Louisiana-Monroe’s athletic department lost more than $1 million during the 2019 fiscal year.

According to the Louisiana Legislative Auditor, who examines university athletic department financial reporting to see whether they’re in compliance with NCAA rules, ULM reported total athletic revenues of $15,568,952 while its expenses amounted to $16,927,856, coming out to a deficit of $1,358,904 from July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019.

“That’s what we expected,” ULM Athletic Director Scott McDonald told the News-Star Wednesday afternoon. “When I came in, the budget was already established, and I think the anticipation there was going to be a shortfall.

“We managed to get it down a little bit, we had some initiatives that helped us close the gap. So that number was not totally unexpected.”

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The football team playing for bowl eligibility in the final weeks of the 2018 season, the men’s basketball team making a deep run in the CollegeInsiders Tournament in 2019, and making some coaching changes to drum up more alumni and fan excitement assisted the department in reducing the amount of the shortfall.

“From a fundraising effort, we feel like we can take that momentum into (2020) fiscal year and going forward,” McDonald said.

Glancing through the auditors’ findings issued Jan. 27, the football program’s total operating revenues were $3,442,442 while it expended $5,814,314, a loss of $2,371,872.

“It’s not horribly more expensive (for us to play football at the FBS level) than it was a few years ago. Those are state employees and benefits costs go up every year,” McDonald said. “There’s also increased cost in travel, food, just small increases. And when you multiply that by 400-plus student athletes and managers, you’re feeding and housing and taking all of those people on the road with you.

“Football has the opportunity to contribute back, playing in front of bigger crowds and ticket revenue and those games with the (Power 5) schools, picking up those checks. There’s where you offset the cost.”

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ULM’s largest reported deficit came from “other sports” as the university pulled in $642,775 while spending $5,233,866 for a $4,591,091 difference.

“Looking at those sports, we’re very cost conscious. They’re not going to break even, but we can generate some revenue to offset some expenses. We have a great opportunity moving forward. We’ve made some changes with women’s basketball, softball. Coach (Mike) Federico is in his third year with baseball,” McDonald said. “Those sports that charge admission, we’ve made changes that’ll experience success and that success will generate more ticket revenue and more support for the programs from private sources.”

ULM collected $10.5 million in revenue from indirect institutional support, NCAA and conference distributions, royalties, licensing, advertisement and sponsorships as well as student fees and other avenues. It expended just $3,130,073 out of that fund, resulting total revenue of $7,466,724, but still $1.3 million short of the athletic department’s total spending.

This marks the second straight fiscal year ULM’s athletic department finished in the red, reporting a $396,00 loss for 2018.

ULM went without an assistant athletic director for external operations for the final six months of the 2019 fiscal year after Steven Farmer left the post in December 2018 and his replacement, Lee Denny, was not officially hired as the assistant AD for fundraising and development in August 2019, two months into the 2020 fiscal year.

For majority of the 2019 fiscal year, the school went without a full-time athletic director as former AD Nick Floyd resigned in August 2018 after 13 months in the position. McDonald served as interim AD, beginning in September 2018, and was eventually named to the full-time position in June 2019.

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For the second straight year, contributions to ULM’s athletic department decreased from $844,010 to $623,918.

McDonald said not having someone in place to head up fundraising effected those numbers for the university’s athletic department.

“We’ve made several changes in administration and to coaching staffs. I think Lee Denny coming in has been huge for us and he’s developed his staff,” McDonald said. “We’re back to where the people we need and back to doing things we need to do to get back to where we need to be in our fundraising efforts.

“From an expense standpoint, we do manage. We’re very thoughtful how we spend the taxpayers’ money and it’s up to us to maximize those revenue pieces. That’s what we’re working to do and continuing to do.”

ULM continues to have the lowest athletic budget among all FBS schools. According to USA Today, the athletic department had seen an increase in revenue the previous four fiscal years, generating $12.1 million in revenue in 2014, $13 million in 2015, $14.6 million in 2017 and $16.6 million in 2017 before the slight dip to $15.5 million in 2019.

McDonald said the athletic department is “tracking closely” that its 2020 fiscal year budget nearly seven months in and doesn’t anticipate a shortfall like it experienced in 2019.

“What happened in 2019 was a culmination of the last two, three years. It didn’t pop up all of the sudden. We’ll continue to work. We feel good about where we are coaching staff-wise and for the first time in a while, we’ve got the people in place to do what we need to do to be successful, not only winning on the field, but financially.”