Legal woes force budget cuts at UW athletic department

SEATTLE — The University of Washington athletic department is cutting its budget, in part due to the cost of defending itself against a lawsuit brought by former football coach Rick Neuheisel.

Interim athletic director Dick Thompson has asked sports programs to trim spending by 2 percent for the 2004-05 school year, while the department is also cutting administrative and facilities spending by 5 percent. The football program, which provides nearly three-fourths of the department’s revenue, is not subject to the cuts.

“We had an $800,000 problem to solve,” Thompson told the Seattle Times.

That figure is close to what UW projects as the overall cost of a legal defense against Neuheisel’s wrongful termination suit. Neuheisel was fired last summer for lying and being involved in NCAA basketball pools.

Paul King, associate athletic director for business and finance, estimated the department’s budget at $39.5 million for 2004-05, with $300,000 coming from a reserve account. Most of the $500,000 budgeted for legal expenses from 2003-05 has gone toward the Neuheisel case, while a smaller portion has gone toward legal expenses related to softball team doctor William Scheyer.