North Carolina is the latest ACC member institution to announce a series of staff pay cuts and furloughs due to financial strain for the 2020-21 athletics calendar brought on by COVID-19.
In a letter from UNC director of athletics Bubba Cunningham to members of the Rams Club, UNC coaches and staff members making more than $200,000 will see their salaries cut by 20 percent. Coaches and staff that make between $100,000 and $200,000 will take a pay cut of 10 percent. And in the final tier, coaches and staff members that makes under $100,000 will be hit with a 15-day furlough.
The cuts and furloughs will go into effect Oct. 1 and run for nine months — lasting until June 20, 2021.
This all comes after UNC athletics cut its budget by 10 percent, which also came with a spending freeze and over a dozen open full-time positions left vacant in the department.
While ACC schools are currently set to play a fall 2020 football season, UNC canceled season ticket packages back in July. Last month, Cunningham — in a post on GoHeels.com — mentioned a possibly loss of $30-52 million in revenue if the fall sports sports and upcoming men’s basketball season were canceled or shortened. (At the time, Cunningham said UNC was staring down a possible $15 million loss in ticket revenue, alone.)
North Carolina has already announced that no spectators will be allowed at fall sports events for the month of September; this includes two home football games, too. Similar to NC State and Wake Forest, UNC will re-evaluate later for games in October and November. Duke has an indefinite ban on fans/spectators for fall sports.
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