Last modified: Friday, November 4, 2005
Trustees of Indiana University approve five-year athletics budget plan
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nov. 4, 2005
RICHMOND, Ind. -- The Indiana University Board of Trustees on Friday (Nov. 4) endorsed a five-year business plan for the IU Department of Athletics and authorized distribution of the $15 spring semester athletics fee.
The board's motion recognized that ticket price changes are subject to approval by the Athletics Committee.
The plan was initially presented to the board in September by Indiana University Athletics Director Rick Greenspan.
Highlights of the plan include strategies to increase football revenue through aggressive mass media and grassroots advertising, and scheduling seven home games per season in most years starting in 2006.
In addition, the department is continuing to enhance men's basketball revenue through creative scheduling, utilization of NCAA exempt game regulations and selective pricing strategies.
Thirdly, IU Athletics continues to cultivate its annual giving and endowment efforts. Annual giving has increased 8.3 percent in the last fiscal year and 44.8 percent in the last three years, while the Glaubinger Foundation, on behalf of Larry and Lucienne Glaubinger, has committed a $10 million gift to the IU Athletic Scholarship Endowment. IU already has the largest athletics endowment in the Big Ten Conference. It is currently valued at $32 million, including 22 endowed scholarships and 149 named scholarships. The Glaubinger gift increases the value of this endowment by more than 30 percent, raising it to a total of $42 million.
The business plan would eliminate the $30 student athletics fee, beginning in 2006-07. The plan also includes:
- Converting 500 student basketball tickets to donor tickets, which could equate to $750,000 in revenue. Indiana would still have the largest student ticket allotment in the Big Ten Conference and would still have more student tickets than fellow traditional basketball powers Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, UCLA, Connecticut and Maryland.
- Increasing student ticket prices for men's basketball games. An increase of $4 per game would generate approximately $530,400 in revenue.
- Increasing the percentage of athletics trademark revenue allotted to the Athletics Department.
- Reducing expenses through negotiated vendor discounts.
- Creating student ticket revenue for other charged athletic events.
