Posted on Fri, May. 02, 2008

UKAA to fund use of plane

NEW BUDGET WILL HELP RECRUITING FOR FOOTBALL, BASKETBALL

By Jerry Tipton

JTIPTON@HERALD-LEADER.COM

The University of Kentucky Athletics Association Board of Directors approved a self-sustaining $67,035,000 budget on Thursday that includes funding for the use of a private plane in recruiting.

In recent years, members Luther Deaton and Bill Gatton lobbied for UK to buy a plane to help football and men's basketball coaches keep pace with competing recruiters. The budget for 2008-009 includes the intermediate step of leasing a private plane.

UK will look to buy between 100 and 150 hours of flight time in the 2008-09 school year, Deputy Director of Athletics Rob Mullens said. The plane will be available to the sports of football, men's basketball and, to a lesser degree, women's basketball.

During a meeting of the UKAA's Finance Committee, Deaton noted how the unreliability of commercial flight can affect recruiting.

"If they're recruiting a hot player and get hung up in Atlanta or Pittsburgh, folks, that's not good," Deaton told Finance Committee members.

Deaton, president of Lexington's Central Bank, and Mullens noted that as many as two-thirds of UK's competing schools in the Southeastern Conference owned their own planes.

While Kentucky will look to lease a plane this coming academic year, UK president Lee Todd adamantly opposed the idea of buying a plane.

"That will not happen," he said in a post-meeting interview. "I don't see it happening under my (tenure)."

Todd noted the potential controversy erupting if UKAA buys a plane in an era of belt tightening and tuition hikes for the university. He also cited the expense of upkeep, insurance, pilots, gasoline, landing fees, hanger space and other costs. The Finance Committee was told that UKAA would have to pay between $2.5 and $5 million to buy a jet.

"I'd much rather rent on an as-needed basis," Todd said before adding, "as long as the Athletics Association has the money to do it and it's not coming out of our general fund dollars."

Todd saw the leasing of a plane as "budget neutral." The cost, which Mullens estimated at about $4,000 per hour, would be partially offset by what UKAA would have paid for commercial flights, hotel rooms and other travel expenses.

Deaton, who recalled seeing UK coaches stuck at airports, said he had no preference over ownership or leasing of private planes.

"As a strong university and as self-sufficient as we are, I think it'll make us more efficient," he said.

In approving the 2008-09 budget, the board learned or was reminded that:

• UKAA is a self-supporting entity that uses no state nor university funds. Its budget accounts for only 3 to 3.5 percent of the university's operating budget.

• UKAA will make its annual $1 million payment to the president's office for scholarships and another payment of about $175,000 to help fund the Singletary Scholars program.

• UKAA sustains 22 sports teams (the largest number of any SEC school) with no better than the seventh-largest budget.

• Rising costs include an expected 11 percent hike in utilities and 9 percent in in-state tuition (6.6 percent for out-of-state tuition).

• Playing one less home football game (from eight to seven) will represent the loss of $1.4 million in ticket revenue.

• UKAA will seek to maintain a 19-game home basketball schedule. That number does not include exhibition games nor the first two rounds in a pre-season "exempt" tournament that UK hopes will be prelude to games in Las Vegas.

• UK will play Indiana in Rupp Arena, and then, presumably, at IU's Assembly Hall the next two seasons. After that, a new contract will need to be negotiated that might return the series to neutral sites (RCA Dome in Indianapolis and Freedom Hall in Louisville).

• Student Activity fees going to UKAA have increased by only $3.50 per student since 1979. But students will pay an additional $2.50 toward the UKAA budget in 2008-09.

• The need to make last-minute adjustments to the 2008 football schedule cost UKAA an additional $800,000. UK had agreed to pay guarantees totalling $400,000 for two Mid-American Conference opponents. When those teams opted out, UK scrambled to find replacements. Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky got guarantees totalling $1.2 million.

• The budget provides $200,000 to upgrade safety rails and asphalt walkways in Commonwealth Stadium, $300,000 for improvements in the tutorial services area and a new sound system for Memorial Coliseum, and $175,000 for decorative graphics in the Joe Craft Center.