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ColonelSteve
11-13-2012, 04:46 PM
Joker Phillips said when he walked out on the field in Kentucky’s last home football game against Vanderbilt and saw the crowd of less than 20,000 people, he knew his fate was sealed. It wasn’t just about lost fan enthusiasm for the program, but also (and likely more so) about lost revenue. So just how much has UK lost during this 1-9 season?

Through an open-records request, The Courier-Journal has learned that, albeit with one home game against Samford remaining, football revenues – including tickets, parking and K-Fund donations, but excluding concessions – are down from $22.7 million in 2010 to $17.8 million this season. The school does not have 2012 concessions numbers, but one can assume a drop there, too.

Consider that concessions sales dropped from $1.65 million in 2009 to $1.24 million in 2011 – and that average announced attendance this fall is down 9,826 per game from last season. Actual attendance is far worse. As the Herald-Leader first reported, UK’s average actual attendance (tickets scanned) is 32,915 this season (more than 18,000 a game less than the announced numbers).

Viewed in this strictly financial light, it’s not hard to see why athletic director Mitch Barnhart had to make a move. Losing more than $5 million of revenue from your department’s cash cow in a single season is a hit few schools would tolerate. That’s roughly equivalent to John Calipari’s annual salary – or nearly three times Phillips’ salary.

Here’s the raw data the C-J received from the University of Kentucky:

UK FOOTBALL CONCESSION SALES
2009 – Total concessions sales: $1,646,955.59. Average per-game concessions sales: $235,566.51.
2010 – Total concessions sales: $1,554,037.54. Average per-game concessions sales: $222,005.36.
2011 – Total concessions sales: $1,239,116.79. Average per-game concessions sales: $177,016.68.

UK FOOTBALL REVENUE (from tickets, parking, K-Fund donations)
2010 – $22.7 million
2011 – $22.0 million
2012 – $17.8 million*
* Still one home game left in 2012.

http://blogs.courier-journal.com/ukbeat/2012/11/13/how-much-has-2012-cost-uk-football/

ram
11-13-2012, 06:32 PM
I generally detest the media and the crap it spews, but in the case of Ky Football it's great that information like this is made public. It places pressure on the administration to perform the way any other business would be expected to perform. Any legitimate business would make drastic changes if the numbers showed such customer dissatisfaction with the product. Fans have spoken...you're going to lose money if you don't give us the product we want, namely a competitive/winning football team. In any successful business the consumer is priority number one. The ads may say they don't feel or care about pressure from the public, but I guarantee they care about the numbers.

Make a good hire or the decline may continue.

VirginiaCat
11-14-2012, 10:14 AM
Some interesting numbers there...

This tells me that the average ticket Price was about $45 including the parking pass cost and revenue and assuming an average ticket sells of 60K....

This should also show that an investment in a coach and staff that creates enthusiasm will pay off quickly....

Pat a coach and staff $5mm....and when they generate results increase that average cost by $10 and you make both the fans and your pocketbooks happy...

Darrell KSR
11-17-2012, 10:01 AM
Good information. I wouldn't doubt that it is even more costly in terms of future revenue, too.

LakeCat
11-17-2012, 05:05 PM
Good information. I wouldn't doubt that it is even more costly in terms of future revenue, too.

Agree Darrell. It will take several winning seasons in a row to see CWS close to capacity again. Get in a habit of not going to games, saving $$, watching it on TV for most games, it's going to take some very good football being played to change that, IMO. I saved $1600 this year and was offered free tickets twice and still didn't go. Last offer was for the Vandy game game, so really glad I didn't. I hope my attitude changes, but MB and the rest of the UK Admin has a lot of fence mending to do before I vest my money again.