I was never much into organized sports. OTOH, a pickup game of baseball was always fun. I now work for a company that makes sports electronics (the headsets coaches use on the sidelines is our main product - ~100% market share) and I live next to a big SEC college. There is a *lot* of money in this; 87,000 seat stadium X $50/ticket, minus $0 for players' salaries, you do the arithmetic. Always make sure your target customer has money. ;-)
snipped-for-privacy@att.bizzzzzzzzzzzz wrote: ...
Spent almost 30 years in Oak Ridge, TN,
Same thing here.
Penn State's Beaver Stadium is right up there, only 200 seats behind Michigan and a 3000 ahead of Neyland. ;-)
The top football schools certainly are self-funding (capital construction expenses likely not, though). As you point out, they (usually football and basketball) pay the freight for all the rest of the sports programs.
snipped-for-privacy@att.bizzzzzzzzzzzz wrote: ...
Unless revenues:expenses have changed markedly for the better, I don't think so from simply game revenues they cover expenses even for the majors. Didn't used to be so, certainly.
Without alumni support and particularly TV revenue and licensing revenues, last I looked other than two or three at the outside (UT-Austin is, but they have outside revenue from oil royalties as does the whole UT system that puts them in a completely different ball game compared to any other institution I'm aware of) actually are ahead simply on ticket revenues.
Now, if they only had to support a de minimus football program (and could keep the same fan support and therefore ticket prices and attendance which is extremely unlikely for the long term) and weren't also supporting Title IX and all, then, _maybe_...
I doubt think more than the top 10-20 or so basketball programs break even and at one time when I did a fair amount of looking into it although it's been quite a while ago now, there were only about four -- UK, Duke, UNC and KU. But, the do all still play on hardwood floor to keep on topic... :)
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They did thirty years ago and they do at the majors now (they've added TV revenue inbetween). When I was at UIUC they claimed the sports programs were self-sustaining, and here at Auburn they are, too, at least according to the interviews on the local talk shows. ...and forget about teams like Notre Dame.
TV revenue is part of the sports program, no?
Nope, $35M + TV and radio revenue is a *lot* of money.
Nope. A *lot* of them make money. Many schools sell out big domes. UIUC always sold out (17K), I'm sure Syracuse does pretty well too. There is TV and tournament revenue there, too. Down here in the South, probably not so much.
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