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See Also:
- College Sports Revenue 2011: Auburn Closes The Bama Gap
- College Sports Revenue 2011: The List
- College Sports Revenue 2011: Changes
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Of all the university and athletic department budgets / annual reports I’ve looked at, none comes close to the University of Michigan in the level of detail given about where college sports money comes from and where it’s spent.
The budget report sent to university regents is a great window in to the finances of a major college sports program. And as a hint for 2011-12 Equity In Athletics rankings, the expansion of Michigan Stadium is going to help push Michigan over the $120 million revenue mark. They expect to finish 2010-11 at $121 million.
If we look at the high-level revenue categories Michigan uses, here’s where they expect to make their money:
| Source | Budgeted Revenue | Percent of Total |
| Spectator Admissions | $45.588 Million | 37.61% |
| Conference Distributions | $21.948 Million | 18.11% |
| Priority Seating / Other Annual Giving | $26.153 Million | 21.58% |
| Corporate Sponsorships | $14.328 Million | 11.82% |
| Licensing Royalties | $4.774 Million | 3.94% |
| Concessions and Parking | $3.006 Million | 2.48% |
| Facilities | $1.825 Million | 1.51% |
| Other Income | $796,000 | 0.66% |
| Investment Income | $2.8 Million | 2.31% |
| Total Budgeted Revenue | $121.218 Million | |
Obviously this is a big-time program that has all the right things going for it – huge stadium to sell tickets in, deep traditions and huge fan base to extract extra cash from, sweet conference media deals, great brand to sell to sponsors and on t-shirts, etc. So Michigan’s revenue is probably not going to look a lot like Northwestern’s but probably will look a lot like Ohio State’s or Alabama’s. I’ll call it a presumed model for the big-time, elite athletic program.
The first thing that strikes me is the importance of the fan, and especially the football fan as you dig deeper. Of Michigan’s expected $45.588 million in spectator admissions (which is total revenue less money paid to patsies to come play), $41.315 million comes from football. Another $12.968 million comes from club and suite seating (part of Priority Seating) at Michigan Stadium and we have to presume the big bulk of the $8.736 million Michigan will make in Priority Seating Program contributions comes from football.
Add those things together and easily more than half of Michigan’s total athletics revenue will come directly from people sitting in Michigan Stadium for eight games in the fall.
And as sweet as the Big Ten’s media deals are, the money that flows from the conference to Michigan (including NCAA basketball tournament money and bowl money) is still less than 20% of the department’s revenue (Michigan has an odd accounting where it excludes $1.8 million to be contributed to the university from the conference revenue number, so it actually expects to get $23.749 million from the Big Ten). Conference money no doubt makes up a bigger chunk of revenue at the smaller Big Ten schools, but it’s worth noting that a school like Michigan isn’t so beholden to conference money that it would support risky or questionable moves just for the promise of bigger distributions.
There’s more detail on revenue and expenses if you’d like to check out the linked budget report. I’m not looking to audit or dive real deeply into Michigan’s finances; my point is to show the kind of detail that doesn’t come out on Equity in Athletics reports and rarely is reported out of a university’s budget documents.
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Previously
- College Sports Revenue 2011: The Longhorns’ Big Bucks
- College Sports Revenue 2011: Setting The Stage
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