--West Virginia Director of Athletics Shane Lyons said that the past few months have been the most uncertainty times that any of them have ever dealt with. They’ve done a great in-depth review of current and future budgets to decide what they need and what they don’t need. They have looked at the impact of how it will affect everything, and it’s forced to look at how things could unfold soon. Tough decisions had to be made and salary reductions, furloughs are never easy but necessary with the five-million-dollar shortfall. Salaries was where they had to start first, and they will continue looking at other avenues in order to preserve funding. They’re trying to minimize effects to the student athletes and their overall experience. There are discussions and furloughs outside of the athletic department as well but there must be solutions and an action-oriented approach to dealing with the pandemic.
--Lyons remains optimistic that they will play football in the fall as well as the other fall sports. They are putting plans in place to return to campus but first and foremost is the safety of the student athletes and the fans as the top priority on the issue.
--Administrators and staff could not be brought back but that is something they are working through as well as a freeze on future hiring’s for the time being.
--These reductions account for around $3 million and they still need to make up a deficit of $2 million which means they are exploring other avenues in order to meet that. The ticket deadline is important because they moved it from May 1 to June 1 and the donor aspect applies to the 2020 academic year and the ticket revenue applies to the 2021 year. There isn’t a clear picture of what that looks like right now, but they are exploring other avenues of their budget to cut those expenses. They’ve looked at possibly bus trips instead of planes to make it more regional, but they are going to look at the operating budget in order to see where more cuts could be made.
--Naming rights and new revenue streams is something they continue to explore with the Coliseum and the new baseball park. The biggest streams are with the donors and ticket revenue but they’re looking at other methods as well to address shortfalls.
--Goal is to play football Aug. 29 in college football and the focus right now is the return to practice as well as what it looks like with the new protocols in place. What do they have to do? First step they are taking is how long does that time period need to be and they are looking at anywhere between four to six weeks before the first competition to train. Then it becomes what does the season look like? Will they have to make adjustments? They are focused on Sept. 5 to start the season, but they are looking at all contingency plans to make sure they are covered. Everything is in discussion right now. They don’t have all the answers right now but it’s too premature to start coming up with a decision one way or the other to determine what a season could look like when it does resume.
--The projects they are continuing to work on has nothing to do with the budgets for this year or next year. The Puskar Center was from gifted funds and future bond funds so that isn’t stopping, the Olympic sports weight room was from the Ruby Trust which was earmarked for that, and the Coliseum seats were a gift that was earmarked for that as well as the two video boards at the Coliseum and football stadium are from IMG. Those are continuing and has nothing to do with the 2020 or 2021 budgets.
--The TV revenue figure is based upon having a full season. Football gets around 75-percent, basketball the other 25-percent. There isn’t specific language based on several games played but he does think that if they don’t play a full season or limited season it would have any financial impact.
--Lyons said the rainy-day fund is putting a small dent in what they can do. In this situation, this has exceeded anything that they could have planned for. It’s very limited with the impact this can have.
--Lyons said that it’s hard to put a finger on donations right now with weeks out, but it is around 10-15-percent down overall. But typically, there is a spike as it gets closer to that deadline. And the real numbers will show as they get closer to the June 1 date.
--The salary reductions are July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2021. If they have an altered football season that could change significantly but they are looking at the budgets. They must play with that as they move through the pandemic and it has always been very fluid. As for the coaching contracts, they won’t be looking at any of the coaches that are up for contracts they won’t be looking at multi-year versions not knowing what the future is going to look like but it’s something that they are reviewing.
--Reduction in staff are not those on furlough and those are individual discussions they will have. It’s people that are currently on the staff.
--The NCAA Council reviewed that issue and there were any waivers of sports sponsorship. The 16-sports sponsorship limit was taken off the table as a blanket waiver. They support that and it maintains as a threshold to be a division one member.
--Lyons remains optimistic that they will play football in the fall as well as the other fall sports. They are putting plans in place to return to campus but first and foremost is the safety of the student athletes and the fans as the top priority on the issue.
--Administrators and staff could not be brought back but that is something they are working through as well as a freeze on future hiring’s for the time being.
--These reductions account for around $3 million and they still need to make up a deficit of $2 million which means they are exploring other avenues in order to meet that. The ticket deadline is important because they moved it from May 1 to June 1 and the donor aspect applies to the 2020 academic year and the ticket revenue applies to the 2021 year. There isn’t a clear picture of what that looks like right now, but they are exploring other avenues of their budget to cut those expenses. They’ve looked at possibly bus trips instead of planes to make it more regional, but they are going to look at the operating budget in order to see where more cuts could be made.
--Naming rights and new revenue streams is something they continue to explore with the Coliseum and the new baseball park. The biggest streams are with the donors and ticket revenue but they’re looking at other methods as well to address shortfalls.
--Goal is to play football Aug. 29 in college football and the focus right now is the return to practice as well as what it looks like with the new protocols in place. What do they have to do? First step they are taking is how long does that time period need to be and they are looking at anywhere between four to six weeks before the first competition to train. Then it becomes what does the season look like? Will they have to make adjustments? They are focused on Sept. 5 to start the season, but they are looking at all contingency plans to make sure they are covered. Everything is in discussion right now. They don’t have all the answers right now but it’s too premature to start coming up with a decision one way or the other to determine what a season could look like when it does resume.
--The projects they are continuing to work on has nothing to do with the budgets for this year or next year. The Puskar Center was from gifted funds and future bond funds so that isn’t stopping, the Olympic sports weight room was from the Ruby Trust which was earmarked for that, and the Coliseum seats were a gift that was earmarked for that as well as the two video boards at the Coliseum and football stadium are from IMG. Those are continuing and has nothing to do with the 2020 or 2021 budgets.
--The TV revenue figure is based upon having a full season. Football gets around 75-percent, basketball the other 25-percent. There isn’t specific language based on several games played but he does think that if they don’t play a full season or limited season it would have any financial impact.
--Lyons said the rainy-day fund is putting a small dent in what they can do. In this situation, this has exceeded anything that they could have planned for. It’s very limited with the impact this can have.
--Lyons said that it’s hard to put a finger on donations right now with weeks out, but it is around 10-15-percent down overall. But typically, there is a spike as it gets closer to that deadline. And the real numbers will show as they get closer to the June 1 date.
--The salary reductions are July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2021. If they have an altered football season that could change significantly but they are looking at the budgets. They must play with that as they move through the pandemic and it has always been very fluid. As for the coaching contracts, they won’t be looking at any of the coaches that are up for contracts they won’t be looking at multi-year versions not knowing what the future is going to look like but it’s something that they are reviewing.
--Reduction in staff are not those on furlough and those are individual discussions they will have. It’s people that are currently on the staff.
--The NCAA Council reviewed that issue and there were any waivers of sports sponsorship. The 16-sports sponsorship limit was taken off the table as a blanket waiver. They support that and it maintains as a threshold to be a division one member.