Kansas players take the field for warmups prior to kickoff on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025 at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium.

The Kansas Athletics board of directors approved the proposed budget for fiscal year 2027 that includes a $13.2 million deficit, a $2.6 million improvement from fiscal year 2026, on Thursday.

Kansas Athletics is operating in an expected budget deficit as the university navigates revenue sharing with student athletes and the renovations at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium that hamper the possible revenue of increased attendance at games and other events at the stadium.

The board projects the fiscal year 2027 to be the final year deep and projects to be around a break-even point in fiscal year 2028 before securely generating profits in fiscal year 2029. At that point, KU Athletics CFO Pat Kaufman said the university will use the profits to “build our reserves back up that we depleted these last few years, it’ll allow us to repay the line of credit we’ve taken out and grow this department again.”

Kansas Athletic Director Travis Goff noted after the meeting that Big 12 Conference’s current media rights deal will end after the 2030-31 school year, likely giving member schools a greater revenue distribution figure with a new deal.

That is also around when David Booth’s annual eight-figure disbursement from his $300 million donation will become unrestricted for the athletic department’s use, rather than strictly for the Gateway project attached to the football stadium. Goff said after the meeting that “everything is on a good track there.”

Kansas will increase its expenses in fiscal year 2027 by $10.1 million. $5.2 million of that is centered on student athletes, including a $2 million increase in the university’s revenue sharing allotment. Goff said this increase will put the university “at its cap” in revenue sharing.

To counteract that, the board proposed a budget with a $12.7 million growth in revenue, which includes corporate sponsorships from jersey patches and the increased revenue from KU’s football game against Arizona State in London. Goff said the university is generating in the ballpark of $2.5 million in profit from playing the inaugural Union Jack Classic, which Goff estimates is $1 million more than what the university would generate from a game held at the Booth while construction remains ongoing.

The fiscal year 2027 proposed budget includes $73 million in ‘guaranteed’ revenues that include conference distributions, broadcast rights and others, which is around a $2 million decrease in the fiscal year 2026’s revenue from the guaranteed sources. What the budget is calling variable revenues — which includes ticket sales for football and men’s basketball, philanthropic contributions and other similar revenue streams — is expected to increase from $71 million to over $86 million.

Kansas Athletics finished the 2026 fiscal year with a $15.8 million deficit, compared to the proposed budget’s expected deficit of $14.9 million. The university was $3 million under the budgeted revenue but came out $2.1 million under the budgeted expenses. The deficit was covered by KU’s revolving line of credit, which was expanded from $35 million to $50 million in a board meeting in April.