Before the naysayers from a couple of the schools here in Florida claims backdoor deals and strongarming by Brogan, read the bold and italicized quote from a member. Now I'm am not a math major by any stretch of the imagination. I need a calculator to count to 11, but I thought that the $6.25mil deficit seemed a bit high. Considering we've only been playing 3 full years in DIVISION 1-AA when most of the damage was apparently inflicted.



ARTICLE:


Brogan arranges deal to cut FAU athletics debt by millions
The debt stemming from the football team's creation will be slashed by $4.25 million.
By Kimberly Miller

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

A majority of the debt owed by FAU's athletic department was wiped out after President Frank Brogan brokered a deal with the school's foundation to forgive millions of dollars it thought it was owed.

Brogan said he worked more than a year to untangle the "who did what to whom" when it came to loans or gifts from the foundation to create Florida Atlantic University's football team. What he eventually recommended, and what was accepted by the foundation's executive board, reduces the athletic department's total debt from an estimated $6.25 million to about $2 million.


"The decision to start football was made with little to no business plan or money in the bank," said Brogan, who set up a March 29 workshop to further discuss the athletic department budget. "We've been trying to separate fact from fiction and re-create decisions that were made as long as five or six years ago."

In January, FAU trustees were told the athletic department carried a debt of $1.75 million owed to the university because of a lack of ticket sales, low student athletic fees, and fund-raising efforts that brought in just $179,085 of $2.1 million expected in private donations.

On top of that was an estimated $4.5 million owed to the university's foundation, which said it had been borrowed by the athletic department on a no-interest loan basis over a period of seven years.

But Brogan said the particulars of that debt were hard to trace and involved tracking down poorly kept archives and following a sketchy paper trail. With the information he could find, he assembled the following plan:

? The foundation will continue to pay off a loan it took out to pay for the Oxley Center. Although Tom Oxley donated $4 million for the building, it actually cost $8 million. To finish construction of the athletic training facility, the foundation got a loan, which it refinanced in 2002. Brogan said there is $4.8 million left on the loan, which will be paid off by 2012.

? About $1.49 million in foundation money transferred since 2002 to the athletics department to pay for operating expenses will be considered a gift and does not have to be repaid by the department.

? The department will have to repay an $800,000 foundation loan made in 2002 to cover operational costs.

Brogan said the foundation accepted his plan, but was not entirely happy with it.

"The members of the foundation executive committee were upset with decisions made some time ago that left them in this position," Brogan said. "They are supportive of the football program, but they are not supportive of having to inherit this debt."

FAU math professor and former trustee Fred Hoffman said he supports Brogan's plan, but is disappointed that the foundation could be paying out dollars in assuming debt from the athletic department that could have been used for student scholarships.

"Obviously I would prefer money go there instead of to pay for mistakes that were made in the past," Hoffman said. "This should not have happened, but now it's a question of how best to solve the problem."

The foundation has struggled to recover credibility following the 2003 revelation that it provided former FAU President Anthony Catanese $42,000 for a new Corvette. A subsequent audit found a series of record-keeping problems and instances in which accounting errors inflated the amount raised by the foundation's capital campaign.

Foundation Chairman Armand Grossman said Brogan's characterization of the foundation's response to the plan is true, but also said it was "happy to help out and looking to the future."

Last year, Brogan named former Brown Medical School Dean Ann Paton to oversee the FAU Foundation as the vice president for university advancement.

He also ended the practice of the foundation giving or loaning money to the athletic department to pay for operational expenses.

FAU trustee Chairman Sherry Plymale said she was surprised at the debt owed to the foundation and isn't sure where the original estimate of $4.5 million came from.

"There was just no documentation," Plymale said.

The March 29 workshop will focus on how the university will make up the athletic department's debt this year from its auxiliary budgets and figure out ways to create a balanced spending plan in the future.

Brogan said he hopes to increase ticket sales next year and obtain more private and corporate donations. He also plans to sell naming rights for areas within Oxley Center such as the founder's lounge.

"They will create a balanced budget," Brogan said about the athletic department. "Some previous decisions were made through rose-colored glasses."

Good move on his part, he had to show that something was being done, especially considering how everything seemed to have been handled in the past, reminds me of how a small pop & mom shop would operate :P
Ever sense Brogan has taken office he has been working hard to bring sense into this mess and who knows just how bad it was, but things have to be righted somehow and given a fresh start. Lets hope that this help clear the air and the Foundation can start getting it's credibility back, which they have been working very hard to do - fresh people, fresh ideas.
Lets move forwrd and get the ball rolling & the stadium built. lol.

I got a call from the ALumni association asking to sponsor a student athelte and I grilled the guy about the stadium. He said its ready to roll as soon as they get a sponsor.

A sponser as in someone to fork out 40 mil? or do they have some of the money and are looking for some more.

Hey Jdirico did Sally Struthers call you today?

"For just the price of a cup of coffee a day you can keep Danny Embick fed and uniformed!"

What is involved in sposoring a student athlete? Or is that what the boosters call buying them a car? Wasn't Maurice Clarette "sponsored" his freshman year at Ohio St?

i think it was for a scholarship money. they told me I can travel with the team and things like that. I told them I would donate when they annouce the stadium and maybe a few hundred a year, i think that got me stuck with the cross-country team.

I told them I would donate when they annouce the stadium and maybe a few hundred a year, i think that got me stuck with the cross-country team.

You get what you pay for..LOL!!!!!! ;D ;D ;D ;D