Durango The University of Colorado athletic department is $8 million in the hole because of lower-than-expected ticket sales and a $3.7 million buyout for former football coach Gary Barnett, CU officials said Thursday.
The Boulder campus will loan the athletic department $8 million to cover the shortfall, which the department will have to begin paying back in 2008 with $800,000 annual payments.
Athletic director Mike Bohn was expected to tell regents at a budget retreat in Durango this afternoon that he will cut expenses and increase ticket sales to generate $1.25 million by the end of the year.
Bohn will try to increase season ticket sales to 2001 levels, which could generate up to $3 million in additional revenue each year.
Bohn, who inherited a $1 million deficit when he took the job in April 2005, already has cut $700,000 from his budget by eliminating the men’s tennis team and staff positions.
Regents had asked Bohn to create a business plan to make the athletic department financially self-sufficient.
