UNLV sports department in the red

Friday, Feb. 23, 2001 | 11:57 a.m.

UNLV's athletic department has a $700,000 shortfall and has implemented a spending and hiring freeze until the end of the fiscal year on June 30, the Sun has learned.

The freeze comes while the athletic department is trying to hire Rick Pitino as its new basketball coach and work out a severance deal with former coach Bill Bayno, who was reassigned because of NCAA violations under his watch.

In a Feb. 14 memo to the staff, Wendy Meyers, the department's business director, attributed the deficit to "lower than anticipated ticket sales and scholarship donations."

The majority of the athletic department's $14.8 million budget comes from self-generating revenues, such as ticket sales to basketball and football games and other sporting events.

"This is a very difficult situation for the entire department," Meyers said in her one-page memo obtained by the Sun.

Meyers said the department has managed to live through budget cuts the last five years without a spending freeze.

"However, at this time it is necessary to freeze remaining budgeted funds for the balance of the fiscal year," she wrote.

The freeze, she said, included host and gift accounts used to recruit student athletes and department employees.

"Expenditures necessary to the daily operations of your department will be handled on a case-by-case basis and will not be approved unless absolutely necessary," Meyers told staff. "This includes all vacant positions and positions vacated between now and June 30."

Although the basketball coaching position currently is filled by Max Good, university officials are said to be close to finalizing a $1.5 million to $2 million deal to bring Pitino aboard.

"The hiring freeze is a question mark for me if they're out there trying to hire a new coach," Board of Regents Chairwoman Thalia Dondero said this morning. "Certainly, if someone new is coming in, they would want to know what they're going to have for programming dollars."

Dondero said she also is concerned that the shortfall will affect efforts to settle with Bayno, who was removed as basketball coach and reassigned to a newly created position within the athletic department. Bayno wants a $1.8 million severance package.

"Those things have to be dealt with," Dondero said.

Athletic Director Charles Cavagnaro told the Sun this morning that the freeze will have no effect on negotiations with Pitino and Bayno.

"Our current budget situation will not have any effect on our ability to attract a new coach," he said. "This is not panic city. This is an orderly way to run a department."

Dondero and two other regents were surprised to hear about the athletic department's revenue problem.

"This is the first I've heard about it," Regent Steve Sisolak said. "I don't like hearing about it from a reporter."

Sisolak, who heads the Regents' Audit Committee, which oversees university budgets, said the shortfall is a "definite concern" to him.

"Right now we've got Bill Bayno on the payroll, Max Good on the payroll, and we're looking for a new coach," he said.

Cavagnaro acknowledged that slumping basketball ticket sales created the deficit.

"It's no secret that the crowds in basketball have been down this season," he said.

Ticket sales, however, can be expected to rise significantly next year if UNLV attracts a big-name coach to take over the basketball program, Cavagnaro said.

Regent Mark Alden said he doubted whether the current shortfall would affect efforts to lure Pitino to UNLV and give football coach John Robinson a hefty pay raise.

A large portion of Pitino's salary would come from incentives built into the package and other outside sources, such as television and shoe contracts, he said.

But Alden suggested the deficit could have an effect on reaching a settlement with Bayno or other athletic department employees in the next few months.

"It could impair efforts to resolve legal disputes or pay off contracts," Alden said.

UNLV also has to pay a six-figure fee to Kansas City lawyer Paul Glazier, who represented the university during the NCAA investigation.

"This is not a good time for this to happen," Alden said. "Why didn't we hear about this five or six months ago so we could have adjusted the budget?"

Sisolak said he talked to Associate Athletic Director Jerry Koloskie this morning and did not get a good explanation for the shortfall.

"I want some answers," he said. "I need a better explanation for this."

Sisolak said Dondero is hoping to place an emergency item on next week's board agenda to discuss the athletic department's budget problem.