Despite revenue record, Arizona State athletics is reporting a $13.1-million deficit for the 2017-18 fiscal year largely due to buying out football coach Todd Graham.
The entire $12.8 million buyout due Graham is reflected in the FY2018 report even though Graham is being paid in installments through June 2021.
The deficit is ASU athletics' first since FY2012. ASU reported a $2.7-million surplus for FY2017, down from $5.6 million for the previous year.
Frank Ferrara, ASU senior associate athletic director/chief financial officer, expects the 2018-19 fiscal year, which ends in June, to be close to break even when the Graham buyout technically is off the books.
Graham was fired after his teams went 18-20 from 2015-17, a drop-off from 28-12 in his first three seasons.
Arizona athletics also is reporting a $7.4-million deficit for 2017-18 because of $8.2 million due in severance payments. The majority of that ($6.2 million) goes to former football coach Rich Rodriguez, who was under contract through May 2020, with the rest for assistant coaches, said Derek van der Merwe, UA athletics chief operating officer.
Rodriguez was abruptly fired in January 2018 after his former administrative assistant accused him of sexual harassment.
UA last reported a fiscal year surplus in 2014-15 ($6.4 million) and in FY2017 ran an $800,000 deficit.
ASU exceeded $100 million in revenue for the first time in FY2017 then was up 11.9 percent to $113.6 million for FY2018, ending June 30.
With seven home football games in 2017 and a school attendance record for men's basketball in 2017-18, ticket revenue climbed to $12.4 million, up from $10 million in the previous year.
Other significant revenue increases were in contributions ($19.0 million to $24.2 million primarily for the Sun Devil Stadium renovation), media rights ($21.3 million to $22.4 million), licensing ($16.6 million to $18.0 million) and bowl game (zero to $1.4 million).
Direct institutional support — largely for athlete tuition waivers — was up from $8.8 million to $10.3 million in part because of the additions of men's tennis and women's lacrosse and an additional $1 million budgeted by the university for athletics.