Today might be financial armageddon for Rutgers athletics. After the dust settles on football season ticket renewals I have to think Pat Hobbs is going to have some hard decisions to make.
I don't know what it will ultimately mean for the basketball program. I hope I am wrong, but I expect a noticeable bleed to Men's basketball.
Ticket sales are a smaller part of the equation these days with the huge TV contracts and things like these NCAA shares.
I'm really confused. How are we in deep trouble? Isn't this article good news for us? Are we not receiving more and more money every year from the league? Didn't we just raise $100 million dollar n private donations?The Rutgers Athletics business model is tied to the football program. It can not succeed with only 15,000 season tickets sold. Revenue is lost and exclusivity of seats and parking is out the door. Lost is a major source of additional funding.
The only way out is for football to improve, but that is extremely unlikely without additional funding.
We are like a levered oil company who needs oil prices to be above a certain price to be profitable. A sustained price below a certain level means doom.
A full share of the Big Ten distributions is about $50 million.
If Rutgers sells 25,000 more tickets per game next year than they would otherwise sell, that is worth about $10 million. An additional 2000 MBB tickets per game is worth another million. And that is just for ticket sales. Donations, parking, concessions, and premium seating would be additional revenue.
So, yes, ticket revenue is 20-25% of what a full-share of Big Ten revenue is. But it is hardly peanuts.
Thanks for posting this. The figures are certainly eye opening, but not totally unexpected.