The University of Wyoming’s (UW) athletics department is asking the state for an extra $6 million for its budget in the next two years. This comes after a recent survey found a large majority of Wyomingites say the department is important to the state’s and UW’s identity and prestige.
This is the second time in two years that the UW athletic department has asked the state for more money. Athletic Director Tom Burman mentioned that as he testified to the Joint Appropriations Committee, explaining why the money was needed.
The department’s total budget is about $53 million. Burman told lawmakers $11 million of that comes from the state, $5 million from the Cowboy Joe donor club and $36 million from self-generated funds like ticket sales, licensing, media rights, etc. Burman is asking all partners to increase the money to the department.
He said that’s not enough, adding that compared to other Division 1 athletics programs in the Rocky Mountains, the department is in the lower third.
“Athletics is becoming significantly more costly as travel, health care, equipment, staffing, general operations has seen significant inflation,” he said. “If you look at the $5 million match and compare that to when the program started, the buying power has been reduced by over $2 million.”
He said the extra $6 million over the next two years would go to supporting teams to win and in the experience student athletes have like
scholarships, summer school, academic support, recruiting, travel, health care, etc.
If the department doesn’t get the extra funds, Burman said they would have to make cuts to the program.
“Some may define it as draconian cuts, which may include sport elimination, scholarship elimination, staffing reductions and all of those lead to declining support from ticket revenues, media partnerships, corporate partnerships. It just becomes very difficult to function,” he said.
Burman added things could get even more dire for the program.
“It will lead us down a road that could force Wyoming to decide if it wants a Division 1 program or wants to compete against Chadron State College. The people of Wyoming clearly do not want that,” he said.
Burman was referring to a Wyoming Survey and Analysis Center survey released earlier this month. The center is based at UW.
It asked 850 randomly selected Wyomingites whether they thought it was appropriate to use state funds to support the athletic department. Fifty-three percent responded “yes.” It also found that 73 percent agreed that the athletics program helps with the visibility and prestige of UW.
Eighty-seven percent of the respondents said they were fan of UW sports. The programs with the highest level of fan support were football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, rodeo, volleyball and wrestling.
Legislators will decide whether to grant this request or not in February during the budget session.
