UW-Whitewater Director of Athletics Todd Garzarelli is in his first year at UW-W and he already has plans for increasing the revenue generated by UW-W athletics.

“Being fiscally responsible we gotta go out and develop resources to invest in our student athletes,” Garzarelli said.

According to a report done by the UW-Whitewater athletics department based on the 2016-2017 athletics season the UW-W athletics programs made a net $99,667 during the 2016-2017 academic year. The athletic department had $3,832,969 in total expenses versus $3,932,636 in total revenues.

One of the largest reason Garzarelli felt he was brought in was due to his business prowess that he showed as the assistant athletic director at the University of Buffalo.

“I think I have a pretty good background in developing resources to reinvest back in,” Garzarelli said.

One of Garzarelli’s biggest keys to generating more revenue is getting more people to go to the games. In order to do that he plans on improving game day experiences. This improvement was first seen before UW-W’s October 13 game against UW-La Crosse where there was a free concert put on by country singer Jackie Lee. Garzarelli plans on continuing to do more things like the concert as the year goes on.

“Certainly from a financial aspect I’m sure Todd will do all he can to chip in,” Assistant Athletic Director Chris Lindeke said. “Because we really want a good experience here for our student athletes.”

According to the report UW-W football generates the most money in revenues. The football team generated $421,721 during the 2016-2017 academic year. Women’s basketball came in second generating $213,468.

When it comes to operating expenses on game day women’s bowling costs the most per participant, coming in at $3,301 per student athlete. But it is football that cost the most to operate overall costing the university $421,721 between coaches and operating costs.

During the 2016-2017 academic year UW-W fielded 593 student athletes at a cost of nearly $4 million.

Garzarelli is looking to help the university generate more revenue from the athletics department to put back into the student athletes as he moves forward in his tenure as the director of athletics. ​

“Everywhere you go, it doesn’t matter if you’re at a power five institution or in D-III, everyone has the same issues,” Garzarelli said. “Everyone is underfunded, everyone needs more resources, it just matters to what degree.”