There has been a lot of what I believe are sincere concerns on this board regarding the USM athletic budget situation making it obvious that maybe we need to be sure it is in the proper context.

First, several years ago the USM administration encouraged the city of Hattiesburg to approve a bond issue aiding in the construction of a huge multi use athletic complex in addition to upgrading present facilities. The university, in return, would retain outright ownership of the facilities but make them available to the citizens of the entire area, especially local schools and recreational clubs. The tax called for one percent of food purchases at restaurants and one dollar per night per motel room, most all of which would be paid by visitors and out of towners. The local citizens, for which I wont provide an my opinion, voted it down.

Therefore, USM initiated a bold plan on its own, paid for entirely by alumni, friends, and all supporters of the university. This resulted in just under $70,000,000 collected and spent on the needed facilities in LESS than ten years and as you can imagine really squeezed the financial blood of the fans. This money WAS NOT funneled through nor made a part of the annual athletic budget since it applied to facility upgrades rather than annually recurring athletic expenses.

Attention to the facility side resulted in less than what would normally be contributed to the annual operating budget therefore the athletic department ACCUMULATED a loss of about $1.2mil over past few years, the state doesnt allow USM, Ole Ms, or Ms State to use taxpayer funds to cover athletics.[/size] General Hammond proceeded to erase that by scheduling the Arkansas away game next year at which time we would have been in the black and with the heavy hitters recovering from the drawn out needs on the facility side and again chipping in on operating then we would have been good to go.

Didnt happen that way though due to coaching buy out situation of over $2.2 mil which was absolutely necessary in order to salvage our program. The heavy hitters would have held their noses and covered the buyout if there had been absolutely NO OTHER ALTERNATIVE. There was, however, another solution which was moving the Nebraska game to their home stadium and that on its own will cover the costs.

In summary, the Nebraska and Arkansas games next year will erase the deficit and pay off the departing coaches leaving us clear for the following years. Thanks for your concern but we will make it alright now the slate will be clean and funds can be diverted back to annual operating expenses rather than building suites, etc.