GREENSBORO, Ga. — Ending any speculation about the status of Georgia baseball coach David Perno, UGA athletic director Greg McGarity declared unequivocally Thursday that Perno will remain in the job.
“Dave will be back next year,” McGarity said during a break from the UGA Athletic Association board of directors’ meeting at the Ritz-Carlton Lodge on Lake Oconee. “It’s not even an issue.”
Perno, in his 11th season as Georgia’s head coach, has led the Bulldogs to three College World Series appearances, the most recent in 2008. The Bulldogs are 31-26 this season, on a four-game losing streak and on the bubble for the NCAA tournament field, which will be announced Monday.
“We’re holding out hope that we may have an at-large [bid],” McGarity said. “Who knows? Stranger things have happened.”
In any case, he said Perno can count on a 12th season as the Bulldogs’ coach.
“You take SEC records over the last two years, and you give credit to South Carolina, Florida and Vandy and just do some research and see where the rest of us are,” McGarity said. “Over that two-year span, we’re one game over .500 [in league play]. Arkansas, Ole Miss, LSU — you’ve got a lot of schools that are kind of right where we are as far as the SEC standings.”
Financial report
The board approved a fiscal year 2013 budget of $92.1 million for the athletics department, up from $90 million for the year that ends June 30.
The association will finish this fiscal year with unallocated funds of $2.3 million after covering all expenditures. That amount will be added to the association’s reserve funds, which now top $70 million.
Despite the upbeat financial report, donations to the Hartman Fund — the program by which fans make contributions to qualify for football season tickets — are down slightly. This year’s contributions totaled $22.5 million as of April 30, compared with $23 million at the same point last year.
Projects approved
The board approved spending a total of $2.7 million on improvements to several athletics facilities, including Sanford Stadium.
The projects include revamping the football stadium’s Gate 10 entrance area ($375,000); upgrading video capabilities of the scoreboards at the baseball, softball and soccer stadiums ($1 million); and reworking the landscape beyond the outfield fences at the baseball stadium ($1.36 million, which also will cover design and engineering services to prepare for a possible future renovation of Foley Field).
The landscaping work at Foley Field, to be completed by next season, will include adding a retaining wall and seating to the “Kudzu Hill” area beyond right field and replacing the trees beyond left field.
McGarity also discussed with the board his vision of the more extensive future work at Foley Field. That project, at least a year away, would include creating a new entrance, expanding and upgrading the concourse, renovating the press box and adding an elevator. The cost would be an estimated $10 million, but McGarity told the board he would not seek approval until at least $5 million is raised in donations specifically for the project.
Student attendance
Perhaps the most spirited discussion at the board meeting concerned the declining student attendance at home football games.
The board approved a series of changes in student-ticketing procedures to try to encourage students with tickets to show up at games. Before passing the measure, the board added a stipulation that the athletics department should make a priority of ensuring that all freshmen have access to tickets for all home games.
In recent seasons, some freshmen were eligible to purchase tickets to fewer than all games, even though a noticeable number of seats later would be empty at games.
New championship?
McGarity said he hopes SEC schools, at next week’s league meetings in Destin, Fla., will add a conference championship in equestrian. Georgia, Auburn, South Carolina and league newcomer Texas A&M have teams in the sport.
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