East Carolina dropping swimming, tennis in attempt to stem athletic budget deficit
East Carolina will cut four sports — men’s and women’s swimming and diving and men’s and women’s tennis — as part of a plan to address a substantial athletic department budget deficit exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The cuts, along with other cost-cutting measures, are expected to save $4.9 million over an unspecified period of time, the school said. In a statement Thursday, the school said sport cuts had not been considered before March, when the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic became apparent.
East Carolina had sponsored 20 sports, the most in the American Athletic Conference after Connecticut’s departure, and will now be at the NCAA Division I minimum of 16.
“I’ve worked in intercollegiate athletics for over 25 years and this is not something I’m comfortable with,” East Carolina athletic director Jon Gilbert said Thursday. “It bothers me. But I also know the financial realities. We cannot support 20 sports at East Carolina.”
The cuts effect 68 athletes and nine coaches. East Carolina said it will honor the scholarships of the affected athletes, who are also now free to transfer without penalty. All four sports rely heavily on athletes from outside the United States; 37 of 66 athletes this year listed foreign hometowns.
Along with the abandoned sports, East Carolina is implementing budget reductions of 10-20 percent throughout the athletic department, eliminating a number of vacant positions and reducing sport and staff travel.
On Monday, the ECU board of trustees received the results of an internal examination of an athletics budget deficit that could exceed $10 million this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“The financial model is not sustainable,” interim chancellor Ron Mitchelson said Monday.
One major factor: East Carolina’s struggles on the football field since Ruffin McNeill was fired as coach in 2015. The declines in football ticket sales and Pirate Club giving alone account for more than $4 million of East Carolina’s annual deficit, while the new suite tower at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium has gone from a projected revenue generator to a net expense.
The Pirates fired Scottie Montgomery after three seasons and hired Mike Houston before last season -- additional expenses, along with the ongoing severance payments to former athletic director Jeff Compher, who fired McNeill and was offered $1.26 million in 2018 to depart as well.
“We were trending in a positive direction on season-ticket sales and enthusiasm around the program,” Gilbert said. “When COVID hit, obviously it started to affect every revenue bucket quickly -- ticket sales, Pirate Club, concessions, sponsorships, all those things. We can rebound, but like every institution in the state, we need students on campus in the fall and we need to be able to play football.”
In the 2018-19 academic year, East Carolina’s two swimming and diving programs operated at a net loss of $1.1 million and the two tennis programs operated at a net loss of about $972,000 for a total savings to the athletic budget of more than $2 million per year. Gilbert said that figure rose to $2.6 million this year.
Gilbert said that the analysis of sports to cut excluded football and men’s and women’s basketball because of television contracts and moved quickly beyond sports like baseball and women’s lacrosse. In the end, future facility costs played a major in the decision, with Minges Natatorium and the tennis facilities both in need of renovations.
“We kept going back to swimming and tennis largely based on the state of their athletic facilities,” Gilbert said. “I’m not sure we’ve had a major renovation to the aquatics center for a long time and the state of the locker room and offices are probably not up to Division I standards.”
Gilbert said the university worked with a Title IX consultant to ensure East Carolina remained in compliance with the federal gender-equity statute. Even though the university cut three more women’s scholarships than men’s, Gilbert said the school’s 50-50 participation rate between male and female athletes would meet one of Title IX’s standards, even though the school itself is 57 percent female.
While neither tennis program had finished better than sixth in the AAC in the previous five years of competition, the men’s swimming team this winter won its fourth AAC title in six seasons and sent one swimmer and one diver to the NCAA championships. The women’s swimming team sent one swimmer. Two of the three qualifiers were freshmen this season.
This story was originally published May 21, 2020 at 12:16 PM with the headline "East Carolina dropping swimming, tennis in attempt to stem athletic budget deficit."
