Friday, Jan. 7, 2005 | 10:06 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- UNLV spent $20 million on its athletic teams in fiscal year 2003, the third-highest in the eight-member Mountain West Conference, a legislative audit showed Thursday.
UNR spent $14.3 million, ranking it as the sixth-highest spender among the 10 teams in the Western Athletic Conference.
"A comparison of total compensation amongst conference members showed some of the head coaches at UNLV were among the highest paid while assistant coaches were among the lowest," deputy legislative auditor Shannon Ryan said. UNR coaching compensation was lower than average compared with others in its conference, according to the audit.
During fiscal year 2003, six of the the 101 UNLV athletic department employees made more than $100,000. The paychecks for those six employees alone amounted to about $1.7 million in 2003, with former UNLV football coach John Robinson earning the most at $573,214, according to legislative auditor Paul Townsend. Former basketball coach Charlie Spoonhour was a close second, earning $560,801 in fiscal year 2003.
UNR paid three of its 68 employees more than $100,000 in fiscal year 2003. The salaries for those individuals totaled $620,000, with then-football coach Chris Tormey earning the most at $224,424. Former athletic director Chris Ault earned $203,640 a year and former basketball coach Trent Johnson earned $192,806.
The athletic programs constitute a low percentage of the budgets of both schools -- 6 percent at UNLV and 4 percent at UNR.
The audit also quoted a study by the NCAA that found "that increased spending did not impact schools' winning percentages, nor did higher winning percentages affect net operating revenue."
The audit recommended the athletic programs impose more controls over spending.
It found the UNLV men's basketball team used a chartered air service for one road game at a cost of $13,100. The women's team traveled to the same location three days later on a commercial flight for $10,700 less than the men.
The audit also found that a UNLV employee chartered an airplane for a one-day recruiting trip at a cost of $5,200. This money came from gifts and self-supporting revenues. But the audit said there should be policies that address appropriate use of charter service.
Assemblyman John Marvel, R-Battle Mountain, jokingly questioned whether the recruit ever ended up at Las Vegas. That question was never answered.
Gerry Bomotti, vice president of finance at UNLV, said the men's basketball team is often forced to charter flights because ESPN changes the game schedule at the last minute. The particular flight mentioned in the audit, which Bomotti said was to Salt Lake City, also saved the team from overnight expenses and from missing another day of classes.
The women's team played on a weekend where staying overnight didn't matter, Bomotti said. When those costs for the women's team are added in, the travel difference was only $4,600.
The coach in question used a donor's plane to fly back and forth in one day, March 9, 2003, Bomotti said, because UNLV had a Mountain West Conference game the following day. The athletic department didn't pay for the flight but included the flight's value as a donation.
UNR charters flights only for its football team, whose size makes it difficult to fly commercial, athletic director Cary Groth said. She said it's too cost-prohibitive to charter flights for the basketball teams.
UNLV's athletic department spent $1.9 million on staff and team travel in fiscal 2003. UNR spent $1.4 million. But in examining 60 staff travel claims, 27 had at least one error, including overpayment, failure to obtain pre-approval and insufficient documentation. The audit found that both universities overspent on meals for athletes.
One UNR team was provided a dinner including a snack that exceeded $50 per student. The school's per diem policy authorized $14 per student for dinner, and "the difference between the amount paid for the team meal and the per diem rate for all team members was approximately $3,800," the audit said. Townsend said similar incidents occurred at both institutions on several teams.
UNLV women's basketball team members received per diem rates greater than the amount allowed for two away games, the audit found. The department paid about $600 more for meals than authorized for the two trips.
UNLV paid per diem totaling $500 to the UNLV men's basketball team when the meals were provided. Bomotti said UNLV was following NCAA guidelines in all occurrences, which the audit does not acknowledge because there were no written university policies. The university's athletic department has since put that in writing.
Groth said UNR has already implemented stricter policies to control travel and recruitment costs, which she believes will strengthen the program by more equitably controlling distribution of funds.
The audit showed UNLV's athletic department in fiscal year 2003 received $20 million of which $11.3 million came from self-supporting revenue that includes tickets, concessions, advertising game guarantees, student fees and program sales. The state contributed $3.1 million and $5.4 million was in the form of gifts and income from investments.
UNR got $6.7 million from self-supporting revenue; $3.2 million from the state; and $3.1 million from gifts and interest income.
Using figures from the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act that requires reports to the NCAA and the federal government, the audit said UNLV trailed Brigham Young University, which spent $22.9 million and the Air Force Academy, which shelled out $22.5 million in fiscal 2003. Colorado State University was at the bottom, spending $17.4 million.
The audit showed UNLV spent about $150,000 per member of the men's basketball team in 2003, the highest in its conference. It spent about $43,000 per member on the football team and about $63,000 for each member on the women's basketball team.
UNR, according to the audit, spent about $35,000 on each member of the football team; about $70,000 for each member of the basketball team and $60,000 on each female basketball team member.
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