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To cover that shortfall, the Athletics Department is suggesting two options. The first is seeking a break on a more than $1 million debt service payment due next year to fund a basketball arena renovation from years ago. The second is to postpone its first payment toward a 10-year deficit reduction plan and getting a partial waiver for its debt service payment, according to university budget documents.

“Is that kicking the can down the road? Yes,” Nicole Dopson, the director of financial operations for academic affairs, said at a regents’ Finance and Facilities meeting on Tuesday.

Over a 10-year period, the university Athletics Department failed to meet budget eight times and racked up about $4.7 million in debt it must pay back to the rest of the university over 10 years. The Athletics Department also has a $1.2 million debt service payment due in the 2020 fiscal year to pay for a major renovation to the school’s basketball arena about a decade ago.

The Athletics Department is proposing that its roughly $32 million budget for 2020 either include a waiver for the $1.2 million debt service payment, which would be picked up by the rest of the university, according to budget documents. Or the Athletics Department is planning for its budget to include a partial waiver of its debt service payment and to push back the first of 10 roughly $487,000 annual payments Athletics owes the rest of the university for repeatedly failing to make budget for one year, according to the documents. The Athletics Department is also planning on leaving about $280,000 of positions in Athletics vacant next year.

Athletic director Eddie Nuñez said the department is looking at scheduling games to guarantee money for UNM, and maximizing the use of its facilities, to create more revenue in the future.

In the last year, the university cut four sports – men’s soccer, men’s and women’s skiing and women’s beach volleyball – to help curb expenses. The cuts were expected to save the university a little more than $1 million per year, according to prior Journal reports. But it doesn’t appear those cuts will be enough for the Athletics Department to get in the black.

Three regents on a Finance and Facilities committee earlier this week gave approval for the full board to consider the budget. The regents pointed out that the proposed budget was crafted with input from a Budget Leadership Team that has representatives from many parts of campus. But the regents said a deeper discussion on the role that athletics should play at the university is needed.

“I really think we need to figure whether or not other parts of the university should be putting money into athletics. We have to make … a policy determination,” Regent Robert Schwartz said at this week’s Finance and Facilities meeting. “I don’t feel ready to make that decision because I don’t feel that I have enough information.”

Regent President Doug Brown, who has said that attracting students to enroll at UNM should be a major priority for the university, said that athletics is an important part of marketing the university. Think of all the Lobo memorabilia seen on hats, shirts and other gear, he said.

“It’s the front porch for the university. There’s a tremendous (public relations) value to sports. The amount of license plates you see in the community with Lobos all over them and the gear that people wear. It pays off in a great way if you have success on the field,” Brown said. “This is a really hard issue.”

Lobo sports headlines lately haven’t been all that cherry. Since 2018, football coach Bob Davie has been suspended in connection to an investigation by an outside firm, former athletic director Paul Krebs has been indicted on fraud charges and the football and men’s basketball teams are both coming off losing seasons.

“There are PR consequences, good and bad, of an athletics program,” Schwartz said. “I’m not sure how important (athletics) is for New Mexico. It might be very important.”

Athletics will make up about just 1% of the university’s $3.1 billion budget, which includes UNM’s main and branch campuses as well as the Health Sciences Center. The total budget is up almost 7% from last year. Norma Allen, the director of the office of planning, budget and analysis for UNM, said much of that increase was driven by health sciences. The university main campus’ budget for next year will be around $884 million.

Regents have set tuition and salaries for the next fiscal year.