Homeless in Arizona

The mandatory ASU student athletic fee, instituted with support from student government, is $75 per semester.

Section 6. The university and all other state educational institutions shall be open to students of both sexes, and the instruction furnished shall be as nearly free as possible.

When I went to ASU I was p*ssed off about the mandatory fee, which you had to pay for the Student Recreation Center, which very few students used.

Source

Student fee boosts ASU athletic revenue to record $84 million in 2014-15

Jeff Metcalfe and Anne Ryman, The Republic | azcentral.com 6:36 p.m. MST March 3, 2016

University still giving athletics $9.4 million in direct or indirect support despite increased revenue from student fee

ASU ticket sales fall in 2014-15 because of one fewer home football game

Coaching, administration salaries rise ASU pays $2.7 million in severance for men's basketball coaching change

Arizona State athletics made a record $84 million in fiscal year 2015 largely due to the addition of a student athletic fee that raised nearly $10 million.

The 13 percent increase in revenue from almost $75 million in the previous fiscal year is almost matched by a 12.5 percent increase in expenses, $74.5 million (2014) to $83.8 million (2015).

Even with the additional revenue from the fee, the university still provided millions in direct subsidies to athletics, in the form of cash and tuition waivers for athletes, worth $7.9 million.

Student fee impact

The mandatory ASU student athletic fee, instituted with support from student government, is $75 per semester. The other two state universities, Arizona and Northern Arizona, don’t charge similar fees.

ASU's fee brought in $9.9 million to athletics for 2015, about what officials predicted it would generate. For students, the fee covers admission to all athletic events and certain other perks, including student seating sections.

The mandatory fee has been unpopular with some students, especially those who who say they don’t have time to go to sporting events.

Of the 10 Pac-12 public universities required to report athletic department financial information, seven receive income from student fees. The exceptions are Arizona and Washington. UA athletics is in discussions with student government about the possibility of adding a student fee.

For 2013-14, 30 of the top 50 highest revenue athletic departments were at schools with student athletic fees per data collected annually by USA Today.

Ticket sales fall

Revenue from ticket sales fell from $12.8 million in fiscal year 2014 to $11.0 million primarily due to a 17.5 dip in football revenue.

ASU won 10 games in 2013 and 2014 but played one less regular-season home game in 2014. Also because of the student fee in 2014, revenue from prior student-ticket sales was shifted out of football ticket sales in the budget.

The 2013 Pac-12 football championship game was played at ASU, but that revenue was shared among all conference teams and is not reflected in the 2013-14 ASU financial report.

Men's basketball revenue also fell from 2013-14 ($1.4 million) to 2014-15 ($1.0 million) then because of a coaching change, ASU had a $2.6 million severance expense to pay to outgoing coach Herb Sendek.

University subsidy still high

ASU received $9.4 million in subsidies in fiscal 2015, which the NCAA calls "direct or indirect institutional support." This was down slightly from $10 million the previous year.

ASU's university subsidy dropped from 13 percent of athletics total revenue in 2014 to 11 percent for 2015.

Other Pac-12 subsidies for 2013-14, per USA Today, were: Oregon 1 percent, UCLA 3, Washington 3.5, California 5.5, Arizona 8, Utah 17, Washington State 18.5, Colorado 19 and Oregon State 19. Stanford and USC, as private universities, are not required to report athletic department finances to the NCAA or public requests.

The bulk of direct support ($7.9 million for FY 2015) help to pay for athletic administrative staff and tuition waivers. Indirect support ($1.4 million) pays for utilities costs.

Coaching salaries rise

Coaching/staff salaries increased from $27.2 million for 2013-14 to $30.1 million, reflecting additional hires in athletic administration and a new varsity sport (men's hockey) plus salary increases/bonuses.

In football, combined salaries rose from $7.1 million in FY 2014 to $8.3 million. Administrative staff salaries increased from $10.4 million to $12.3 million.

Most athletic programs are subsidized

Most colleges subsidize their athletic programs in some way. Football and men’s basketball usually make money, but not enough to cover financial losses in other sports.

ASU’s athletic program has for years relied on millions of dollars from the university to help balance its budget. ASU President Michael Crow has stated on numerous occasions that he would eventually like to have athletics be self-sustaining.

Some of that subsidy comes in the form of tuition waivers granted by the Arizona Board of Regents, the state university system's governing body, and offered at all three state universities. ASU, Arizona and NAU grant a certain number of tuition waivers for student-athletes annually. The waivers exempt a student from paying all or part of tuition.

The athletic departments also kick in cash from their own budgets to cover other financial aid for athletes, including room and board.

Reporting changes

Because of changes in NCAA reporting requirements, training table expenses are now listed under team travel and football bowl game expenses are not included at all rather than being under team travel as in the past. ASU had approximately $800,000 in expenses for the 2014 Sun Bowl.

So $1.3 million to $1.4 million in expenses formerly listed under student athletic aid are now under team travel, accounting for an apparent dip in ASU student athletic aid from $12.7 million to $11.3 million.

ASU athletic aid expenses will increase roughly $600,000 for 2015-16 to cover full cost of attendance for 350 scholarship athletes. There are also reporting changes in direct overhead expenses, now broken into two categories and difficult to compare based on previous financial reports. ASU paid $4.0 million in 2014-15 for athletic facility debt service, leases and rental fees and $4.8 million for direct overhead and administrative expenses. Also due to reporting changes, revenue from NCAA and conference distributions and media rights are now broken into three categories instead of one with ASU increasing from $23.0 million to $25.2 million.

ASU's costs for fundraising, marketing and promotion rose from $5.8 million to $7.2 million primarily because of expenses it absorbed after canceling a multimedia contract with IMG College in October 2014.

Fundraising revenue to help pay for a $256-million renovation of Sun Devil Stadium will not be reported until ASU begins to pay debt service on bonds for the project. Revenue raised from fundraising ($85 million goal), ASU athletics facilities district, tickets and sponsorship including naming rights will be used to pay back the bonds.

ASU's fundraising revenue reported for 2014-15 was $14.3 million, up from $13.4 million.

ASU shows a $566,525 surplus in its audited report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2015, up from $176,165 for 2014. But that includes $9.4 million in subsidies on the revenue side and does not include bowl costs on the expense side.