Over the past year or so we've taken a several looks at the value that a football program can bring to a university.
A successful football program raises admission numbers, fundraising efforts, and makes the university more visible in the public eye. That's all the icing on the cake compared to the most obvious reason that schools are deciding to add football to their docket, which is a major increase in revenue.
Penn State recently released their revenue numbers over the past year, and while the football program continues to generate an enormous amount of profit ($34.1 million in 2012), the entire athletic department finished 2012-2013 year in the red by nearly $6 million. While we found that somewhat interesting, it was the money that the football program generated for the university that really caught our attention.
On page 7 of the document below, highlighting ticket sales, the football team accounted for over $31.75 million dollars of the $32.9 million that ticket sales brought in across all men's programs. No other program accounted for over $1 million in ticket sales. The next closest was men's basketball with $795,653 in sales. Needless to say, that's a huge gap. Total women's athletic department ticket sales for all sports accounted for $468,000.
The other area that caught our attention is detailed on page 14 where they take a look at the sales in regards to concessions, novelties, and parking. Football accounted for $4.1 million, while all men's teams accounted for a grand total of $4.2 million. Of the hundred thousand dollars accounted for by other men's sports programs, the wrestling program accounted for $58,594 and the men's basketball program accounted for just $7,764.
While reports like this can be a bit intimidating to look at upon your first glance, it really puts the importance of a football program for a university into perspective. These kind of numbers are a major driving force behind why 23 athletic departments have, or are planning to launch football programs by 2016.
The Penn State athletic department's full release can be seen below.