As a young apprentice at the University of Missouri, Ross Bjork first learned the phrase \u201calternative revenue sources\u201d from his boss, longtime Tigers athletic director Mike Alden. The term resonates more than 25 years later.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody\u2019s like, \u2018What does that mean?\u2019\u201d said Bjork, now the AD at Ohio State. \u201cAnd he started talking about concerts and just other ways to be creative in revenue generation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bjork\u2019s Buckeyes rank among college athletics\u2019 highest earners: The Ohio State athletic department reported nearly $800 million in revenue over the last three reported fiscal years. Yet with 36 sports offered on campus and constant pressure heaped on his defending national champion football squad, Bjork considers the search for revenue from non-traditional sources critical for his department to stay ahead.<\/p>\n
The key, Bjork said, is for athletic departments to lean into their assets, not simply raise ticket prices. Campuses like Ohio State have football cathedrals and other athletic buildings that sit idle for most days of the year, and finding ways to keep those facilities functional beyond gameday is part of the challenge. His marketing staff develops ways to keep more products and athletic events in view of fans on their phones and computers. Bjork referenced buying shoes from Nike or Cole Haan and then seeing ads from both companies on his phone over a two-month period as a method Ohio State can apply.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re sitting on a ton of data that just hasn\u2019t been deployed in a strategic way,\u201d Bjork said. \u201cHow do we monetize our in-venue experience around our stadiums? How do we take commercial activity to a higher level? That\u2019s going to take some getting used to, and people may be uncomfortable about that. But the term I\u2019ve used is, how do we honor tradition, but not think traditionally?<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do we use data to be more strategic about deploying those assets, whether it\u2019s premium seating, tickets, merchandise, fundraising, special events? We are not using data effectively to really market and target different groups.\u201d<\/p>\n
Every athletic department faces those types of questions as they enter a new era of paying players. Beginning on July 1, schools were permitted to distribute up to $20.5 million to athletes across all sports, but the cap will rise every year. Media rights deals, the primary moneymaker for Power 4 athletic departments, help cover the cost, and raising ticket prices is an ever-present if not always popular option. But exploring new ways to make money is an urgent task for programs looking to keep up with one another.<\/p>\n
Some schools have increased profits on gameday by upgrading concession areas or selling beer throughout their stadiums. Alcohol sales can add millions of dollars to some department coffers, but they\u2019re not an option for every program.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re at a Christian university, and so when we think about revenues, we\u2019ve got a cap because we\u2019re not serving alcohol in our venues,\u201d Baylor athletic director Mack Rhoades said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have certain types of sponsorships and all of that. So beginning to think that we\u2019ve got to find another layer of creativity, and so it\u2019s got to be this combination of finding a way to increase and generate more money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Penn State is spending $700 million to renovate Beaver Stadium, a steep figure but an investment the department eventually could see returns from in ways other than its seven or eight home football games per season, said former Penn State tight end Adam Breneman. The renovations should be completed by 2027.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou now have this brand-new facility instead of having a dated Beaver Stadium that only does football games,\u201d said Breneman, a co-founder of The College Sports Company and a sports media personality. \u201cYou can do weddings and banquets and seminars and conferences and all this stuff to drive revenue in a Beaver Stadium facility that you didn\u2019t have before.\u201d<\/p>\n
Conferences also play a role in identifying opportunities for new revenue. Each of the Power 4 leagues has examined private equity as an avenue to additional capital. In 2024, the Big 12 debated whether to sell a 15-20 percent equity stake and its naming rights to AllState in exchange for a reported $800 million to $1 billion. The Big Ten also has met with investors about private capital. Neither league has moved forward with any private equity plans.<\/p>\n
There are other options. This summer, the Big Ten and Big 12 struck a deal with PayPal to become the exclusive way their schools will pay athletes. The social payment platform Venmo, which is owned by PayPal, will also sponsor the new Big Ten Rivalry Series.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you\u2019ll see more of those kind of structures like when we come together collectively to do something,\u201d Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said. \u201cWe have a powerful reach, a powerful book of business opportunities for lots of companies who want to be associated with the brands, and we can make it easier for those businesses to do business with all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are other methods for schools and conferences to grow revenue. Some, like naming facilities or even staff positions after donors, have gone on for years. Last year, the NCAA lifted its ban on putting advertising and commercial logos on football fields. Just this month, Iowa announced it would relocate both \u201cDuke Slater Field\u201d emblems at Kinnick Stadium from the 25-yard line to the end zones to accommodate future corporate logos, Auburn revealed YellaWood logos would be painted at the 25s<\/a> of Jordan-Hare Stadium and Memphis announced it would have FedEx logos in the end zones<\/a>.<\/p>\n For decades, many athletic departments have contracted out their commercial ventures to companies like Learfield and Playfly in exchange for a guaranteed paycheck and potential revenue-sharing profits once quotas were met. In the new world, those are areas where athletic departments may consider alternatives or perhaps take on those tasks themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cUniversities have always been sort of risk-averse and conservative, and a lot of that led to why we\u2019re outsourcing to Learfield,\u201d Bjork said. \u201cThey\u2019re going out and selling the sponsorship because universities maybe didn\u2019t have the wherewithal or the expertise to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n Conference and school officials have also discussed taking more ownership of nonconference basketball scheduling. As it stands, schools regularly hand over six-figure checks to companies that arrange multi-team events (MTE) in exotic locales like the Bahamas, Cayman Islands and Cancun. Now that teams are allowed to schedule 31 games without requiring an MTE, it could lead to the conferences arranging neutral-site games or events themselves, allowing them keep that revenue instead of ceding it to third parties. It also enables leagues to control the media rights for those games.<\/p>\n In addition, leagues could arrange non-College Football Playoff postseason games at neutral sites rather than go through the traditional bowl structure. In the past, bowl trips often consisted of departments taking on massive ticket allowances and requiring extended stays that rarely led to profits. That\u2019s likely to meet more resistance, but every topic is open for discussion.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re in a space where you have to be curious,\u201d UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond said. \u201cI always start with being curious, especially as our business evolves and everything is changing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 The Athletic\u2019s Sam Khan Jr. contributed reporting.<\/p>\n (Photo: Jason Miller \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a young apprentice at the University of Missouri, Ross Bjork first learned the phrase \u201calternative revenue sources\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316021,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[9436,331,7,49,48,69,2743,156],"class_list":{"0":"post-316020","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-baylor-bears","9":"tag-college-football","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-football","13":"tag-ohio-state-buckeyes","14":"tag-penn-state-nittany-lions","15":"tag-sports-business"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115088727998359938","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}