How is coronavirus affecting USC Athletics? Breaking down the financial impact
This weekend should have seen South Carolina’s baseball team heading to Ole Miss. The softball team should have been hosting Auburn, while at least four other events were set to happen, at least two on campus.
Instead, all those facilities sit silent in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
This sudden disruption in sports, which wiped away the men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournaments and most of spring college sports, has created questions about the financial ramifications. South Carolina had to refund tickets and lost value in holding events at Colonial Life Arena, but it also didn’t have to spend to put on certain events.
The State spoke to Gamecocks athletics director Ray Tanner on Thursday for a better sense of what losing the spring season means.
Funds lost included:
▪ Baseball season tickets refunded: $1.1 million
▪ Softball season tickets refunded: $30,000
▪ Refunds for track and several other sports: $35,000
▪ Lost potential net revenue at Colonial Life Arena: $850,000
Total: $2.015 million
Savings included:
▪ Umpires, event and game management $710,000
▪ Travel $270,000
▪ Parking expenses, $100,000
▪ NCAA championship travel $600,000
▪ Housing and meal costs $425,000
Total: $2.105 million
“So basically, our lost revenue and our saved potential expenses are very close,” Tanner said. “Very close.”
These figures for the spring sports primarily on USC’s side, and don’t account for basketball money lost with the cancellation of the NCAA basketball tournaments. It does account for the lack of travel around the NCAA women’s basketball tournament.
Tanner explained that lost money factors into the NCAA distribution, which works down into an SEC distribution in June. The NCAA has already said its total distribution fell from $600 million to $225 million. An SEC spokesperson said the conference distributions aren’t final until the league releases a tax form and did not have a public estimated financial impact.
The SEC revenue distribution for last year was $44.6 million per school, which accounted for more than a third of the South Carolina department’s overall budget. According to the USA Today athletic department finances database, USC was in the black by more than $5.22 million last year.
Questions still loom about whether the virus’ impact could drag on into fall and potentially impact football, the financial lifeblood of just about every athletic department. But in the shorter term, the fiscal year ends June 30, and Tanner speaks daily to Jeff Tallant, the department’s chief financial officer, about all those situations.
“Our main priority right now is getting to June 30 in the proper fashion, as in operating in the black,” Tanner said. “Simultaneously, we’re getting our budgets solidified for the 2021 academic year. Well, obviously hanging over us is this pandemic. And what kind of effect that it will have, as we move forward, we don’t have the answers to that. I don’t think anybody does.”
This story was originally published April 2, 2020 at 4:41 PM with the headline "How is coronavirus affecting USC Athletics? Breaking down the financial impact."
