Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Less than 48 hours after the conclusion of Florida's 2018-19 athletic season at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, the University Athletic Association Board met Monday morning to approve the budget for the upcoming year.
 
The UAA Board of Directors passed an operating budget proposal of $140.9 million for the 2019-20 calendar year, a 3.9 percent increase over the previous year.
 
Gators Athletic Director Scott Stricklin, after months of internal planning to finalize the UAA's operating budget, is confident the organization is on solid ground in the ever-changing landscape of college athletics.
 
"It's going to continue to support our student-athletes at a high level,'' Stricklin said.
 
The UAA's budget process is committed to only budgeted expenses that are covered by revenues and contributions and does not depend on funds from the state of Florida.
 
The average annual cost of the UF experience for a scholarship student-athlete is $68,438 annually, an amount that consists primarily of the cost of the scholarship (44 percent), travel (31 percent), sports medicine and health (13 percent), academic support (7 percent) and equipment (5 percent).
 
The Gators are facing the same challenges of elite programs around the country when it comes to revenue from ticket sales contributing to the operation budget. Ticket sales across college football have plateaued in recent years and Southeastern Conference revenue streams from multi-media and television rights deals have reached full maturity and leveled off.  
 
Football (59 percent) and men's basketball (8 percent) continue to be the primary sources of revenue for the UAA's athletic programs, and royalties and sponsorships (25 percent) generate a significant chunk of the $140,966,000 budget for the upcoming year as well.
 
Meanwhile, the UAA continues to move forward in healthy fashion in completing over $130 million in facility projects. Construction on a new baseball stadium is underway and Gator Boosters had had one of its most successful fundraising years to date in generating contributions to build a new stand-alone football facility. Construction on the football facility is scheduled to start in June 2020 following the final season for the UF baseball team at McKethan Stadium, the site where the football facility will be built.