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Big Ten cash infusion? UCLA athletics department built $102.8 million budget deficit in recent years, per report
By Keith Farner
Published:
UCLA’s move to the Big Ten comes at a great time for the Bruins’ athletics department budget. And it likely will save the school from cutting sports programs in order to save money.
The Los Angeles Times reported that in the last 3 fiscal years, UCLA’s athletic department had run up a $102.8-million deficit that figured only to worsen given the school’s sagging football attendance and paltry Pac-12 payouts that lagged behind their major conference counterparts. Now it’s conceivable that the Bruins could receive $100 million from the Big Ten per year if the expanded conference can snag the projected $1-billion media rights deal that’s set to begin in 2024.
An unknown number of Olympic sports would have been affected, and the timing was uncertain, but the Bruins were headed toward an Olympic sports Armageddon without the infusion of cash that will accompany its departure from the Pac-12 Conference in 2024.
The sudden turnaround in finances could lead to, in just 1 or 2 years, a financial surplus.
The increased resources will offer more money for facilities, travel and coaches’ salaries, even among the four programs — beach volleyball, men’s volleyball, and men’s and women’s water polo — that will not be making the move to the Big Ten because the conference doesn’t sponsor those sports.
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
