By 2010 the University's athletics program will be $44 million in debt, Carolyn Callahan warned the Board of Visitors at its meeting Friday.
Callahan, the University's faculty representative to the athletics department, updated the Board on the University's 2020 Strategic Planning Task Force for Athletics.
The Virginia 2020 initiative, established by University President John T. Casteen III, is a long-term plan to ensure the University's future success as it enters its third century.
In her presentation, Callahan warned that the athletics program has been running "a small, but persistent operating deficit."
The department now dips into its reserves, which are "rapidly being used up," she said yesterday. "We've stretched it as far as we can stretch it."
Rising national prices in areas such as airfare and food costs contribute to the problem, she said.
Additionally, coaching salaries are rising. In order to attract top-tier coaches in high-profile sports, the University must offer increasingly competitive salaries.
Also, because of Title IX, a law designed to guarantee equality between men's and women's sports, athletics programs are spending more money, she added.
In many cases, it has forced programs to add female sports and pay their female coaches a salary equitable to their male counterparts, both of which increase expenditures.
Callahan said the recent Scott Stadium renovation and plans for a new basketball arena also will contribute to the future deficit. She said it will be seven years before the stadium's increased seating capacity will begin turning a profit after construction costs.
But Athletics Department budget problems are not unique to the University. Throughout the NCAA, the cost of fielding sports teams is rising.
The average cost of running a Division I-A athletics program was over $17.3 million in 1997, Callahan said, citing the most up-to-date data available. Only 43 percent of Division I-A athletics departments reported making a profit that year.
One of the Athletics Department's long-term goals is to find a solution that maintains a balanced budget while keeping the University's competitive standing in the NCAA and ACC, Callahan said.
University Rector John P. Ackerly III said the Board is awaiting the Virginia 2020 report, which will be released at the end of the year, before deciding what steps to take to alleviate the deficit.
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