The financial future of Cyclone athletics is looking bright these days.

Athletic director Bruce Van De Velde said Wednesday the athletic department has to date earned $9.4 million over the last 12 months, an increase of nearly twice last year’s total of $4.85 million.

“Our fund raising demonstrates the commitment the Iowa State community has to keeping the Cyclone intercollegiate athletics programs competitive nationally,” he said.

Van De Velde said the money includes annual gifts to the National Cyclone Club, capital project commitments and endowments.

With the increase in donations, Van De Velde has been able to keep several coaches at Iowa State while hiring a couple new ones. He has hired women’s golf coach Christen Hermes, Christy Johnson to coach volleyball and Stacy Gemeinhardt as the new softball coach. He was able to re-sign K.J. Kindler, the gymnastics coach, and Wayne Morgan, head men’s basketball coach, who will be signing his new contract later this week.

“It has been my number one priority to keep our coaches here,” Van De Velde said. “We’ve been fortunate to keep all of our coaches across the board here at Iowa State. I think this is the best stable of coaches we’ve ever had here.”

In addition, ticket sales are still going strong; Van De Velde said they have sold around 24,000 season tickets and they are hoping to get in the neighborhood of 28,000 to 30,000 by the time the season starts.

The extra money will help the athletic department start on renovations to the football team’s locker room and do some renovations in the Forker building, because the volleyball team is being moved there from Hilton Coliseum.

If they can hit their ticket sales goal, Van De Velde hopes to start doing renovations to Jack Trice, including more seating and suites.

Head football coach Dan McCarney said he would like to see a full stadium for every game before they start adding seats and expanding Jack Trice. He also said the locker room renovations are a necessity.

“The facilities were a joke when I got here,” he said. “These renovations are not a luxury — they are a necessity since they are literally falling apart after 10 years of wear and tear.”

McCarney said those renovations will begin at the end of this season.