Club sports face budget cuts

Club sports leaders deal with the repercussions of less ASG funding

ABIGAIL CAVIZO / NEWS EDITOR / THE USD VISTA

Coming out of lockdown and returning to the “new normal” of open businesses, relaxed mask mandates and open travel, inflation has become the latest factor to impact business expenditures. Due to increased demands of certain goods and services, this inflation caused the prices to rise. In the USD community,  the Associated Student Government (ASG) lowered their budget allocation for club sports due to the burden of inflation, and club sports are taking a hit.

The revenue for sports clubs comes from three different outlets: membership dues (paid by the students), ASG allocations and fundraising. Since most club sports members do not want membership dues to be raised, sports clubs are advised by Campus Recreation to rely more on fundraising than they have in previous years. Most clubs have kept their dues low in the past, but lately they are off-setting the cost of inflation by putting additional pressure on their members to fundraise. 

Alec Parks, Business Services Supervisor of  Campus  Recreation, explained that increased participation from the students, as well as increased demands for new club sports teams, also plays a role in the ASG allocation cut. 

“Inflation is more of an issue than the ASG side of things; we received roughly a 20% cut across the board from ASG,” Parks said. “From an administrative side, we’re excited about this because it’s also due to increased participation, with increased club sports on campus.”

Although Parks is excited for the increased student participation, it’s important to note that the sports clubs’ budget is 15% of ASG funds, which is the maximum amount ASG is allowed to provide. A 20% cut of 15% of the total budget would not normally be an issue; however, combating inflation alongside the ASG budget cuts creates additional financial burden. 

The sports clubs’ process for figuring out budgeting for the year is managed by a minimum of three student leaders: a general manager, a finance manager and a risk manager. In April 2022, the then-leaders met with the 2022-2023 school year leaders to develop the budget for the year. Since the ASG allocation was not yet available, they drafted an allocation for these funds based on the data from the previous years. From mid-April to mid-May, all six student leaders from each team met with Campus Recreation for advice about their prospective budgets. After talking with Campus Recreation, these are considered “budget drafts” before the final budget is set. ASG allocations are given out in approximately early-mid June, and the final budget is due Sept. 15. Shortly after the school year began, Campus Recreation gave a workshop on budgeting to these leaders, allowing them to make further edits, if necessary. 

Although there’s a timeline for budgeting, Parks wants the students to know he is a resource to come to, if they ever need help with additional monetary needs.

“The budgets are never locked; they’re very much live, working documents,” Parks said. “If someone has concerns about funding, they can always come to sit with me, and we can look at options about increasing revenue or look at fundraising.”

Additionally, ASG funds can cover anything outside of staffing for the team, but Parks advised clubs to take out gas reimbursements for traveling from their ASG budget request due to high gas prices. 

USD junior and captain of the Men’s Volleyball Club Team, Cameron Lynch, had to make difficult decisions in regards to travel for his team. 

“Some things we cut down on includes us having less money for travel and less money for tournaments, with most of our tournaments located in the Irvine area or San Marcos,” Lynch said. “It’s a bummer because we’re going to have to reconsider how much we have to travel and not everyone can, so we’re probably going to have to create a travel team with less of our boys, due to financial restraints.”

For fundraising, Parks is a resource that club sports teams can utilize. He recommends at least one change-funding campaign per year, which draws in a more wealthy crowd to donate. Another event that all club sports are encouraged to participate in is “Torero Tuesday,” a benefit in which every club sports team can campaign for more money. Alumni, parents and friends get together to help raise money for the different club sports, including sports-related scholarships. 

Although he does not blame anyone for the financial situation, Lynch expressed that ASG should have communicated their vote faster. 

“I’m sure ASG is facing financial restraints as well, because of inflation, so I understand that, but I do wish they’d given us more time for considering our budget,” Lynch said. 

On July 22, every club sports team received an email from Parks, explaining that the budget cuts are due to inflation. ASG had previously made the vote to cut club sports funding on May 12. 

The PR Chair of ASG, Kayley Norman, spoke on behalf of ASG’s decision.

“Due to a smaller budget and increasing requests for this academic year compared to last year, we unfortunately had to make cuts across the board for ASG Budget allocations,” Norman said. “The budget for this year was unanimously passed by the ASG Senate last May.”

While cost-efficiency is a difficult issue to handle in times of inflation, the primary goal for all parties involved is to give the students a chance to participate in club sports activities. Regardless of potential cuts,  students will still have the opportunity to take advantage of club sports, even with the increased pressure to fundraise as a team for the extra funds.