Louisville a borderline Top 25 school for merchandise just signed for 10 years with Adidas at $16M per year. UCLA was a tad larger but these are huge numbers which can help pay for infrastructure improvements and support staff salaries.

http://www.courier-journal.com/story/spo...600363001/

Cuse is making a measly $3M per year with Nike. The contract ends next year. I bet they get north of $10-12M per year. The AD said Nike is the long time partner but they will entertain other offers.

Agree that it's the next big money grab, but since apparel contracts are by school and not by conference it won't have the same impact as TV money.
Jmo.

(08-25-2017 09:44 AM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  Agree that it's the next big money grab, but since apparel contracts are by school and not by conference it won't have the same impact as TV money.
Jmo.

$16M/year? I'd say that's a huge impact, especially for the schools who are already at or near the top in revenue. This is HUGE for Louisville.

(08-25-2017 09:44 AM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  Agree that it's the next big money grab, but since apparel contracts are by school and not by conference it won't have the same impact as TV money.
Jmo.

Mark, this is why the Gross Revenue Figures are so revealing every year. We all know that conference TV revenue totals are only 1/3 to 1/5 of the total revenue pie for top schools. When the ACC schools play a little catch up in this regard it will start to close the gap. Alabama, Auburn, Texas, Oklahoma, etc. already had these deals.

Stadium capacity and gate are the next big hurdle for the ACC and at least some of your venues are beginning to tackle this.

When the difference in total gross revenue is 80 million and this board is arguing about differences in TV revenue of 8 million it makes the discussion about TV revenue even more absurd. Gate and advertising/sponsorship deals have been the largest part of that 80 million gap between the top revenue producers and those say below 25th place. Auburn made 140 million last year and I think we were 10th or 11th in gross revenue. Alabama just got more in contributions and sponsorship. And now that they have expanded Bryant Denny a little more in gate as well.

(08-25-2017 09:47 AM)Hood-rich Wrote:  

(08-25-2017 09:44 AM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  Agree that it's the next big money grab, but since apparel contracts are by school and not by conference it won't have the same impact as TV money.
Jmo.

$16M/year? I'd say that's a huge impact, especially for the schools who are already at or near the top in revenue. This is HUGE for Louisville.

Sure it impacts the school, but it won't cause rivals to stop playing like TV-motivated realignment did. That's what I was getting at.

Now it remains to be seen if the rich will get even richer or if (as JR seems to be suggesting) the rich already had this income and now it's spreading?

But if all this does is make it even more impossible for Wake Forest or Boston College to win a national championship... That's not really news.

(08-25-2017 02:52 PM)JRsec Wrote:  Gate and advertising/sponsorship deals have been the largest part of that 80 million gap between the top revenue producers and those say below 25th place.

Ticket sales (and the mandatory donations that go with them) are the biggest part of it, and that revenue is rarely identified as a line item in any publicly-released financial statement. It's an under-reported issue when looking at CFB revenue.

Just making some guesstimates: There are about 20 teams with 80,000 or more seats in their home stadium. If you sell 80,000 tickets, and your (ticket price + donation + parking + concession profit) for each ticket averages $100, or if you sell 100,000 tickets and gross $80/ticket sold, then you gross $8 million for each home game. (Based on the prices listed here for single-game tickets, Ohio State is easily grossing over $10 million at almost every home game.) Other teams not only don't have the stadium capacity but can't charge as much for tickets. Even most of the P5 teams are grossing half as much or less per home game as the top 10-20 teams in attendance. A reserved seat single ticket for Ohio State's game with OU this year costs more than a Purdue reserved seat season ticket. The gaps would only get larger if we looked at G5 home game revenue - many G5 teams don't even sell 20,000 tickets per game, and if their revenue/ticket is $40 or less, then they're grossing $800,000/game or less and the stadium overhead eats up a large chunk of that. A G5 team that pays an FCS team to play in their stadium might have zero net revenue from that game.

(08-25-2017 07:12 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(08-25-2017 02:52 PM)JRsec Wrote:  Gate and advertising/sponsorship deals have been the largest part of that 80 million gap between the top revenue producers and those say below 25th place.

Ticket sales (and the mandatory donations that go with them) are the biggest part of it, and that revenue is rarely identified as a line item in any publicly-released financial statement. It's an under-reported issue when looking at CFB revenue.

Just making some guesstimates: There are about 20 teams with 80,000 or more seats in their home stadium. If you sell 80,000 tickets, and your (ticket price + donation + parking + concession profit) for each ticket averages $100, or if you sell 100,000 tickets and gross $80/ticket sold, then you gross $8 million for each home game. (Based on the prices listed here for single-game tickets, Ohio State is easily grossing over $10 million at almost every home game.) Other teams not only don't have the stadium capacity but can't charge as much for tickets. Even most of the P5 teams are grossing half as much or less per home game as the top 10-20 teams in attendance. A reserved seat single ticket for Ohio State's game with OU this year costs more than a Purdue reserved seat season ticket. The gaps would only get larger if we looked at G5 home game revenue - many G5 teams don't even sell 20,000 tickets per game, and if their revenue/ticket is $40 or less, then they're grossing $800,000/game or less and the stadium overhead eats up a large chunk of that. A G5 team that pays an FCS team to play in their stadium might have zero net revenue from that game.

Except the numbers are even more skewed than your illustration which is true in itself. The SEC average attendance last year was 77,500 but our median attendance was 86,000. The Big 10 average attendance was 66,000 but their median attendance was 57,000. In the SEC at 2/3rds or more of our member institutions season ticket books for 7 home games are around $550 each. In order to buy a pair of season ticket books a donation of $800 to the Athletic Fund is required. $800 puts you in the end zones, or at the goal line in the upper decks. For sideline seating lower deck the donations can reach as high as 5,000 for stadium seating or 2,400 for 20's to 40's. The same is true in the upper deck but the contribution is lower 1,200-1,500. Luxury boxes start at 100,000. Now Wedge these numbers don't even start to account for concessions, merchandise, tailgating slots, stadium cushions which you now have to rent, etc.

So you are correct that the differences are massive. Auburn will make over 7 million for a home game before you count anything but ticket sales (which won't show donations for the right to purchase tickets as that's a separate item). If you sit in the end zone you have a $1,900 investment in your pair of season tickets counting your donation for the right to purchase them. So you have an investment of $135.70 in each of those tickets in your season books whether they are against SEC, FBS, or FCS opponents.

That's why young families aren't attending in any kind of numbers anymore. They can't afford it. So while this balloon is inflating it looks great. But when the Boomers and X'ers are gone deflation is going to set in.

At least in the SEC the ticket pricing is a lot more standardized than in the Big 10 and other conferences. So our sales floats most boats. Taxes vary per state and tickets all have tax in them.

So... ...how are they going to spend the money? Many P5 programs are somehow still bleeding red ink (although in certain cases this is by design), so perhaps this could help them out?

I wonder what they're going to spend money on next. The arms race is probably going to reach a conclusion at some point, since there are diminishing returns for every additional dollar you spend.

Just wait until they figure out how to make money on blades of grass!

(08-25-2017 09:37 PM)oliveandblue Wrote:  So... ...how are they going to spend the money? Many P5 programs are somehow still bleeding red ink (although in certain cases this is by design), so perhaps this could help them out?

I wonder what they're going to spend money on next. The arms race is probably going to reach a conclusion at some point, since there are diminishing returns for every additional dollar you spend.

Broader benefits packages for the athletes are coming, that's one thing. I suppose eventually they'll start funneling more of it back to the school.

(08-25-2017 07:41 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(08-25-2017 07:12 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(08-25-2017 02:52 PM)JRsec Wrote:  Gate and advertising/sponsorship deals have been the largest part of that 80 million gap between the top revenue producers and those say below 25th place.

Ticket sales (and the mandatory donations that go with them) are the biggest part of it, and that revenue is rarely identified as a line item in any publicly-released financial statement. It's an under-reported issue when looking at CFB revenue.

Just making some guesstimates: There are about 20 teams with 80,000 or more seats in their home stadium. If you sell 80,000 tickets, and your (ticket price + donation + parking + concession profit) for each ticket averages $100, or if you sell 100,000 tickets and gross $80/ticket sold, then you gross $8 million for each home game. (Based on the prices listed here for single-game tickets, Ohio State is easily grossing over $10 million at almost every home game.) Other teams not only don't have the stadium capacity but can't charge as much for tickets. Even most of the P5 teams are grossing half as much or less per home game as the top 10-20 teams in attendance. A reserved seat single ticket for Ohio State's game with OU this year costs more than a Purdue reserved seat season ticket. The gaps would only get larger if we looked at G5 home game revenue - many G5 teams don't even sell 20,000 tickets per game, and if their revenue/ticket is $40 or less, then they're grossing $800,000/game or less and the stadium overhead eats up a large chunk of that. A G5 team that pays an FCS team to play in their stadium might have zero net revenue from that game.

Except the numbers are even more skewed than your illustration which is true in itself. The SEC average attendance last year was 77,500 but our median attendance was 86,000. The Big 10 average attendance was 66,000 but their median attendance was 57,000. In the SEC at 2/3rds or more of our member institutions season ticket books for 7 home games are around $550 each. In order to buy a pair of season ticket books a donation of $800 to the Athletic Fund is required. $800 puts you in the end zones, or at the goal line in the upper decks. For sideline seating lower deck the donations can reach as high as 5,000 for stadium seating or 2,400 for 20's to 40's. The same is true in the upper deck but the contribution is lower 1,200-1,500. Luxury boxes start at 100,000. Now Wedge these numbers don't even start to account for concessions, merchandise, tailgating slots, stadium cushions which you now have to rent, etc.

So you are correct that the differences are massive. Auburn will make over 7 million for a home game before you count anything but ticket sales (which won't show donations for the right to purchase tickets as that's a separate item). If you sit in the end zone you have a $1,900 investment in your pair of season tickets counting your donation for the right to purchase them. So you have an investment of $135.70 in each of those tickets in your season books whether they are against SEC, FBS, or FCS opponents.

That's why young families aren't attending in any kind of numbers anymore. They can't afford it. So while this balloon is inflating it looks great. But when the Boomers and X'ers are gone deflation is going to set in.

At least in the SEC the ticket pricing is a lot more standardized than in the Big 10 and other conferences. So our sales floats most boats. Taxes vary per state and tickets all have tax in them.

Another thing you do, when you're awash in this much money, is use the money to buy your team a more favorable non-conference schedule every year.

Example: Right now, Oregon State is playing at Colorado State. CSU is opening their new stadium, their fans and players are all geeked up to try and beat a Pac-12 team, and if they do they'll celebrate as if they just won the national championship. From Oregon State's perspective, it's a no-win situation, and Oregon State's coaches don't like having to put their team in situations like that. But they don't have the luxury of writing huge checks to play more non-con games at home.

If you're making $7 million or more on every home game no matter who the opponent is, then you can always pay a G5 team $1.5 million (or whatever the going rate is) to buy a home game and never play 'em on the road. But if you're Oregon State, your finances dictate that instead of buying two home games at $1.5 million each, you spend $3 million less by playing a home/home with no money changing hands.

(08-26-2017 03:08 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(08-25-2017 07:41 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(08-25-2017 07:12 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(08-25-2017 02:52 PM)JRsec Wrote:  Gate and advertising/sponsorship deals have been the largest part of that 80 million gap between the top revenue producers and those say below 25th place.

Ticket sales (and the mandatory donations that go with them) are the biggest part of it, and that revenue is rarely identified as a line item in any publicly-released financial statement. It's an under-reported issue when looking at CFB revenue.

Just making some guesstimates: There are about 20 teams with 80,000 or more seats in their home stadium. If you sell 80,000 tickets, and your (ticket price + donation + parking + concession profit) for each ticket averages $100, or if you sell 100,000 tickets and gross $80/ticket sold, then you gross $8 million for each home game. (Based on the prices listed here for single-game tickets, Ohio State is easily grossing over $10 million at almost every home game.) Other teams not only don't have the stadium capacity but can't charge as much for tickets. Even most of the P5 teams are grossing half as much or less per home game as the top 10-20 teams in attendance. A reserved seat single ticket for Ohio State's game with OU this year costs more than a Purdue reserved seat season ticket. The gaps would only get larger if we looked at G5 home game revenue - many G5 teams don't even sell 20,000 tickets per game, and if their revenue/ticket is $40 or less, then they're grossing $800,000/game or less and the stadium overhead eats up a large chunk of that. A G5 team that pays an FCS team to play in their stadium might have zero net revenue from that game.

Except the numbers are even more skewed than your illustration which is true in itself. The SEC average attendance last year was 77,500 but our median attendance was 86,000. The Big 10 average attendance was 66,000 but their median attendance was 57,000. In the SEC at 2/3rds or more of our member institutions season ticket books for 7 home games are around $550 each. In order to buy a pair of season ticket books a donation of $800 to the Athletic Fund is required. $800 puts you in the end zones, or at the goal line in the upper decks. For sideline seating lower deck the donations can reach as high as 5,000 for stadium seating or 2,400 for 20's to 40's. The same is true in the upper deck but the contribution is lower 1,200-1,500. Luxury boxes start at 100,000. Now Wedge these numbers don't even start to account for concessions, merchandise, tailgating slots, stadium cushions which you now have to rent, etc.

So you are correct that the differences are massive. Auburn will make over 7 million for a home game before you count anything but ticket sales (which won't show donations for the right to purchase tickets as that's a separate item). If you sit in the end zone you have a $1,900 investment in your pair of season tickets counting your donation for the right to purchase them. So you have an investment of $135.70 in each of those tickets in your season books whether they are against SEC, FBS, or FCS opponents.

That's why young families aren't attending in any kind of numbers anymore. They can't afford it. So while this balloon is inflating it looks great. But when the Boomers and X'ers are gone deflation is going to set in.

At least in the SEC the ticket pricing is a lot more standardized than in the Big 10 and other conferences. So our sales floats most boats. Taxes vary per state and tickets all have tax in them.

Another thing you do, when you're awash in this much money, is use the money to buy your team a more favorable non-conference schedule every year.

Example: Right now, Oregon State is playing at Colorado State. CSU is opening their new stadium, their fans and players are all geeked up to try and beat a Pac-12 team, and if they do they'll celebrate as if they just won the national championship. From Oregon State's perspective, it's a no-win situation, and Oregon State's coaches don't like having to put their team in situations like that. But they don't have the luxury of writing huge checks to play more non-con games at home.

If you're making $7 million or more on every home game no matter who the opponent is, then you can always pay a G5 team $1.5 million (or whatever the going rate is) to buy a home game and never play 'em on the road. But if you're Oregon State, your finances dictate that instead of buying two home games at $1.5 million each, you spend $3 million less by playing a home/home with no money changing hands.

True. And it also why the SEC is so reticent to move to 9 conference games. The payout to visiting conference schools is a lot higher than to G5 or FCS school. And 9 conference games mean you lose an extra home game every other year. That's a 7 million dollar loss that your visitor money doesn't come close to making up. Typically we pay an FCS school 750,000 to 1,000,00 to play. Some G5's might make as much as 2 million for the trip, but your guesstimate there was pretty close.

(08-25-2017 07:41 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(08-25-2017 07:12 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(08-25-2017 02:52 PM)JRsec Wrote:  Gate and advertising/sponsorship deals have been the largest part of that 80 million gap between the top revenue producers and those say below 25th place.

Ticket sales (and the mandatory donations that go with them) are the biggest part of it, and that revenue is rarely identified as a line item in any publicly-released financial statement. It's an under-reported issue when looking at CFB revenue.

Just making some guesstimates: There are about 20 teams with 80,000 or more seats in their home stadium. If you sell 80,000 tickets, and your (ticket price + donation + parking + concession profit) for each ticket averages $100, or if you sell 100,000 tickets and gross $80/ticket sold, then you gross $8 million for each home game. (Based on the prices listed here for single-game tickets, Ohio State is easily grossing over $10 million at almost every home game.) Other teams not only don't have the stadium capacity but can't charge as much for tickets. Even most of the P5 teams are grossing half as much or less per home game as the top 10-20 teams in attendance. A reserved seat single ticket for Ohio State's game with OU this year costs more than a Purdue reserved seat season ticket. The gaps would only get larger if we looked at G5 home game revenue - many G5 teams don't even sell 20,000 tickets per game, and if their revenue/ticket is $40 or less, then they're grossing $800,000/game or less and the stadium overhead eats up a large chunk of that. A G5 team that pays an FCS team to play in their stadium might have zero net revenue from that game.

Except the numbers are even more skewed than your illustration which is true in itself. The SEC average attendance last year was 77,500 but our median attendance was 86,000. The Big 10 average attendance was 66,000 but their median attendance was 57,000. In the SEC at 2/3rds or more of our member institutions season ticket books for 7 home games are around $550 each. In order to buy a pair of season ticket books a donation of $800 to the Athletic Fund is required. $800 puts you in the end zones, or at the goal line in the upper decks. For sideline seating lower deck the donations can reach as high as 5,000 for stadium seating or 2,400 for 20's to 40's. The same is true in the upper deck but the contribution is lower 1,200-1,500. Luxury boxes start at 100,000. Now Wedge these numbers don't even start to account for concessions, merchandise, tailgating slots, stadium cushions which you now have to rent, etc.

So you are correct that the differences are massive. Auburn will make over 7 million for a home game before you count anything but ticket sales (which won't show donations for the right to purchase tickets as that's a separate item). If you sit in the end zone you have a $1,900 investment in your pair of season tickets counting your donation for the right to purchase them. So you have an investment of $135.70 in each of those tickets in your season books whether they are against SEC, FBS, or FCS opponents.

That's why young families aren't attending in any kind of numbers anymore. They can't afford it. So while this balloon is inflating it looks great. But when the Boomers and X'ers are gone deflation is going to set in.

At least in the SEC the ticket pricing is a lot more standardized than in the Big 10 and other conferences. So our sales floats most boats. Taxes vary per state and tickets all have tax in them.

But they don't need any more young families to show up. They're already selling out every game.

The school could lower the ticket price, but the secondary market would be so lucrative that most "young families" would just sell their tickets on stubhub.

It's a mega-business right now. And I'd bet that the schools that are closer to big metro areas (like Michigan and Georgia) benefit even more because there's more corporate money going to luxury boxes.