TSSAA’S football playoff revenue a positive
MURFREESBORO – Reduced crowds in the Tennessee high school football playoffs won't have as big of an impact on the TSSAA'S annual budget as originally projected.
The TSSAA'S net income — after paying officials and catastrophic insurance — in the 2020 playoffs through the semifinals was $146,705.86 — down just $34,505.78 from 2019 when games were at full attendance capacity.
The TSSAA also received $243,290 from Bluecross Bowl weekend before expenses. That was down from the normal $253,000 as part of Cookeville's annual bid. However, the TSSAA renegotiated with Cookeville due to reduced capacities at the state championship. The TSSAA received all ticket receipts from the championships.
After expenses, the TSSAA grossed $131,916.92 from the championship games. Participating schools shared $54,083.
The football financial report was a big surprise to TSSAA executive director Bernard Childress when he received the news.
Childress budgeted $300,000 for the football playoffs in 2020, down from the $765,000 budgeted for 2019, which actually brought in $590,489.
But it also leaves two questions: how many people are getting into postseason games for free or is the interest level for playoff games only slightly larger than a third capacity.
"I was shocked — I was totally shocked," Childress said. "We had pretty much made what we made operating on a third capacity.
"My first thought was are we letting in two-thirds of people that come into our contests free of charge. It was a total shock."
The TSSAA set postseason capacity levels for all playoff football games. The state association received capacity levels for all high school stadiums then sold tickets at a third capacity online. Only online tickets were sold.
Through the first four rounds of the playoffs, 152,099 people attended for $1,249,292 total gross. That was down from 173,031 people in 2019 and $1,399,998.
Member schools receive 50% of all football tickets through the playoffs for $624,646. The TSSAA paid $312,323 for catastrophic insurance and $165,617.14 for officials before netting the rest of their share.
However, that good news will be followed with a significant shortcoming. When Childress presented
the 2020-21 budget to the Board of Control in August, he was hoping that a COVID-19 vaccine would be available earlier and that basketball playoff games could be at full capacity.
He budgeted $750,000 for the basketball playoffs.
However capacity was limited to 1,000 for each basketball session during the Division I tournament at Middle
Tennessee State and 2,200 at Division II tournament games at Tennessee Tech.
The financials have not been released yet from the basketball postseason. The soonest it would be released is during the TSSAA'S June Board of Control meetings.
The TSSAA'S budget this year was an unbalanced one, expecting a $375,000 shortfall due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The high school association lost $850,000 last year, Childress said.
"We did present an unbalanced budget because we wanted to be realistic," Childress said.
The TSSAA did receive $384,242 through the government's Paycheck Protection Program. That will be used for payroll purposes to keep employees from being laid off.
"If we can make up any of what we lost last year, that would be a win," Childress said. "If we could break even, it would be a win."
Other fall sports state tournaments showed larger net than the year prior including:
h Golf had a net of $24,483.63 after expenses. That was up from $16,777.52 in 2019.
h Girls soccer net was $17,280.62, up from $11,261.52. This does not include a hotel invoice for this season. Last year that expense was $1,890.
h Cross country had a net of $9,411.76 up from a loss of $1,972.59 in 2019. The reason for the bid change was from having less expenses for tournament workers and security
h And volleyball was just slightly down at $35,633.82 in 2020 — down from $35,888.78 in 2019.
Reach Tom Kreager at 615-259-8089 or tkreager@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Kreager.