Louisville athletics finds men's basketball savings in new budget
JEFF GREER | COURIER JOURNAL | 2:09 pm EDT June 12, 2018
The change in coaching salaries this spring served as the primary factor in the Louisville's men's basketball program saving $2.3 million in the athletics department's next budget.
In reporting the 2018-19 operating budget to the University of Louisville Athletic Association's Board of Directors on Tuesday, athletics officials detailed how the school's marquee program found the savings after a thorough review of expenses.
The review was part of a larger effort by new athletic director Vince Tyra to analyze and better understand his department's expenditures and incomes. Head coaches from each of the school's 23 sports teams went line-by-line through their budgets with Tyra and assistant athletic director for finance Jeff Spoelker in recent months.
"Over time, the department really has learned good discipline and being really fiscally responsible about all their line items," Tyra said. " ... The way we put our hands around it and really dug in at a line-item level, that really fostered a really good budget process. It was a great bottoms-up budget process, and coaches really bought off on it all the way through. They had a lot of input."
That included Mack, Tyra said. Spoelker praised Louisville's new hoops coach in the ULAA meeting for closely working with him on the team's budget.
The bulk of the savings, Tyra explained, came from the coaching change — with the head coaches but also the assistants and support staffers.
Louisville paid former coach Rick Pitino $5.093 million in salary, with retention and other bonuses. Mack's contract starts at $4 million per season.
"We were clear with Chris upfront about where we were going to be on what we were going to spend, whether it's travel or so forth," Tyra said. "Before he said yes, we went through the line-item detail on the budget with him so he knew exactly what our expectations were and how he fit in as well as his staff and the recruiting budget."
Tyra added that "donors want to help with fundraising" for men's basketball, expressing interest in boosting the program's recruiting budget and covering more hours on charter flights for Mack and his assistants as they try to build their future rosters.
"He's pretty clear on where that's going to land," Tyra said, "and he's good on those numbers.
JEFF GREER | COURIER JOURNAL | 2:09 pm EDT June 12, 2018
The change in coaching salaries this spring served as the primary factor in the Louisville's men's basketball program saving $2.3 million in the athletics department's next budget.
In reporting the 2018-19 operating budget to the University of Louisville Athletic Association's Board of Directors on Tuesday, athletics officials detailed how the school's marquee program found the savings after a thorough review of expenses.
The review was part of a larger effort by new athletic director Vince Tyra to analyze and better understand his department's expenditures and incomes. Head coaches from each of the school's 23 sports teams went line-by-line through their budgets with Tyra and assistant athletic director for finance Jeff Spoelker in recent months.
"Over time, the department really has learned good discipline and being really fiscally responsible about all their line items," Tyra said. " ... The way we put our hands around it and really dug in at a line-item level, that really fostered a really good budget process. It was a great bottoms-up budget process, and coaches really bought off on it all the way through. They had a lot of input."
That included Mack, Tyra said. Spoelker praised Louisville's new hoops coach in the ULAA meeting for closely working with him on the team's budget.
The bulk of the savings, Tyra explained, came from the coaching change — with the head coaches but also the assistants and support staffers.
Louisville paid former coach Rick Pitino $5.093 million in salary, with retention and other bonuses. Mack's contract starts at $4 million per season.
"We were clear with Chris upfront about where we were going to be on what we were going to spend, whether it's travel or so forth," Tyra said. "Before he said yes, we went through the line-item detail on the budget with him so he knew exactly what our expectations were and how he fit in as well as his staff and the recruiting budget."
Tyra added that "donors want to help with fundraising" for men's basketball, expressing interest in boosting the program's recruiting budget and covering more hours on charter flights for Mack and his assistants as they try to build their future rosters.
"He's pretty clear on where that's going to land," Tyra said, "and he's good on those numbers.
