While still 'interim' in title, Coburn puts long-term focus on FSU finances
When he agreed to take over as Florida State's interim athletics director in mid-August, David Coburn said he expected to fill the position for "some number of months."
More than two months later, Coburn now acknowledges he could serve in that capacity for even longer than that, as he strives to strengthen the Seminoles' financial footing before a permanent replacement is brought on board.
In a wide-ranging, 60-minute interview with Warchant.com and the Tallahassee Democrat, Coburn opened up this week about some of the fiscal challenges facing the Seminoles' athletics department, what he and his staff are doing to reduce expenses and increase revenue, how he's adapting to his new position and more.
"The bottom line is he wants me to get some things done here," Coburn said, with the "he" being Florida State University President John Thrasher.
Before accepting this role, Coburn's full-time job was serving as Thrasher's chief of staff. But when former A.D. Stan Wilcox departed after five years for an executive position with the NCAA, Thrasher wasted little time in turning to Coburn for help.
One could argue he is a perfect fit.
Among Coburn's duties over the past six years has been advising Thrasher and his predecessor, Eric Barron, on athletics-related topics. So he has a working knowledge of the department's issues and has enjoyed long-standing relationships with several of the Seminoles' coaches and staff members.
He also has experience with taking on a high-level interim position within the university, filling in when former vice president of Finance and Administration John Carnaghi passed away in 2013. On top of that, Coburn has enjoyed a close personal relationship with Seminole Boosters President and CEO Andy Miller since they attended FSU as undergraduates.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, he has a well-earned reputation for his expertise with budgets and negotiations during three-plus decades of working with the Florida Legislature.
Those skills and years of experience could be vital as Coburn strives to help the Seminoles navigate some choppy financial waters, with expenses in college athletics continuing to soar, while revenues for schools in the Atlantic Coast Conference and elsewhere fail to keep pace.
"Last year was tough," Coburn said of the Seminoles' efforts to make budget. "This year will be [tough] too. And next year could be very much with a challenging [football] schedule."
Like all schools trying to compete at the highest levels, Florida State's athletics budget has been skyrocketing for quite some time. In just the last four years, the Seminoles' operating expenses have gone from $85.6 million to about $106 million -- with most of that increase coming in football.
FSU's athletics budget currently ranks first in the ACC and 13th nationally.
Revenues have increased as well, but season-ticket sales -- which are at the core of the athletics department's economic engine -- are beginning to lag at FSU and nationally. To make ends meet, Coburn said, the athletics department has had to lean a little more heavily upon its fundraising arm, Seminole Boosters Inc., and also tap into some "one-time" funds from renegotiated contracts.
While expressing confidence that the department will be able to meet all of its financial demands this year and next, Coburn said the Seminoles will have to tighten their belts in certain areas to ensure stability in the future.
"We have been kicking the can down the road, plugging in one-time money," Coburn said. "You can’t do business that way when your financial model, I think nationally, is a failing model."
Like many in college athletics, Coburn's concern is that conference television contracts will begin to soften as the cable industry faces declining subscription numbers. And the challenge is compounded in the ACC, where schools received an average of $26.6 million from the conference in 2016-17, compared to about $41 million apiece in the Southeastern Conference and around $35 million in the Big Ten and Big 12.
“I think you have to sit there and ask yourself the question, 'Are we OK? Do we have enough [resources]?'" Coburn said. "And the answer I think is, 'Yes.' Will we have enough? 'Yes.' Are we going to have as much as those guys? 'No.' Never will in my view because we started off behind. And catching up at this point with the trends going on will be very difficult."
Florida State and other ACC schools are expecting additional revenue to start streaming in when the conference's new linear cable channel launches in 2019, but it's not yet known exactly how much of a windfall that will provide. In the meantime, Coburn has directed members of his staff to focus on identifying new revenue opportunities, while he works with his coaches and administrators on reducing expenses wherever possible.
“I think once we get through this year and next year, I think we will be through hopefully the bad part of this,” Coburn said.
Because the majority of money spent each year by the athletics department falls in the category of fixed costs -- items such as travel for games, salaries, equipment, etc., which cannot really be reduced -- Coburn has pushed for cutbacks in other areas.
He confirmed that the Seminoles are trimming 4 percent of non-essential operating costs across the department -- not 4 percent of the overall $106 million budget, but of the expenses that can be controlled. He said that will result in about $600,000 in savings this year.
Among other moves, Coburn said he has frozen some non-coaching positions in the department, he is requiring coaches to cut back on travel if it isn't directly related to games or recruiting, and he is asking coaches to justify certain expenses, such as international travel.
The goal, he said, is to save money where possible, without limiting the programs' ability to compete.
The football recruiting budget, for example, has been left untouched. Meanwhile, he has eliminated the courtesy car stipend for high-level administrators.
"It wasn’t a lot of money, but it was a message," Coburn said. "It was more of a symbolic thing for everybody."
While acknowledging that the reductions haven't been popular with coaches and some others in the department, Coburn said most have been understanding when presented with the facts.
“I am trying to drive our reoccurring expense down," Coburn said. "There is going to be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. We have a bunch of people over here that don’t want to take no for an answer. And they wouldn’t be great coaches if they did."
On the revenue side, Coburn said he is excited about the opportunities his staff is exploring -- from using Doak Campbell Stadium to hold other revenue-generating events in the offseason, to being more aggressive with the marketing of ticket sales in all sports.
He says the Seminoles' 2019 football season opener against Boise State in Jacksonville, for example, could be much more profitable than a normal home game if ticket sales are strong. So he has instructed staffers to aggressively work on selling that event.
“We have to put fans in the seats,” Coburn said. “But we can make some money over there, and we are going to have to. We are going to target that opportunity, and we are going to market it like killing snakes. We are going after it. ...
"I don’t think we have focused enough on ticket sales and marketing, and we are going to do that.”
Although he has worked with the most powerful people in Florida politics and was a key player in shaping the state's budget for many years, Coburn acknowledged that running the Seminoles' athletics department has been a very unique challenge.
“Like drinking from a fire hose. It really has,” he said. "When you are trying to manage so many people in a high-pressure environment with big egos, it’s a lot like the legislature to be honest with you. It feels like I am back in the legislative session, only it is year-'round."
And unlike in his previous posts, where he worked mostly behind the scenes, Coburn also has had to adapt to being a public face of the department. That means visiting football practices on occasion, which he did on Wednesday this week. And spending this coming weekend in North Carolina for the Seminoles' football game at N.C. State and the soccer team's appearance in the ACC tournament semifinals in Cary, N.C.
"There’s no down time," he said. "You get off an airplane and the next day is Sunday and you have four events you need to go to because they expect to see you there. Thankfully, my wife, Mary, went to a lot of these same events, so she understands.”
When he originally accepted the interim position, Coburn said the fall would be a difficult time to begin a search for a new athletics director because other schools were just starting football season. The regular season will conclude in about a month, but Coburn indicated the Seminoles aren't in a rush to make a permanent hire.
Instead, he said, Thrasher wants him to make sure the department is on solid financial footing.
When asked if that means his term is "open ended," Coburn answered in the affirmative: "It is for now.”
ALSO SEE: Coburn talks Taggart, baseball search, Seminole Boosters
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