Athletic department takes a closer look at security, staffing expenses
Athletics will work with MUPD to cut spending next football season.
Published Jan. 23, 2009
As UM system President Gary Forsee calls for MU to cut back its spending, the athletic department is trying to evaluate its budget for security and event staffing for the upcoming 2009 football season.
"That's something that the athletic department has looked at every year," Director of Game Operations Colleen Lamond said.
MU Police Department Capt. Brian Weimer said MUPD works with the athletic department to not only determine the security numbers needed for the event, but also to determine the size of other staffing needed, for jobs such as controlling traffic flow.
"For instance, football and basketball games, we participate in the game operations meetings which have not only our department but many other groups," Weimer said. "With that lies the highway patrol, the county, the city and various other groups who assist with game operations."
Lamond said the Big 12 Conference mandates the locations of uniformed officers required at the event and at football and men's and women's basketball games, making those positions inflexible.
"Above and beyond the mandatory locations, we'll obviously have to take a look at our numbers, working in conjunction with MUPD, who is our liaison between the other entities that assist us on football game day," Lamond said.
Weimer said game operational meetings are still happening for the basketball season to determine the amount of security needed for each event.
MUPD has a system that determines the rate each officer is paid for working an event. Crowd size and previous events are taken into account when determining the amount of officers needed.
"For every event, not just athletics, the information will come into our major, who's over at special operations," Weimer said. "That group is billed at the hourly rate which is posted on our Web site." According to MUPD's Web site, the rate for each officer and supplemental personnel services is $45 per hour, for a security officer is $35 per hour and for a campus safety officer is $20 per hour.
Lamond said these fees are included in the predicted game expenses. Right now, there won't be any cuts for MUPD, but that will be evaluated as officials plan for the 2009 football season.
"We'll have to look at our numbers," Lamond said. "Obviously to run a 70,000-plus event, there's certain numbers of police officers that are necessary to make such an event safe for the fan that's attending that."
Lamond said customer service will also be taken into account, and the athletic department will look for ways to cut back on event staffing such as ticket takers and those who assist on the event level, on the floor or field.
"When we get into the 2009 football season, that's something we will take a look at, but as our numbers increase with our fans, we have to be able to accommodate them," Lamond said. "We have to be able to provide our high customer service that we're reputable for."
These decisions are part of the campus-wide call to cut back on spending.
Although the athletic department evaluates its expenses on a regular basis, this year, it will look for more ways to spend less.
"We've never over-staffed, obviously, because we're always looking at our budget, but in regards to cutting back, that's something that we will look into specifically for football for our numbers and where we can cut back," Lamond said.