Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Florida’s Football Revenue and Expenses
By Kristi DoshLast Updated on December 2, 2020
Because I know how much you all hate the Department of Education financial numbers, and because I strive to give you what you want, I’ve begun amassing budgets and audited financial statements from universities.
Today I have the audited financial statements for the University of Florida’s athletic department. I’ll be covering a variety of interesting information from these over the coming days and weeks, but let’s start with what I know you all care about the most: football.
Some basics to get started. Football brought in 57% of all revenue received by the athletic department in fiscal year 2010 (which would be the 2009 football season). The next largest contributor was Royalties and Sponsorships at 15 percent. Next is something I try to stress on this site all the time. Football revenue does not sit in a vault marked “Football Only”. It is used to fund as many other areas of the athletic department as possible. Accordingly, just 19% of total expenses in the athletic department were for the football program, despite bringing in more than half of all revenue. Remember, rarely do sports other than football and men’s basketball turn a profit. For example, at Florida, football revenue accounted for 86% of all revenue generated by sports at Florida in 2009-2010. Thus, profits from football must be used to support sometimes dozens of other sports.
So where does the money come from and where does it go? As you’ll see below, the majority of money comes from boosters and fans. Although SEC distributions for television, bowls, and the SEC Championship Game total over $13 million, they account for just 21% of all revenue generated by the football program. Booster contributions, luxury seating and suites account for just shy of half of all football revenue.
Here’s the full breakdown of all football operating revenue from the 2009 season:
| Home Games | |
| Arkansas | $2,365,600.00 |
| Tennessee | $2,586,182.00 |
| Vanderbilt | $2,350,162.00 |
| Florida State | $2,523,240.00 |
| Troy State | $2,314,012.00 |
| Charleston Southern | $2,322,270.00 |
| Florida International | $2,353,662.00 |
| Subtotal Home Games | $16,815,128.00 |
| Georgia (net) | $1,888,224.00 |
| Sales Tax | -$1,294,805.00 |
| Subtotal Games Revenue | $17,408,547.00 |
| Other Football Revenue | |
| SEC Television | $9,098,162.00 |
| Sec Bowl Distribution | $2,208,661.00 |
| SEC Surplus Distribution | $801,992.00 |
| SEC Championship Game | $1,211,858.00 |
| Ticket-Related Booster Contributions | $15,029,567.00 |
| Gator Suites | $3,434,004.00 |
| Gator Dens | $900,000.00 |
| Luxury Seating | $11,825,723.00 |
| Gator Booster Contributions | $9,502.00 |
| Coaches Clinic | $8,820.00 |
| Spring Game | $82,935.00 |
| Subtotal Other Football Revenue | $44,611,224.00 |
| Bowl Revenue | $1,931,800.00 |
| TOTAL | $63,951,571.00 |
Total operating expenses for the athletic department total $105.2 million. Thus football revenue only covers 60% of the athletic department’s expenses. On top of not being able to pay just football players because of Title IX issues, there’s also the issue of how you fund the rest of the athletic department. Do you up student fees and ask non-athletes to help pay the athletes? Do you ask boosters for more money? Do you ask the taxpayers for more? Do you cut non-revenue producing sports, which let’s face it, would be men’s non-revenue producing sports because few schools, if any, would risk cutting a woman’s sport alone and facing a possible Title IX suit. I’m not saying a school like Florida can’t come up with the funds to pay players (although they’re one of just 22 I think could even consider it), I’m just saying it’s more complicated than most realize.
Back to the topic at hand. What do Florida’s football expenses look like? I’ll give you the full line-by-line detail after the jump, but wanted to point out a few things first. Since 2005, Florida’s football expenses have increased by 52 percent. However, football revenue has increased by 54%, so they’re allowing revenue to grow at a slightly faster rate than expenses. And again, although football revenue accounts for 57% of all revenue in the athletic department, only 19% of all expenses are football-related.
In the end, football generated a profit of $44,244,129. The total operating expenses for all sports at Florida was $40,129,000 (total athletic department expenses are much higher at $105,236,000). Like I’ve said before, a successful football program funds all other sports.
Follow the link to see the full expense chart for Florida football for the 2009 season….
| Football Team Expenses | |
| Team Travel | $936,474.00 |
| Preseason | $211,930.00 |
| Equipment | $429,583.00 |
| Expendable Equipment | $12,888.00 |
| Scouting | $0.00 |
| Awards | $13,106.00 |
| Postage | $36,198.00 |
| Recruiting | $455,145.00 |
| Equipment Maintenance | $11,244.00 |
| Office Supplies | $39,786.00 |
| Banquet | $3,982.00 |
| Comp Tickets | $196,500.00 |
| Miscellaneous | $37,692.00 |
| Telephone | $34,001.00 |
| Other Travel | $17,962.00 |
| Software and Supplies | $11,000.00 |
| Lettermen Events | $8,930.00 |
| Coaches Clinic | $17,380.00 |
| Subtotal Team Expenses | $2,473,801.00 |
| Salaries | $3,703,995.00 |
| OPS | $74,508.00 |
| Fringe Benefits | $423,864.00 |
| Subtotal | $4,202,367.00 |
| Coaches Bonuses | $10,000.00 |
| Equipment Payments | $110,000.00 |
| Head Coach Additional Compensation | $2,310,600.00 |
| Longevity Incentives | $250,000.00 |
| Business Expense Payments | $65,211.00 |
| Talent Fees | $2,000.00 |
| Signing Bonus | $700,000.00 |
| Fringe Benefits | $32,191.00 |
| Subtotal | $3,480,002.00 |
| Contract Guarantees | $1,875,000.00 |
| Ticket Printing | $146,989.00 |
| Officials | $220,162.00 |
| Operators | $2,143,687.00 |
| Luxury Area Expense | $1,161,970.00 |
| Stadium Rental | $1.00 |
| Event Parking Fees | $354,500.00 |
| Band | $578,025.00 |
| Parking Passes | $21,862.00 |
| Subtotal | $6,502,196.00 |
| Bowl | |
| Comp Tickets | $673,360.00 |
| Team Travel | $731,561.00 |
| Ticket Office | $7,583.00 |
| Band | $189,430.00 |
| Awards | $64,657.00 |
| Championship Awards | $19,993.00 |
| Press Guide | $7,200.00 |
| Audio Visual | $0.00 |
| Miscellaneous | $0.00 |
| Laundry | $0.00 |
| Salaries | $888,748.00 |
| Fringe Benefits | $65,360.00 |
| Subtotal | $2,647,892.00 |
| SEC Championship Game Expenses | |
| Comp Tickets | $107,145.00 |
| Team Travel | $178,139.00 |
| Ticket Office | $3,501.00 |
| Band | $85,478.00 |
| Awards | $2,464.00 |
| Miscellaneous | $2,157.00 |
| Salaries | $338,000.00 |
| Fringe Benefits | $13,984.00 |
| SEC Travel Reimbursement | -$329,648.00 |
| Subtotal | $401,184.00 |
| TOTAL | $19,707,442.00 |
Patrick H
July 13, 2011Excellent article.
DCPowerGator
July 13, 2011This is really interesting detail. A couple of follow-up questions, if possible.
(1) Does the “SEC Television” line item include the amounts from CBS and ESPN pursuant to the new contracts?
(2) Where is revenue from Local Broadcast TV/radio? UF has separate contracts with Sunshine network, radio broadcasters, etc. included?
(3) Where is revenue from sponsorships, such as Nike (which has been reported to be in the millions per year), and local sponsorships (e.g., the official soft drink of Gator football) included?
(4) Why are there line items totaling $954k for salary+fringe associated with the bowl game? Is this simply a proration of these expenses to allocate some to the bowl game which nets to zero via a corresponding reduction to the salary+fringe line items listed elsewhere? If so, why do this for the bowl game but not the SECCG? If not, what do the salary+fringe items listed for the bowl game pertain to?
(5) What does the “Bowl revenue” line item listed just above the revenue grand total correspond to and how does that differ from the “SEC bowl distribution” line item?
Thanks! Oh yeah, this Gator fan was thrilled to see that our expense line item for “Scouting” was $0! I bet Oregon and LSU wish they could say the same thing (cough, willie lyles, cough cough)!
Kristi Dosh
July 13, 2011DCPowerGators,
Here are my best answers to your questions:
1. Yes.
2. It doesn’t look like they attribute any of that directly to football. Those are multi-sport contracts and are listed under another section of revenue. I’ll hit on this in another post, probably on Monday.
3. Again, those are items that aren’t attributed to any one sport, so they’re listed in other areas of the financial report.
4. I’m not confident enough about my answer to post it, but I’ll see if I can get it confirmed and reply later.
5. The Bowl Revenue line item would be a reimbursement for expenses, which is separate from the SEC Bowl Distribution, which each school receives in an equal amount.
Also, I’m a Gator law grade, and I loved putting in that $0 line item for scouting!
Larry
July 14, 2011Very interesting. Could you tell me where you got these figures? Did you need to file a freedom of information act or are they available readily? It would be nice to see all the other sports breakdowns as well.
DCPowerGator
July 14, 2011Hey Kristi – thanks so much for your replies, this is really great work! As a Gator CPA, I find it very interesting, especially given all the attention given to the (alleged) revenue numbers for the recent TV deals at the numerically-challenged conferences like the Big Televewelve, the Big XII minus II and the Pac 12 (for now).
People are now saying that the landmark SEC TV deal of a few years back is now falling short by comparison. However, I find that very hard to believe, especially if one really delves into an apples-to-apples revenue comparison, including many of the things I inquired with you about, specifically the broadcast TV and radio revenues negotiated by the school itself. Many, if not all, of these new conference TV deals do not give the schools that ability.
Thanks again!!! Always Great to be a Florida Gator!!!
Alfredia Singharath
October 14, 2011Great blog here! Also your web site a lot up very fast! What host are you using? Can I get your associate link for your host? I want my site loaded up as fast as yours lol