Big spending by Rutgers University athletics is once again under the microscope after financial documents obtained by NJ Advanced media show the department is running a $54 million deficit that's despite record revenue and it's up about a million dollars from the year before University leaders have acknowledged on multiple occasion it's the cost of doing business in the Big 10 conference the athletic department spending has been a top grievance among Union faculty and staff who've long pointed to the University's practice of diverting money from academic priorities to sports Brian Fonseca is the Rutgers athletic beat reporter for NJ Advanced media and joins me with his latest reporting Brian Fonseca good to have you on the show so let me ask you first what's eating up the majority of the athletic Department's budget yeah I think the same that's eating up most of athletic department budgets uh coaching salaries administrative salaries operational salaries of just keeping what it is required for big-time Athletics you know maintaining the fields traveling recruiting um I would say nothing out of the ordinary uh and look I think you have to spend a lot of money to keep up with the Joneses in BigTime football Big Time men's basketball uh Rutgers president Jonathan Holloway has said on multiple occasions since he has taken over the position that losing money is part of the deal in college athletics and he doesn't entirely expect the university to ever become a net neutral in spending with Athletics so is there argu then that the benefits outweigh what ultimately leads to being in the red for many many years to come um by having a well-known a prominent athletics department I mean what do they say about that certainly I think the argument for any BigTime athletic department is that Athletics is sort of in a way a marketing budget they are the front porch of the University uh School spokesperson used that that analogy to me the other day when I asked for a comment on this report um they are this is a way that it's been visible with the men's basketball programs rise with the football program going to the Pinstripe Bowl this year and having some success Rutgers is being talked about more and more among people in the Sports World across the country and particularly looking at men's basketball season next year when they have two top five potential NBA picks coming that will be an even more uh it will make Rutgers an even more popular uh thing talked about among sports fans the other part of it also is uh the likelihood that the revenue they're going to be making being part of the Big 10 with the league expansion will continue to rise uh they made something like 44 million dollar in media rates this year that is expected to rise to 75 million within the next two years once the big 10's current deal becomes actualized this fiscal year report is from 2022 23 so if not in next year's report certainly in two years's report you will see a higher increase in the money uh received from the Big 10 so essentially they're wait waiting on the revenue to translate to what is a long-term goal here by being in the Big 10 but Brian I mean you know as well as I do obviously the unionized faculty and staff uh held the University's first ever labor strike last year a lot of what they were in contention about was the way that the school spends the money you know their argument was that they uh quote unquote Rob the academics portion to pay for athletics so how does this square with people on campus sure and I think that's been a long-standing battle at Rutgers for you know half a century ever since Rutgers elected to enter the big time of College athletics when they entered into the Big East when they decided they were not going to be playing in The Patriot league with Lafayette and Lehigh anymore this has kind of been the rub among the academic side and the athletic side the athletic department will tell you that uh for example this fiscal year uh the money that they spent accounts for 3% of the University's endowment which is something like $5.6 billion um and the money that they took from the University reserves as a way to cover up the shortfall was a little less than 0.1% of the University's budget uh so I I the academic side will continue to use Athletics as an argument in their discussions uh I don't anticipate that changing anytime soon and I think that until Rutgers if they ever make money back on Athletics again I don't think that's very likely but until or if we ever reach that point I think this will be a continuing battle among people at the University that I am sure is happening at universities at this level across the country have to agree with you on that one for sure Brian Fonseca is the Rutgers Athletics beat reporter for NJ Advanced media Brian thanks so much thank you for having me guys.

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