UVA Athletics Director Craig Littlepage last week faced a decision with a large potential impact on athletic finances: whether to extend the contract for Head Football Coach Al Groh an extra year, through 2011.
His decision not to (“The expectations for our program are higher than a 5-7 season,” said Littlepage in an e-mail) could help save the University almost $2 million if they decide to fire Groh after next season.
 In the event that Al Groh tanks next season, UVA’s decision not to extend his contract an additional year could save the University $2 million. |
Sounds like chump change for a big time athletics department, right? Not really, says Jon Oliver, executive associate athletics director at UVA. “When people think that football just funds all these other initiatives, once you take out the expenses of football, it’s not necessarily true on a large scale,” says Oliver. “It surely helps, there’s no question about that.”
The profits from football last year? Two-and-a-half million dollars, with $9.5 million in revenues and $7 million in expenses (most of that being coaching salaries). All well and good, but considering that athletics have a nearly $50 million operating budget and the John Paul Jones Arena cost $130 million and the University is in the midst of a $3 billion capital campaign, that $2.5 million profit isn’t exactly overwhelming.
Football revenue comes primarily from ticket sales, projected at $9.8 million this year, factoring in payouts for teams to play in Charlottesville and paydays for playing away games. ACC schools get up to $225,000 for playing each other away. For other schools, it varies: For visiting (and, incidentally, losing), UVA got paid $250,000 by Pittsburgh and a lowly $150,000 by East Carolina. If a Division I-AA school comes to play the Cavaliers next season, Oliver says, the payout could double.
Since ticket sales drive revenues, this season gives a good example of what losing does for those profits: Attendance dropped from 60,429 in the home opener against Wyoming to 54,552 for the final home game against Miami.
