MANHATTAN, Kan. – Thanks to the generosity and hard work of its fans, donors, coaches and staff, K-State Athletics, Inc., produced a balanced budget in FY 2016 and achieved a surplus for the seventh consecutive year while also setting a new cash contributions record through the Ahearn Fund annual giving program, Athletics Director John Currie has announced.
In the midst of a transformational and challenging time for intercollegiate athletics, which includes many prominent schools across the country recently reporting annual operating deficits and ballooning debt, the collective spirit and support of nearly 250,000 K-State friends and alumni across the country and around the world has enabled the department to experience among the most successful seven-year periods in its history while completing $210 million in athletics facility upgrades in a fiscally responsible manner.
-k-statesports.com
Kenny Lannou
Associate A.D. for Communications — K-State Athletics
The department’s actual FY 2016 cash operating revenue of $77.5 million, which exceeding its budgeted goal of $70 million, reflects the commitment of the K-State nation through strong ticket sales and annual giving in addition to support from the Big 12 Conference. Though the annual audit is not yet complete, operating revenue is expected to exceed operating expense. This positive result, required by bond covenants, along with those of prior years, has helped the department aggressively invest back into all 430-plus Wildcat student-athletes through needed and strategic facility upgrades in a fiscally responsible manner.
Overall cash gifts to the department in FY 2016 totaled $28.3 million, of which a record $18.1 million was designated for the Ahearn Fund annual giving program which surpassed its budgeted goal by $1 million. Since 2009, K-Staters have contributed more than $200 million inoutright gifts, all of which has been directly invested toward K-State’s Vision of a Model Intercollegiate Athletics Program. K-State Athletics remains one of just a few dozen universities nationwide, and the only institution in Kansas, to operate without use of state tax or university tuition dollars. Direct and indirect university support of athletics was 6.1 percent of the KSA budget in FY10. In FY16 it became zero.