Form 990 filed by the AAC for fiscal year ending in June 2023, so I doubt their distribution went down.  We'll know in a couple months when the next 990 is published.  It's hard to be competitive when you are at such a financial disadvantage vis-a-vis your conference "peers."  This speaks highly of our athletes and coaches to put competitive teams on the field or court.

4.  A couple red flags in my opinion.  For comparison of a few expense items I picked 2015 and last year (2023 report).

Between 2015 and last year, coach salaries increased from $5,149,797 to $9,348,128 or an 81.52% increase.  That's not the red flag, however, support staff (AD) salaries over the same time period increased from $4,977,297 to $9,631,744 or a 93.51% increase.

Looking just from 2023 to 2024, coach salaries increased from $9,233,837 to $9,348,128 for a paltry 1.35% increase.  Conversely, support staff (AD) salaries increased from $8,432,941 to $9,631,744 or a healthy 14.22% increase.  I don't think I've ever heard anyone say, ya know, screw our coaches, what we really need is to pay our support staff more in order to win championships.

Even scarier is this category titled "Admin Overhead."  From 2023 to 2024 this increased from $4,083,277 to $6,392,713 for a whopping 56.56% YoY increase.  WTH?  That's a big chunk to throw in the "overhead" wink, wink bucket.  

Edited Wednesday at 07:27 PM by keith

[Ross Hodgeson]

46 minutes ago, keith said:

Wiping a duplicate post that happened when I edited a typo above and won't let me delete it.

Why are you stating this?  I am only seeing it once.  Thanks.

[keith]

1 hour ago, Ross Hodgeson said:

Why are you stating this?  I am only seeing it once.  Thanks.

The post that you quoted was a duplicate of the original post.  I think it happened when I edited the first post.  It would not let me delete the duplicate post, but I could edit it.  So instead of leaving a duplicate post up, I edited it with the content that explained I was wiping the duplicate.

[untbowler]

2 hours ago, keith said:

Did a quick look at the 2024 financial report published by the AD.  Here are a few take aways.

1.  Total revenue increased from $49,188,482 to $53,351,789 or $4,163,307.

2. Almost all of the increase was from a distribution of $4,005,000 from the AAC.  This is the largest conference distribution we have ever received.  The previous high-water mark was $2,255,251 in the 2016 report.

3.  While the conference distribution is large by UNT standards, it is less than half of what the legacy AAC members probably received.  ECU, Memphis, USF, Temple, Tulane and Tulsa all received in excess of $8.1M in the most recent Form 990 filed by the AAC for fiscal year ending in June 2023, so I doubt their distribution went down.  We'll know in a couple months when the next 990 is published.  It's hard to be competitive when you are at such a financial disadvantage vis-a-vis your conference "peers."  This speaks highly of our athletes and coaches to put competitive teams on the field or court.

4.  A couple red flags in my opinion.  For comparison of a few expense items I picked 2015 and last year (2023 report).

Between 2015 and last year, coach salaries increased from $5,149,797 to $9,348,128 or an 81.52% increase.  That's not the red flag, however, support staff (AD) salaries over the same time period increased from $4,977,297 to $9,631,744 or a 93.51% increase.

Looking just from 2023 to 2024, coach salaries increased from $9,233,837 to $9,348,128 for a paltry 1.35% increase.  Conversely, support staff (AD) salaries increased from $8,432,941 to $9,631,744 or a healthy 14.22% increase.  I don't think I've ever heard anyone say, ya know, screw our coaches, what we really need is to pay our support staff more in order to win championships.

Even scarier is this category titled "Admin Overhead."  From 2023 to 2024 this increased from $4,083,277 to $6,392,713 for a whopping 56.56% YoY increase.  WTH?  That's a big chunk to throw in the "overhead" wink, wink bucket.  

Definitely not getting the ROI for those increases in the AD staff. 

[Dannymacfan]

13 minutes ago, untbowler said:

That's not the red flag, however, support staff (AD) salaries over the same time period increased from $4,977,297 to $9,631,744 or a 93.51% increase.

Wow - Jared should be ashamed of this!  May be time to DOdGE the AD if you know what I mean.

[97and03]

11 hours ago, untbowler said:

Definitely not getting the ROI for those increases in the AD staff. 

Probably not salary increases but increases amount of salaries due to addition of staff positions. 

[untbowler]

2 hours ago, 97and03 said:

Probably not salary increases but increases amount of salaries due to addition of staff positions. 

point still stands the ROI for such increases whether in staffing increases or salary increases is not there to justify

[UNTLifer]

I felt the bloating of the top of the AD started  under Wren.

[97and03]

23 hours ago, untbowler said:

point still stands the ROI for such increases whether in staffing increases or salary increases is not there to justify

I suppose it depends on which positions count in each category. We expect the AD to run a championship-level program, so we should also expect them to staff appropriately to do so. That means training staff, video staff, academic advisors, compliance experts, NIL advisors, nutritionists, etc. It adds up. 
If you aren’t doing all that, you are ULM. 

[Harry]

Some of these staff positions take time to bear fruit.  For instance, I have been hearing that the fund raising arm of athletics has been making great strides.  You may not see that immediately, however it will payoff in the long run.

[keith]

Last year we spent $780,218 on recruiting.  In comparison, Admin Overhead increased by $2,288,882 for a new yearly total of $6,392,713.  While overall expenses increased by 7.18%, Admin Overhead grew by 56.56%.  Detail on the specific expense categories in Admin Overhead is sparse.  It's described as:  Overhead and administrative expenses paid by or charged directly to athletics including:

• Administrative/Overhead fees charged by the institution to athletics
• Facilities maintenance
• Security
• Risk Management
• Utilities
• Equipment Repair
• Telephone
• Other Administrative Expenses

It would be interesting to know where the increase fell or maybe the University simply increased it's charges to Athletics.

We spent a total of $627,250 on severance payment.  $392,414 for football and $234,836 for women's basketball.  Not sure how many more years these payments extend.  Perhaps 2024 was the last year.  

We allocate $100,000 a year to spirit groups described as including bands, cheerleaders, mascots, dancers, etc.  I assume some of this also goes to Maniacs, but it's not clear.

There is a lot of data on coaches (number, compensation, etc.), but little details on the actual Athletic Department itself.  As the single largest expense category (over 18% by itself) of the overall budget of the Athletic Department, that seems odd to me, but I guess it's not required.  Maybe it's included as part of the overall University's financial reports.  

[keith]

23 minutes ago, Harry said:

Some of these staff positions take time to bear fruit.  For instance, I have been hearing that the fund raising arm of athletics has been making great strides.  You may not see that immediately, however it will payoff in the long run.

In the 2024 report, we spent $916,452 on Fund Raising.  $908, 610 in 2023 and $772,751 in 2022.  

[Harry]

54 minutes ago, keith said:

In the 2024 report, we spent $916,452 on Fund Raising.  $908, 610 in 2023 and $772,751 in 2022.  

Interesting numbers.  This is great stuff @keith.  Appreciate your insight and data very much!