Revenue in ’18 hits new high at $219.4M
Resurgent football program remains dominant breadwinner with $144.5M
AUSTIN — The behemoth that is Texas athletics continued its staggering growth during fiscal year 2018, blowing past its previous revenue high-water mark of $214.8 million set in 2017.
According to documents obtained through a public records request, the University of Texas athletics department generated $219.4 million in revenue in 2018.
Ohio State and Texas A&M were the only other programs to top $200 million in revenue during their 2018 fiscal years, per financial records obtained by USA Today.
UT’s athletics department also spent $206.6 million in 2018, a shade below last year’s expense figure of $207 million, per an audit by Austin accounting firm Maxwell Locke & Ritter.
The athletics department continued its tradition of transferring some excess revenue to the academic branch of the university.
This year it conveyed $10.7 million to academics, bringing its total expenses to $217.3 million. Over the past four years, the athletics department has transferred $40.9 million to the university.
A resurgent football pro-
gram — a 10-win season, Big 12 title game participant and Sugar Bowl victor over Georgia — continued to buoy a sprawling department that counted 20 teams (nine men’s, 11 women’s), 574 studentathletes (who received a collective $12.3 million in student aid) and 61 full-time head and assistant coaches.
Football brought in $144.5 million in revenue, more than the other 19 programs combined. The only other profitable programs were men’s basketball ($7 million) and baseball ($1.6 million).
The football program generated $38.5 million from ticket sales, compared to $28.3 million for the rest of the school’s athletic programs. It also earned $32 million in royalties, licensing, advertisement and sponsorships and brought in an additional $1 million from its Sugar Bowl appearance.
Texas collected 75 percent of its $20 million in media rights revenues via its 20-year contract with ESPN. The deal, struck in 2011, created the Longhorn Network and runs through June 30, 2031.
On the women’s side, basketball led the way in terms of both generating and spending money, with $2.9 million in revenue and $5.6 million in operating expenses.
No student fees here
UT’s athletics department is one of few that does not receive revenue from student fees or state sources. It last collected student fees in 2008, when its total revenue topped out at $120 million.
Texas doled out $11.1 million to football coach Tom Herman ($5.3 million) and his 10 assistants ($5.8 million). Herman out-earned by himself all nine women’s team head coaches, who collected a combined $4 million in salaries, benefits and bonuses in 2018.
Among the biggest drains of cash were support staff and administrative compensation ($42,055,348), direct overhead and administrative fees ($36.3 million), coaching salaries, bonuses and benefits ($26 million) and athletic facilities debt service payments, leases and rental fees ($24.5 million).
Texas currently has $190.6 million in athletics-related debt.
The UT System Board of Regents last year approved a longwaited Royal-Memorial Stadium south end zone addition and renovation project that will cost $175 million.
Athletic director Chris Del Conte has raised $80 million of the $125 million required for the project, while the remaining $50 million will be drawn from premium seating and ticket sales.
“I’m not afraid of asking,” Del Conte said. “I asked a guy the other day for $15 million. He thought I was crazy. I said, ‘I need it. My man, let’s do this.’ He said, ‘Are you crazy?’
“He’s only going to tell you no. Who cares? I’ll go back at it when he says no. It’s like a dance. You ask a girl on a date and she says no — are you afraid to go back and ask someone else out?”
With the Erwin Center set to be razed to make way for the Dell Medical School expansion, the board of regents last year also unanimously passed a motion to allow UT-Austin and a faction led by Oak View Group (OVG) to build a new on-campus arena that will house Texas men’s and women’s basketball games, graduations, concerts, and other events.
Strong still on payroll
It’s a unique pact.
The 35-year agreement between Texas and ArenaCo, a group composed of OVG, Live Nation, C3 Presents and Matthew McConaughey, will be constructed on land owned by Texas without using any university or public money. The $338 million, 10,000seat venue is scheduled to open in 2021.
Among other items of note on the 2018 financial report, Texas issued $7.3 million in severance payments to former football coach Charlie Strong, now with South Florida, and his staff and also spent $1.8 million on recruiting prospective football players.