My daughter was telling a similar story about the scanners not working at Kennesaw St.

Fresno State sold out their first home game at standing room numbers of 41000+, probably will do close to that next week against Kent State at home also.

(09-17-2023 01:21 PM)bullet Wrote:  Colleges don't get nearly the supplemental revenue from ticket buyers actually showing up that the pros do. People tailgate, so they don't buy as much food as people usually do at pro games. And maybe colleges leave money on the table as they seem to have fewer, slower concession lines as well as many fewer choices. A lot of the parking is not affiliated with the university, whereas pros like to have captive lots, particularly in the newer stadiums.

This is true, the margins aren't as large as they are in the pros (particularly the NFL), and many haven't optimized their stadiums as well as they could to maximize gameday revenue (from concessions to data to WiFi to 'premium experiences', etc etc).

Still, the money isn't zero. I pulled up a few FY20 and FY22 FRS reports from the ol' FOIA Directory, and based on what gets *reported*, a typical D-I 'gameday' revenue number is going to be a little north of 10% of what they'll earn from just raw ticket sales. That includes concessions, parking, programs, and novelties, but doesn't include any in-stadium purchases that are classified as 'donations', or licensing revenues.

That's still a lot of money though! Even $60,000 at an FCS school pays for like, two GAs and some travel stipends.