Winning comes at a price at Florida A&M.

After enjoying football and cross country championships during this fiscal year, FAMU Vice President and Director of Athletics Tiffani-Dawn Sykes reported to the university’s Board of Trustees last December that the athletics department is in an $817,000 budgetary deficit.

The university’s fiscal year runs from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024.

During an emergency FAMU Board of Trustees meeting on Jan. 16, trustee Kelvin Lawson requested Sykes to present a one-page athletics action plan to the board by Jan. 22 detailing financial steps to address the shortfall.

The board's next scheduled meeting is Monday, Feb. 5. The agenda includes an athletics budget update.

Obtained by the Tallahassee Democrat, Sykes said in her letter to the BOT that in collaboration with the university leadership and their respective teams, the group had formulated a five-step plan to address the budget gap.

Sykes believes the athletics department can end the fiscal year with a balanced budget or small surplus.

The letter included a graph that showed revenue and expense categories/descriptions.

Sykes, whose tenure at FAMU began in January 2023, reported that FAMU Athletics’ Fiscal Year End (FYE) revenue projections are at $11.9 million, or 5% greater than budgeted.

Sykes said various revenue categories exceeded projections, such as season tickets, Investing in Champions packages, and gameday parking. Student fees represent the program’s most significant revenue driver at $4.2 million.

However, Sykes stated that the projected cost to operate athletics by fiscal year’s end is $12.8 million.

The three greatest expenses are operating expenses ($4.8 million), salaries ($4 million) and scholarships ($2.5 million).

In the letter to the BOT, Sykes said that FAMU’s recent athletics success plays a role in exceeding the budget.

The Rattlers have won Southwestern Athletic Conference championships in cross country and football last fall. The FAMU football team won the Celebration Bowl last December to capture the Black College Football National Championship.

FAMU tennis and baseball also won SWAC Championships and represented the conference in the NCAA Tournament last spring. Both teams expect to replicate similar success this season, which falls into the 2023-2024 fiscal year.

FAMU operates 13 sports (eight women, five men).

Sykes and FAMU administration, including President Larry Robinson, Finance and Administration, University Advancement, and their respective teams, have formulated a five-step plan to circumvent the possible outstanding expenses:

• Focus efforts to realize and book earned revenues.

• Have met obligations to pay NCAA penalties of $75K through the Athletics foundation account.

• Ensuring expense control through the end of the fiscal year and maintain this approach to live within our budget in future years.

• Efforts with University Advancement have identified $900K in funds that can be used to buy down athletics scholarships expenses to help cover athletics operating expenses.

• In the process of implementing the Board of Governor-allowed out-of-state student-athlete fee waivers. This process is expected to realize at least an additional $660K and can anticipated scholarship expenses.

In her letter to the Board of Trustees, Sykes said, “Collectively, these efforts are expected to bring the fiscal-year end athletics revenues and expenses into alignment such that we end with a balanced budget or small surplus for FY2023-2024.”

FAMU football ranked No. 5 in 2023 Football Championship Subdivision regular season home game attendance at 17,616 fans per game. That number was up from 14,418 in 2022.

The Rattlers also hosted a postseason game for the first time since 1998 as they played Prairie View A&M for the SWAC Championship Dec. 2 at Bragg Memorial Stadium. Tickets sold out, but rain impacted attendance in FAMU’s 35-14 win before a crowd of 14,628.

FAMU football attendance helped exceed its $12,000 budget by accruing $64,408 during the five-game home slate.

Alongside hosting the SWAC title game, Bragg hosted all nine Florida High School Athletic Association state championship football games from Dec. 7-Dec. 9, 2023. A week later, FAMU competed in and won the Celebration Bowl over Howard.

FAMU is scheduled to earn $1,250,000 in revenue for the SWAC and FHSAA championships and Celebration Bowl participation. The program has recognized $431,470 but projects $1,250,000 by the end of the fiscal year.

FAMU has used 99 percent of its $3,852,073 salary budget, paying $3,812,240, and is expected to increase to $4,071,508 by June 30.

FAMU has only used 57 percent of its $2,500,000 scholarship money thus far but expects to reach the threshold by the end of the fiscal year.

Gerald Thomas, III covers Florida A&M University Athletics for the Tallahassee Democrat. Contact him via email at gdthomas@tallahassee.com or on the app formerly known as Twitter @3peatgee.

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FAMU Athletics: AD Sykes sets plan to end fiscal year with balanced budget