Nov. 28, 2000

LARAMIE, Wyo. (AP) - Wyoming's 1-10 season on the gridiron should not have a negative impact on the overall athletic budget, Athletics Director Lee Moon said.

"There's a lot of other things that impact the budget, like the TV package in the conference you're in," Moon said. "...When we set our budgets, we didn't budget as much from football revenue."

Moon said the operating budget for football this season is slightly more than $1 million, which includes 80 players' scholarships.

He expects to lose money on football this season when the final tabulations are registered.

But he said the impact will be minimal because of safeguards taken before the season.

"We'll lose less money in football this year than we did last year," Moon said. "Last year, we thought we had better (home) games, and when we had to move some of them to night games it cost us a ton of money that we had budgeted.

"This year, we didn't budget as much. We'll still lose, but it won't be as much."

In the 1999 season, UW played host to Mountain West Conference rivals Colorado State and Brigham Young. Both games were shown on television and both kicked off at night, severely limiting attendance and concession sales.

"Last year I didn't know how TV would affect our gates, we'd never had enough night games, and now I do," he said. "So, now I don't budget as much, and we budget low enough that we haven't lost any money from the overall budget. We've found other ways to develop new revenue streams."

The Mountain West Conference's TV package increased $200,000 for each member school this year. All eight programs now collect just more than $1 million per year in football and men's basketball TV rights.

The lucrative TV package creates a Catch 22 situation for smaller programs like UW, according to Moon.

"The good news is we probably won't be perceived as having a contender for the conference championship next year," Moon said before catching himself. "It's good in the fact that by us not being picked (for TV coverage) we probably won't have as many games at night, which is good for my budget.

"What's good in one respect may not be as good in another respect."

Still, Moon is curious to see how many fans turn out for the Cowboys' Sept. 6, 2001, home game against national power Texas A&M. He said ESPN2 is expected to air the game nationally, beginning at 8 p.m.

The Aggies are expected to bring a large following of fans to Laramie.

Moon figures the Cowboys will have at least two other games on TV next season: home dates against CSU and BYU. There is no minimum number of games for each conference member, but no one team is allowed more than a total of six showings on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Regional or ABC.

"I figure we'll have a couple of road games on SportsWest, too, so we'll probably have five or six total," he said.

Moon's new revenue producers include video screen scoreboards in football's War Memorial Stadium and basketball's Arena-Auditorium. He said each will generate significant sponsorship revenue in the coming years. The basketball arena also has additional scoreboards on the playing court wall that carry sponsors' logos.

"We're going to make a little this year, then we're going to make a lot next year," he said. "I don't know how much. Once we find out what our bills are, then I'll know."

Fund-raising efforts by the athletic department and the Cowboy Joe Club continue to climb, he said. Last year, the booster club surpassed the $1 million mark for the first time.

Also last year, Moon and his staff raised $9.5 million in private donations to construct the Rochelle Athletics Center for student-athletes. The center will have improved weight and locker rooms and study centers, among other things.

This past spring, the U.S. Office of Civil Rights said UW was fully compliant with the federal mandate that requires equal opportunities for female athletes.

Asked if he was bothered by not winning any conference titles since he arrived at UW in July 1996, Moon said, "No, because I see we're improving. Things won't happen overnight, not in this business, as competitive as it is. You've just got to be patient.

I knew it would take time in basketball, and it takes more time in football to really be consistent. You look how long it took CSU to build a program. Now, they haven't had a bottom-out year, but they haven't had any devastating injuries. They haven't lost a number of kids."