Iowa State Athletic Director Jamie Pollard wrote an open letter to Iowa State Athletics supporters on Wednesday announcing some financial changes made within the department in response to COVID19. Coaches and staff will be taking a pay cut and bonuses and incentives for coaches will be eliminated for one year to save the department around 4 million dollars. Some other price freezes will take place on tickets and donation requirements in an effort to help fans that are being economically impacted as well. Pollard said they wanted to be proactive in dealing with a revenue shortfall that will occur with less money from the NCAA due to cancellation of postseason basketball tournaments. A portion of the letter is below.

“We hosted several virtual meetings with our coaches and staff this week and shared a collective game plan that is strategic, proactive and transparent. The goal was to develop a strategy that established a foundation to be successful over the long-term, while recognizing that many of you (ticket holders, donors, sponsors, etc.) are being negatively impacted by the economic fall-out of COVID-19.

We are implementing these initiatives:

1. A one-year, temporary pay reduction for athletics department coaches and certain staff. This comprehensive plan will reduce total payroll by more than $3M.

2. A one-year, temporary suspension of all bonuses/incentives for all coaches. This decision will save the department $1M.

3. Delaying (from January 2021 to January 2022) a previously announced increase in Cyclone Club annual giving levels. The delay will save donors approximately $2.5M for required seating donations.

4. A freeze on season / individual game ticket prices for all sports.

5. An extension to the deadline for this year’s Cyclone Club donations and football season ticket renewals to May 29, 2020.

6. Providing multiple payment options for season tickets and donations. Those required payments can be made monthly, quarterly or semi-annually.

These actions will help us address the $5M shortfall that we face with the cancellation of the NCAA and Big 12 Men’s Basketball Tournaments. We can now turn our attention to solving many other issues in the coming months.  It was also important to us to provide our loyal ticket holders and donors some relief in regards to ticket prices and donations.

Although we could have passed on implementing these difficult decisions today and simply hoped for things to improve, we felt it was wise to act now.”