Small gains theme of Kunzer-Murphy’s state of the Rebels address

By Taylor Bern

Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2015 | 2 a.m.

UNLV Athletics finished the most recent annual budget with a surplus for the first time in years, and the ongoing plans for an on-campus football practice facility remains the department’s top priority, according to Athletic Director Tina Kunzer-Murphy.

The third-year AD met with local media on Monday afternoon for a state of the department luncheon during which Kunzer-Murphy highlighted the achievements of the past year and detailed what’s in store for the coming year and beyond. One of the main takeaways was that the department reported a $52,000 surplus on its approximately $33 million annual budget, the first time in recent memory that it hasn’t required extra funds from the university to balance the books.

Part of the budget factors in $2.2 million from the university’s central fund and $2.8 million from sponsorship and related revenues from the Thomas & Mack Center, but generally the athletics department has needed additional funds to get out of the red. For the 2014-15 budget, said Darryl Seibel, deputy athletic director for external relations, the Rebels combed through expenses to cut costs wherever possible and managed to get it under control despite spending about $500,000 to get Bobby Hauck out and Tony Sanchez in as UNLV football coach.

And in regards to the facility that has been mentioned alongside Sanchez’s hire since it occurred in December, Kunzer-Murphy said the announcement about breaking ground might be further away than she planned.

“I was hoping that we’d have it before the end of the season, but I’m just not sure,” she said.

The plan has always been to build a one-stop shop for everything the players would need that also showcases the university’s commitment to building the program, much like the Mendenhall Center does for basketball. That’s still the case, but the hiccup has been proving to the community that the university is as invested in the program as boosters are asked to be.

Kunzer-Murphy said UNLV President Len Jessup has been a key figure in the discussions as a way of showing that it’s not just the athletics department but the whole university that’s willing to put work and finances into the future of the football program. Until the exact finances are figured out, though, the project has potentially stalled.

“There’s nothing to report today other than that I think it’s still our No. 1 priority,” Kunzer-Murphy said.

Other notes from the luncheon:

• Men’s and women’s basketball will be the only sports provided full cost of attendance stipends for the 2015-16 season, which went into effect Aug. 1.

During a meeting with the Sun in May, Kunzer-Murphy said she didn’t know how but that football would also be funded this season. That’s no longer the case, and there also won’t be any partial stipends for the nonbasketball sports this season.

The full cost of attendance, which provides money to athletes on top of an athletic scholarship, will cost about $63,000 for women’s basketball and $60,000 for men’s basketball. The financial aid office determines the exact amount for each player and it will vary year to year, but the estimated cost for football was $393,000, and for the entire department it’s about $1.1 million.

The Rebels want to provide the full cost of attendance for all 16 sports starting in the 2016-17 season.

“We have not a plan particularly put in place but we’re moving toward that in order for us to be competitive,” Kunzer-Murphy said.

• There are no stated benchmarks that UNLV basketball coach Dave Rice must achieve in order to keep his job, Kunzer-Murphy said.

After a seventh-place finish in the Mountain West and no postseason for the second straight year, many boosters tried to oust Rice a year after he received a new contract through the 2018-19 season. That didn’t happen and as Rice enters his fifth season with another seemingly deep roster, Kunzer-Murphy said that while no one is satisfied with the results, there are no ultimatums about winning a certain number of games or making it back to the NCAA Tournament to remain as coach.

“I have great expectations for Dave and his staff, and better than that so does Dave,” Kunzer-Murphy said. “We’re going to have a great year.”

She added that the basketball program is in the process of getting a new court, which officials believe would be only the third one used by the team at the Mack. The original is currently the floor in the Cox Pavilion.

UNLV probably won’t procure the court until January, but whenever it debuts it might follow the new Sam Boyd Stadium turf and feature some special Vegas accents.

• Notable achievements in the past year included record years from the men’s soccer, volleyball and women’s golf programs, and it’s also been positive away from the field. In addition to six programs posting perfect single-year APR scores, a school record 56 Rebels were given the Mountain West Scholar-Athlete Award, which requires players to post at least a 3.5 cumulative GPA over a full year while competing in a varsity sport.

There’s also some tangible evidence that #thenewera football marketing is getting results. Following its 2013 run to the Heart of Dallas Bowl, the Rebels sold only 4,038 season tickets for 2014.

It’s a modest gain but already the number for 2015 — featuring a first-year coach whose team is coming off a two-win season — is at 4,129, and on the first day of online-only, single-game ticket availability, the department reached nearly $85,000 in sales.

Taylor Bern can be reached at 948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.