from Forbes.... Forbes Business Magazine has selected the most valuable college football teams by comparing what the programs contribute to four areas: the value of contributions from football to the school for academic purposes, net profit generated and retained by the athletic department, distribution of bowl revenue from the conference, and the spending in the local area during home game weekends. The following is a ranking of the Top-15 teams going into 2008. Rank# Team Value Profit 15) Sou Cal Trojans $53 Million (tie) $13.0 Million 15) Arkansas Razorbacks $53 Million (tie) $19.3 Million 13) South Carolina Gamecocks $69 Million (tie) $28.9 Million 13) Penn State Nittany Lions $69 Million (tie) $29.4 Million 11) Oklahoma Sooners $70 Million $18.5 Million 10) Ohio State Buckeyes $71 Million $26.6 Million 9) Alabama Crimson Tide $72 Million $31.8 Million 8) Auburn Tigers $73 Million $33.9 Million 7) Tennessee Volunteers $74 Million $17.3 Million 6) Louisiana State Tigers $76 Million $31.7 Million 5) Florida Gators $84 Million $38.2 Million 4) Michigan Wolverines $85 Million $36.2 Million 3) Georgia Bulldogs $90 Million $43.5 Million 2) Texas Longhorns $92 Million $46.2 Million 1) Notre Dame Fighting Irish $101 Million $45.8 Million
Good ranking. Amazing that 8 of the top 15 are SEC teams. And some people have such negative things to say about the worth of football in the South being limited to rednecks with mullets drinking beer! It's quite clear that football is a valuable asset to the communities of these fine academic institutions.
Not shocking <t>and I am certainly not surprised at all by the high rankings of the SEC teams. I've lived in all regions but the northeast, and no one cashes in on fan crazy like the SEC.<br/> <br/> I can't actually get my friends back home to believe that even in the nicer malls in the South, they have clothing stores dedicated to the local university. Everywhere I go, in every city, there is several places hocking the wares of Auburn, Alabama and Tennessee. Its like that in every state in the South. Its actually quite impressive. The passion is unmatched.<br/> <br/> I have, in the past, posted articles documenting and praising the fantastic atmosphere that is the religion of college football in the South. Somehow, my words regarding this subject are only ever slighted (both here and in real life around town) when I begin to question the 'obvious domination of college sports by the SEC.'</t>
After thinking about it this is sort of a head scratcher. The criteria are: 1. The value of contributions from football to the school for academic purposes. How do you even come up with a number for that? 2. Net profit generated and retained by the athletic department. OK for public institutions open records act gives them access to that, but not for ND and ND Athletic dept funds academics with some of it's profits, again nobody knows that exact number 3. Distribution of bowl revenue from the conference. We ain't in no stinkin conference, so hows that work 4. Spending in the local area during home game weekends. Given how much rooms are jacked up in South Bend on football weekends and that I'd guess that the vast majority of fans in attendance at ND games are from out of town, this might hold water for the Irish. At Texas there are a ton of fans in the Austin area who don't stay the weekend, and Austin motels don't jack up the rates. Lots of other fans drive in and drive home and don't stay in the area either. Bet it's the same for most state schools. I don't know how they could claim this list has any basis in fact. Although I'm always glad to see the Irish on top of a list like this, I'd rather they be on top of the BCS Poll.
You get to keep all of the money everytime you go to a bowl whereas the SEC, for instance, has to split those millions amongst all the schools in the conference. So, it works out quite nicely as long as ND is making bowl games but when they fall on hard times the money stops coming. I'm sure the business and tourism councils for the individual cities have a number that estimates quite closely the economic impact that football games have on the local economy. If I'm not mistaken, a similar number is used when making the case for new stadiums for professional sports franchise. You can quantify nearly anything if you put your mind to it.
Aquila, Would you guess that the vast majority of fans at Vol football games are either local to Knoxville area or drive in from around the state and go home after the game? Terry
I think if you drive down I-40 or I-81 on gameday, you'll get your answer. There are tons of Orange flags to be seen. I'd hesitate to say an exact number but look at it this way: If 60K are local fans, then you still have 40-50K that are visiting. That's a very large number. That's not even mentioning the #'s of fans that are local that are going to flood the local shops and restaurants on gameday buying UT gear and eating at Calhoun's on the river. The thing about Knoxville and many of the other SEC cities on this list when compared to Austin, Texas is that, in terms of population, there is no comparison. Austin has an enormous population so I understand what you're saying about the difficulties involved in quantifying the economic impact a football game has on the area as far as tourists. Take a look at the numbers in comparison according to the 2006 census (with capacity of football stadium in parentheses): Austin, Texas-709,893 (85K) Knoxville, Tennessee-182,337 (104K) Gainesville, FL-108,655 (88K) Fayeteville, AK-68,726 (76K) Tuscaloosa, AL-83,052 (92K) Columbia, SC-119,961 (80K) Athens, GA-111,580 (92K) Baton Rouge, LA-229,553 (93K) Now, I understand that many campuses are located in areas with an otherwise small population but comparing these SEC cities (with stadiums that hold nearly as many, or more than, people than the city) to a place like Austin isn't exactly apples to apples.
Oh yeah! Well the population of College Station is 86000, while the capacity of our staduim is 88000!! College Station hotels not only jack up their rates during football season, they also require two night stays, which really chaps a LOT of folks. Our first 4 home games are night games to escape the freakin' heat, so while I will drive home the 225 miles late at night, a lot of folks don't like to. I suppose I should include Bryan's population as well, so that would bump it up to about 145K... 8)
Scott, I've been on Hwy 6 going back to Houston after a game at Kyle, it's bumper to bumper crawling traffic. I'll be it's the same on the roads to Dallas and other points as well. So I'd bet a lot of fans are driving in for the game and going home afterwards, esp if it's a day game. Terry
Terry, I'm sure many people go to games and return home the same day. Just because those fans leave town after the game doesn't mean they're not part of a larger boon to the economy on gamedays. Look at it this way, if I go down to Knoxville and choose to drive home the same day (it's about a 3 to 3.5 hour drive) I'm still probably going to be providing money to the local economy in other ways such as the ones listed below: Parking: $20 (min.) Lunch at a local restaurant for the wife and I: $25 2 T-shirts: $40 (min.) Dinner after the game at a place like Calhoun's or Puleo's: $45-50 Gas fill-up for the ride home: $50 (min.) Total: $185 (with no hotel) Now, let's multiply that by 104,000: $19,240,000 Multiplied by # of home games: $134,680,000 That's a lot of money no matter how you slice it. Granted, everyone is not going to spend that much every single time they go but if you factor in a night or two of hotel stay for some of the folks at an avg. cost of probably over $120 per night, you can see that the games provide a large chunk of change to the local economies.
There's no doubt the day-trippers (and there are a LOT for Aggie games) contribute a huge amount to the local economy, especially the restaurants. The places in College Station are SRO on game days. The local merchants raised a HUGE stink when they found out we were giving up a home game to play Arkansas in Dallas every year. Not much they could do about it tho since the AD is getting a NICE payday...
Aquila....you're right those are big numbers even considering a minor amount spent. $185 would only cover Tom's Bar Bill in Knoxville on Friday night before a game!! Just kidding Tom!!
I don't know the percentage of people attending a Gator home game who are from out of town, but I think it is well over 50%. The highways north, south, east and west are loaded with people returning home after a Gator game. That doesn't even include people who fly in and out and who stay overnight. I don't know how they arrive at some of these numbers. I've read other reports that have Ohio State as the top $$$ generating program. Also the Gators have just signed a new deal with Sun/Fox sports that will bring in about 100 million over 10 years. Even if we are not number one, I'm very happy with being in the top five. :wink: :wink:
Hey Rick, which one is the redneck and which is the mullet? :lol: :lol: Inquiring minds want to know! :wink: :wink: