Cost-Savings Measures

A number of member coaches have submitted to the WBCA measures being put in place by their institutions or by themselves in their programs to reduce expenditures as they cope with the budgetary impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The WBCA is publishing these cost-savings measures here in no particular order for your reference. Redundancies may exist if more than one coach has submitted the same cost-cutting measure. Please submit any additional ideas you or your institution have either by emailing them to jwatford@wbca.org or by submitting them in the comments section below so they may be shared with the membership.

  • Regional travel for scheduling non-conference. Try for no plane trips unless a guarantee.
  • Bus day-of for away games under 2.5 to 3 hours
  • Home game pregame meals done in dining hall (find separate room). Let SAs use their meal plan.  Might actually help with student fan support if they see the team visible pregame.
  • Reduce the high-end meals on the road and preseason
  • No hotels the night before a home game.
  • Consider DOBO position go 10 months.
  • Any other full-time staff that can go 10 months? Video staff? Can any staff positions be merged with one from another team?
  • No foreign tours for 2020 and 2021.
  • No new uniforms unless part of free promotional from apparel company. Just have one home and one away set.
  • Reduce amount of apparel for team and staff.
  • Any game that has been used in the past to raise money for another cause, should be used to raise money for the athletic department. Ok to do awareness or education at games. but any fundraising should be for the department.
  • Only have part of cell phone paid for if using same for work and personal.  If university has cell phone contract—it might just be cheaper to keep it all as is.
  • Professional development may be cut but several (mid-majors) see membership in associations and organization as a support and not that big of an expense.  The overall savings to a department is pennies.
  • Many will give coaches a budget number and tell them to make the reductions in the areas they see fit (suggestions for areas above).
  • Very hard to make a decision about recruiting at tourneys and AAU events.  We just don’t know enough in order to make informed decisions and those decisions should be based on local health officials. 
  • No foreign trips this summer. 
  • No July recruiting.
  • A three day evaluation weekend at the end of August and one in September. 
  • Cancel all exhibition games and closed scrimmages for 2020-21 season. 
  • Get ALL NCAA Division I schools to agree to only pay regular entry fees (same as for parents & siblings and DI coaches) for  the 2021 AAU season. 
  • Virtual home visits only for 2020-21 academic year.  
  • No meal at postseason banquet, awards only in afternoon.
  • No meals in the hotel on road trips, pick up food from restaurants or have it delivered to the hotel. By eliminating the film room rental and extra costs associated with hotel food (gratuity), you can save several hundred dollars per stay.
  • Vans versus busses for day trips, commercial planes versus charter. Have bus companies submit bids for your business.
  • Continue to use online platforms for home visits instead of visiting players in person.
  • Cut back on recruiting services. 
  • Cut back on recruiting trips. Attempt to see more tournaments and multi-team events, schedule as many recruiting opportunities as you can within the same trip (watch a practice the same day as a game).
  • Order uniforms every other year.
  • Speak to your AD about eliminating or freezing your any raises or bonus you may receive for a year.
  • Bus one or two more games instead of charter.
  • Eliminate video coordinating position.
  • Eliminate meals night before games.
  • Cut cost of pregame meals. 
  • Lower recruiting budget $5,000 to $10,000.
  • Unfortunately our administration is already discussing cutting professional development.  We can attend but pay for it ourselves.
  • University hiring freeze — no positions can be posted or filled until further notice.  
  • All faculty and staff merit increases for the upcoming fiscal year (starting July 1) have been cut and there will be no increase to salaries related to promotions until further notice.
  • We cannot utilize any temporary or on-call positions until notified (ushers, parking services, etc.).
  • Technology freeze — no technology can be purchased until further notice.
  • Spending is limited to essential items only.  Unless it is needed right now, we should not be purchasing.
  • Several university projects, including new facilities, renovations, infrastructure improvements, are now postponed.
  • No travel until further notice for anyone associated with the university unless it is deemed essential (nothing is essential for athletic department right now).
  • Travel is expected to be reduced drastically moving forward across the university:
    • Athletic teams have been asked to look at their competition schedules and change games schedules to more regional games if at all possible — some are choosing to cut competitions completely.
    • We expect conversations at the conference levels to help identify opportunities to reduce/combine travel.
    • Additional trips (foreign tours, academic break training trips) are all in jeopardy.
    • Study abroad is cancelled for both the summer and fall terms.
    • Athletic teams/departments were all required to cut 10% of their FY21 budgets and have to plan for an additional 10% cut as it may be needed (the longer this draws out).  This was up to the teams to decide how to find the money.  Some ideas included:  cutting training trips, minimizing travel parties, moving from charter to commercial flights, moving from commercial flights to bus trips, cutting some equipment needs (not replacing as planned), minimizing student-managers/workers for the year ahead and changing some marketing events (more virtual as opposed to in-person) if possible.
  • Additional cuts seem to keep coming every couple of weeks.  At this time, the university is committed to keeping as many people employed as possible.  The length and effect (students not able to return in fall) may change this though.
  • No international tournaments this season to save on visas, flights, etc.  (Bahamas, Virgin Islands, etc.)
  • No summer recruiting that costs money (that way if things open up, unofficial visits could actually happen in summer).
  • No in person home visits this year in the fall (virtual only).
  • Maybe reduce official visits to one night? 36 hours?