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When the NCAA agreed to an historic $2.8 billion settlement that opened the door for revenue sharing in college sports it created one big question. How are schools going to pay for it?
Two obvious answers quickly arrived at the forefront of discussions. One, schools were going to cut scholarships from sports that don’t generate revenue. And two, schools would pass costs on to fans in the form of additional ticket costs and fees.
While the former has only just started to begin, the latter is well underway and fans are already bearing the brunt of these costs. Amanda Christovich of Front Office Sports broke down some of the ways fans are already feeling some of the financial burden and also looked into what’s to come in an ever-changing landscape.
Schools Are Creating All Sorts Of New Fees To Pass Costs Onto College Sports Fans
The biggest violator so far appears to be Tennessee, where fans saw a significant rise in the price of their football tickets.
“In September, the University of Tennessee’s athletic department announced it will begin implementing a 10% “talent fee” on all football tickets. The increases apply to every ticket purchase, regardless of price, and include both single-game tickets and season-ticket purchases for the seven home games per season. Student tickets will get more expensive, too, going from $20 to $25 next season. In all, athletic director Danny White expects to raise $10 million per year—close to half of the House revenue payments.
“It’s going to our student-athletes as part of this new world order in college sports,” Tennessee AD Danny White said of the additional costs. “So I know our fans will embrace it.”
But they’re not alone. Even in just the SEC, other programs have begun to implement ways to pass costs onto fans. At Arkansas, all concessions now have a 3% fee added to help fund additional costs. At the University of North Carolina, those fees are confined to beer and wine sales, which were made legal at NCAA events in 2018.
Ultimately, additional fees alone are not likely to cover the entire difference in cost that’s on the horizon. Schools that opt-in to the new model will more than likely end up cutting sports that are not making money. But what’s done is done, and schools who opt out of the revenue sharing will likely be left in the dust. So either fans bite the bullet and pay up, or they may not have a program to root for at all.