Just how much money goes into running MSN?: Bookkeeping isn't very clear

Nov 16, 2008 (The Dominion Post - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- DIS | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- MSN'S DEAL with West Virginia Radio Corp.

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WVU Deputy Director of Athletics Mike Parsons says no documents exist to show the Mountaineer Sports Network's profit/loss margins, but the athletic department closely monitors its spending.

Parsons estimates MSN's profit at about $2.45 million for the 2006-07 fiscal year, and says the department spent about $664,000 on MSN-related expenses that year. He said the network probably made $1.1 to $1.2 million in radio advertising.

Parsons said the athletic department's accounting documents do not accurately portray the network's finances.

This became evident when The Dominion Post acquired documents through the Freedom of Information Act earlier this year. The documents appeared to show that the network was running a deficit.

In MSN's "Expenditure to Budget Comparison" for July 2006 to June 2007, $1,661,569 was allocated to MSN while the network's expenditure was $2,014,797.

The document showed that $346,509 was spent on "advertising," with $277,069 going to contracts and professional services, and $977,763 going toward personal services.

Parsons said MSN's account- ing system works well because a lot of the money that MSN brings in goes toward paying the coaches' salaries, as well as various other miscellaneous expenses incurred by the athletic department.

"MSN is just an account name, like football or basketball, not an entity," Parsons explained. "We use the money to pay for other things not related to the actual broadcasting itself. It's a flowing chart. We just know how much we're spending is going out, and how much money is coming in."

William Quigley, WVU's director of internal auditing, said in an email that MSN "has not been selected as an audit target in recent years" but that the network's accounts are included in WVU's official accounting system.

"Deloitte & Touche, the university's independent accountant, reviews and reports on the university financial statements each year," Quigley wrote in the e-mail.

The network spent $320,923 of the $346,509 in advertising on two years' worth of ESPN television commercial slots that were purchased for resale locally, Parsons said.

The Mountaineers' football playby-play announcer, Tony Caridi, and radio analysts Dwight Wallace and Jay Jacobs were paid out of the "contracts and professional services" line item.

Caridi is paid $1,300 per game for 12 regular-season football games and 31 regular-season men's basketball games, while Wallace is paid $1,060 per game for 12 regular-season football games. Jacobs earns $565 for each of the 31 men's basketball games, and earned $110 for each of the 14 women's basketball games he broadcast during the 2007-'08 season.

For per-game salaries for the three men, as well as their travel expenses, MSN spent $105,031 for the 2007-'08 season.

Portions of the salaries of the WVU football and basketball coaches also come out of the MSN account, Parsons said.

A large portion of the $977,763 in personnel services in the 2006-'07 budget paid for former WVU basketball coach John Beilein's unused vacation time before he left WVU for Michigan.

"We know what we're spending going out, and what we're paying for -- basically talent for radio," Parsons said. "That's all we're paying -- some telephone calls, that sort of thing. We know what we're bringing in -- everything from our ad sales."

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