FAMU Athletics going deeper into the red

The deficit in the FAMU Department of Athletics is continuing to get worse.

At a meeting of the Board of Trustees’ Special Committee on Athletics yesterday, university officials reported that financial records from May 31 show that the department’s expenditures for this fiscal year were $2,076,734 more than its income. FAMU Athletics paid for $9,352,419 in expenses but brought in just $7,275,685 in revenue.

The department projects that it will end the fiscal year on June 30, 2015 with a deficit of $500,000-$750,000.

That is bad news for an athletic department that has a cumulative deficit of more than $7 million.

Former Athletic Director Ken Riley left the department with a surplus of more than $3 million when he stepped down in December 2002. But the surplus was blown by poor management during the next year and a half. The department had a $950,000 cumulative deficit in May 2004 and the amount has continued to grow since then.

The following chart was presented to the FAMU Board of Trustees on May 5, 2014: