{"id":431899,"date":"2026-01-27T02:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T02:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/431899\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T02:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T02:21:08","slug":"rutgers-athletics-hits-record-78-million-deficit-new-ad-says-its-got-to-get-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/431899\/","title":{"rendered":"Rutgers athletics hits record $78 million deficit. New AD says \u2018It\u2019s got to get better.\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keli Zinn<\/a> was hired as the Rutgers<\/a> University<\/a> athletics director on July 30, about a month after the school\u2019s fiscal year ended. She understood going into the job that Rutgers\u2019 financial struggles have been intensely scrutinized for decades.<\/p>\n

After taking over, Zinn quickly dug in and studied the school\u2019s athletics ledger herself.<\/p>\n

Her initial impression?<\/p>\n

\u201cRegardless how we slice this thing, it\u2019s got to get better,\u201d Zinn said. <\/p>\n

That sentiment remains true, with Rutgers\u2019 latest athletics financial report showing its deficit topped $70 million for the third time in five years in 2024-25 after the state university spent a record $193.8 million, documents show. <\/p>\n

NJ Advance Media obtained Rutgers\u2019 latest fiscal year report, which covers the 2024-25 academic year, through an Open Public Records Act request.<\/p>\n

The report shows $146.6 million in total operating revenues, thanks to a record $61.3 million from the Big Ten for its media rights and $10.7 million from the conference as its share of the league\u2019s Football Bowl revenue fund.<\/p>\n

Those gains were offset by an 8.7% increase in Rutgers\u2019 sports spending from the previous year. The highest expenditures included $46.1 million in coaching salaries, $31 million in support staff and administrator salaries, $23.1 million in scholarship aid, $14.4 million in facilities debt, $13.5 million in team travel and $8.4 million in student-athlete meals. <\/p>\n

The ledger shows a $47.2 million shortfall. When added to the $7 million subsidized from the school\u2019s general budget, $8 million from the state budget and $15.8 million in student fees, the department\u2019s deficit reached a record $78 million.<\/p>\n

It brings Rutgers\u2019 athletics deficit to $516.9 million since joining the Big Ten in 2014-15.<\/p>\n

Rutgers\u2019 expenditures have increased nearly 175% over its first 11 years in the Big Ten, a review of the school\u2019s annual financial reports shows. <\/p>\n

YearTotal Expenditures2014-15$70,558,9352015-16$83,974,1592016-17$99,193,2802017-18$102,518,4862018-19$103,167,3442019-20$114,203,9812020-21$118,394,4742021-22$138,439,0772022-23$153,523,7672023-24$178,263,1812024-25$193,831,838<\/p>\n

Rutgers\u2019 $193,831,838 total expenditures was 3.7% of the university\u2019s $5.28 billion budget in 2024-25, documents show. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou could make the argument that we do not have an expense problem,\u201d Zinn said. \u201dBut we do in fact have a revenue problem and a pretty significant one.”<\/p>\n

Zinn has spent her first six months as athletic director trying to improve Rutgers\u2019 fortunes on the playing surfaces, most notably by increasing the school\u2019s funding for Name, Image and Likeness opportunities to entice and retain top tier athletes. <\/p>\n

However, Rutgers\u2019 latest financial report doesn\u2019t include a $20.5 million NIL expenditure that the athletics department will be on the hook for during the current 2025-26 campaign. <\/p>\n

\u201cObviously our expenses have exceeded and outpaced our revenue and in some cases year over year to a pretty significant degree,\u201d Zinn said. \u201cThat\u2019s a piece that we will spend quite a bit of time on, understanding that the current fiscal year that we sit in there was a $20.5 million expense with the revenue sharing (for athletes) and the additional scholarship support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because of those additions, Zinn expects 2025-26 spending to exceed $200 million. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think what you\u2019ll see a year from now is that\u2019s going to be our worst year looking at a profit and loss scenario,\u201d Zinn said. \u201cBut you\u2019ll see some level of improvement that\u2019s expected in that \u201826-\u201827 year and then by \u201927-\u201928, based upon the current projections we have, in some growth categories and opportunities with revenue, I\u2019m hopeful you\u2019ll actually see (the deficit) start to decline.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RutgersThe scene at an empty SHI Stadium after a news conference to introduce the Scarlet Knights\u2019 new athletic director, Keli Zinn, Wednesday, July 30, 2025, in Piscataway, N.J.Andrew Mills | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com<\/p>\n

In a wide-ranging interview, Zinn told NJ Advance Media she was taken aback by the department\u2019s recent struggles in some key revenue areas. <\/p>\n

For instance, football ticket sales were flat from the 2023 to 2024 seasons, slightly decreasing to $9.248 million from $9.242 million. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason it jumped out to me surrounded the performance to the team,\u201d Zinn said. \u201dWhen you look at it, coming off of two winning seasons, to not see an uptick in that category indicated that we needed to take a closer look at it. What I am pleased to share is we actually did see growth in that category with an additional $1.3 million in single ticket sales here for the past season.”<\/p>\n

Rutgers football spent a record amount in 2024-25, totaling $76 million after a $64.4 million tally the year prior. Key expenditures included $17 million in coaching salaries, $11.1 million in support-staff salaries, $4.5 million in student-athlete meals and a $2 million recruiting budget. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s high based upon what you\u2019re seeing us pulling in from a revenue standpoint with football,\u201d Zinn said.<\/p>\n

However, Zinn added that the salary totals on the NCAA fiscal year report don\u2019t reflect the actual salaries paid to employees because fringe benefits are factored into the totals. Fringe rate is the percentage added to an employee\u2019s base salary representing health care and retirement benefits, and payroll taxes. Rutgers\u2019 fringe rate \u2014 72.9% in FY2025 \u2014 is dictated by the state of New Jersey and is believed to be the highest of any Big Ten school.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you run the numbers, it\u2019s millions year over year that then adds to an expense for us, which to a certain degree is uncontrollable,\u201d Zinn said. <\/p>\n

A bigger area of concern, she said, was a nearly $6 million decline in the column that combines royalties, licensing, advertisement and sponsorship sales. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think you\u2019ll see a good level of growth in that category in the years ahead\u201a” Zinn said. \u201cThat\u2019s a combination of inventory we already have available to sell that has not been sold. And then certainly when you layer that in with some brand and marketing strategy that\u2019s attractive to corporations and companies, all that comes together to create a much better picture there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week, the NCAA approved a proposal that will permit Division I sports programs to place additional commercial logos or patches on uniforms beginning next season. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re already having good conversations with some folks about that alone,\u201d Zinn said. <\/p>\n

Her biggest focus includes boosting the Scarlet Knights\u2019 fundraising efforts in the years ahead. Rutgers\u2019 contributions decreased in 2024-25, going from $8.5 million to $8.1 million. That pales in comparison to Rutgers\u2019 competition, with Big Ten schools averaging $39.2 million in contributions in FY2024, an NJ Advance Media analysis showed. <\/p>\n

Zinn said her priorities from a facilities standpoint would be to study ways to build club level and premium seating options for both SHI Stadium and Jersey Mike\u2019s Arena. <\/p>\n

\u201cI understand why it wasn\u2019t done in the past \u2014 it\u2019s expensive to put forth brick and mortar,” Zinn said. \u201dBut you have to wonder a little bit looking at the past 10 years, for example, if that existed and you had the opportunity to bring on a multi-million dollar revenue stream year over year, you would start to find yourself in a place where you pick up a category of revenue growth that exceeds your expenses. The absence of that infrastructure has certainly been an issue for us historically and it will continue to be an issue for us if we don\u2019t address that.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keli Zinn was hired as the Rutgers University athletics director on July 30, about a month after the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-431899","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}