Jul 15

Is college sports a sustainable business for most universities?

Published by admin at 5:18 pm under Other - Business Finance

bernieEC asked:


I’m wondering how some school finance sports like track and field, swimming or golf.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google

Tags: , , ,

Tags

One Response to “Is college sports a sustainable business for most universities?”

  1. # David545on 19 Jul 2007 at 12:25 am

    There was an excellent article in Sports Illustrated recently on this very issue.

    Basically, most “minor” sports, such track & field, swimming, and golf, are subsidized by the “revenue” sports, which are basketball and football. Many of these programs are virtual cash cows; i.ei. Louisville basketball provided $17+ million in profit to the university’s athletic program. Football contributed a lesser amount, but it was still several million dollars.

    So much for the “big” successful university programs. Most programs don’t turn a profit, especially if you deduct “student athletic fees,” which are mandatory for full-time students, and which can be several hundreds per year, per student. Add to the the costs associated with owning a football stadium (which is used, at most, 7 times a year), and most university athletic programs do NOT produce a profit. State subsidies, and contributions by sports-crazed alumni make up the rest.

Search