U of A president: Layoffs, ticket-price hikes coming to Athletics Department

There will be employee layoffs in University of Arizona athletics and ticket-price increases for fans, UA President Robert C. Robbins told the Faculty Senate Monday afternoon.

He gave no details about layoffs but said season tickets for basketball and football will increase by 25% and ticket prices in general will go up. He did not specify if he meant only men's basketball but made the comment while talking about how well the men's team, ranked No. 1 in the country as of Monday, is doing.

Robbins also said UA Athletics has taken out loans from the university of about $87 million in recent years. 

No other specifics about Robbins' plans were provided, including when ticket prices would increase, and he and other UA officials have not responded to numerous questions submitted to university spokeswoman Pam Scott by the Arizona Daily Star over the past several weeks about the university's financial plans.

Robbins' remarks Monday came as he has until Dec. 15 to report to the Arizona Board of Regents, which oversees the state's three public universities, how he will deal with a $240 million miscalculation of the UA's predicted cash on hand. On Nov. 2, Robbins and UA CFO Lisa Rulney told the regents that the UA is in a “financial crisis.“

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Administrators originally figured they had 156 days’ worth of cash on hand but are now projecting only 97 for this fiscal year. The UA now significantly lags behind the regents’ requirement of at least 140 days cash on hand, and Robbins has warned “draconian cuts” are coming.

Robbins blamed a financial model he says had been successfully used by UA for a decade but has now been replaced.

“It has become clear that we have over invested and that some colleges and units have overspent,” he told faculty in a Nov. 11 email. “The model produced a significant overestimate because it did not account for the collective accelerations in spending,” he said. But he defended UA’s overall “significant investments in key areas that advance our strategic plan.”

In a Nov. 22 email to faculty, Robbins wrote: “No decisions about any budget cuts” had been made, although he did commit to not imposing furloughs or cutting retiree benefits. He said, “new budget controls must be implemented to prevent deficit spending in the future.”