Athletic department to cut $300k

Last spring, the University of Maine athletic department made the decision to eliminate the volleyball and men’s soccer programs as part of university budget cuts. This spring, the school may not have to cut a sport, but will have to shave $300,000 from its budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

The cuts are part of a proposed cut in academic programs, resources and personnel that will save the university more than $12 million.

The cuts have not been determined yet, but will take place within a couple of weeks as the budget has to be finalized at the beginning of May.

“We were kind of ahead of the curve where we had our cuts last year with significant cutbacks including the elimination of the volleyball and men’s soccer programs,” Athletic Director Blake James told the Bangor Daily News. “We cut close to a million last year from our budget and close to that again this year. It’s just the reality of the current situation.”

Many of the cuts that have to take place may be balanced by UMaine teams playing “guarantee” games. During the 2009-2010 seasons, UMaine received $550,000 for playing at Syracuse University in football and men’s basketball. In addition to the $450,000 the football team was paid for playing Syracuse in the Carrier Dome in September, they were paid $400,000 from the University of Iowa in 2008. The money that the teams get from the “guarantee” games goes into the school’s athletic fund.

While the cuts are being felt across the board, UMaine’s athletic program is not the only school dealing with budget constraints. Just this past fall, two Colonial Athletic Association football members cut their program to save money. Northeastern University and Hofstra University have fielded football teams since the first half of the 20th century, but were forced to eliminate the sport.

Last year, the University of Vermont eliminated its baseball and softball programs and Stanford University, which has the nation’s third-largest endowment fund, predicted that they will lose $5 million in revenue over the next three years.

UMaine’s current athletic budget is $10 million, with half of it comprised from self-generated revenue.

UMaine has 15 varsity sports currently and cutting one would give them the minimum number of sports required to be an NCAA Division I institution. A college or university must have 14 varsity sports – seven men’s and women’s or six men’s and eight women’s.

Check back for more coverage of athletic budget cuts on mainecampus.com.

CORRECTION:
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that UMaine has 15 Division I sports. UMaine has 17 Division I sports.

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 29th, 2010, 1:35 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.