Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Football funds
Owls limit lucrative non-conference games.
BOCA RATON — This season, Florida Atlantic is paying its new football coach more than any other coach in Conference USA. However, this same season, the Owls will net the smallest amount of money from non-conference games in school history, according to FAU game contracts.
In its four non-conference games this season, FAU will net $610,000 in guarantees, down from $710,000 last year and down significantly from the $1.6 million net in 2015. This season, FAU will pay Navy ($200,000) and Bethune-Cookman ($390,000) to visit Boca Raton and will receive $1.2 million to play at Wisconsin. The fourth nonconference foe, Buffalo, will not pay FAU to travel there.
From 2008-15, the school averaged a net gain of $1.36 million with nonconference games, according to university income statements. The recent dip in cash is due to a scheduling philosophy championed by FAU Athletic Director Pat Chun, which limits so-called “guarantee games” in favor of a sixth home game and a better chance of reaching a bowl game.
Guarantee games usually involve a Power 5 school inviting a mid-major program to play a road game that the visiting team has a
small chance of winning. The mid-major program is typically compensated with a seven-figure payday.
FAU used to play multiple guarantee games a season. In 2014, the Owls traveled to Nebraska and Alabama. In 2013, FAU went to Miami and Auburn. In 2012, it went to Georgia and Alabama. The Owls were defeated, but walked away with good money.
Chun has distanced FAU from that plan. He hopes that a less-profitable but easier schedule can lead to more wins and improved fan support, which could sell more tickets. He calls it “trying to create a schedule conducive to success.”
“There’s a risk, but there’s nothing more important for our student-athletes, our coaches and this institution just to have a winning football program,” Chun said. “For where we aspire to be, the reality is those programs don’t do guarantee games. But we have to get into a position where we start consistently winning over time. And then the assumption is that it’s going to impact our home gate, and we’ll make it up on that side.”
The Owls have not been to a bowl game since 2008.
From 2008 through 2015, non-conference games accounted for nearly 30 percent of FAU’s football revenue. That figure will decrease in coming seasons, save for 2019, when the Owls will receive a $1.4 million check from Ohio State, the highest guarantee so far in the coming years.
In the next seven seasons, FAU does not have a schedule with more than one guarantee game. Wisconsin (2017), Oklahoma (2018), Ohio State (2019), Illinois (2020) and Clemson (2023) are spread out. In 2021, FAU does not have a guarantee game, and it won’t in 2022 either, unless it deviates from its objective to have six home games. At the same time, FAU is scheduling more Football Championship Subdivision opponents. It hosted Southern Illinois last season and will welcome Bethune-Cookman (2017 and 2018) and Fordham (2021) soon. And those games cost FAU money.
FAU will lose $150,000 on non-conference games in 2021 and could be in the red again in 2022, pending arrangements for two home games.
“As we keep building our program, the hope is by that time, our program has made huge leaps and bounds where we’re competing, or have won conference championships,” Chun said. “[We hope] we’ve consistently gotten to bowl games and won bowl games, and we’re in a very different place. That’s still a good five seasons away, so a lot can change.”
Does the philosophy make sense for a school that boosted coaching salaries but has struggled to draw fans to its new stadium?
New Owls coach Lane Kiffin will make $950,000 annually as part of a contract through 2021, and his assistants will make a combined $1.7 million. The salaries jumped about $1 million from the previous coaching staff headed by Charlie Partridge, who was fired in November.
Student fees are traditionally the largest form of revenue for the athletic department, contributing at least $10 million in each of the past seven academic years, according to university documents. Chun said student fees likely wouldn’t increase to compensate for the additional salary and lowered guaranteed revenue.
“Not with the current structure of the state, the governor, I don’t see that happening,” Chun said.
FAU will instead gamble on improved ticket sales to bridge the gap. Last year, FAU had the lowest attendance in FAU Stadium’s short history, averaging 10,073 fans per game. It was the third-worst attendance in the country among Football Bowl Subdivision schools.
However, Chun said ticket sales have improved since hiring Kiffin. Renewal rates are at “an all-time high,” and FAU could be on pace to set records for both season ticket sales and overall ticket sales, he said. For the season opener against Navy on Sept. 1, Chun said “a near capacity [crowd] or majority of the house full is probably a safe goal to have.”
“It’s like any sporting event, every empty seat is a lost opportunity,” Chun said. “The good thing is the market has reacted well. Coming off the season we had, hiring a new coach, the market has reacted really well.”
Ohio University associate professor of sports business David Ridpath is wary of FAU’s strategy. Ridpath, also a contributor to Forbes, applauded FAU for limiting guarantee games, but was hesitant to expect an abnormally large spike in attendance from Kiffin’s addition as coach.
“I’m glad that Florida Atlantic is at least looking at [limiting guarantee games], but boy it’s going to be tough,” Ridpath said. “Unless Lane Kiffin pulls off an undefeated season, something like a Boise State-type year, pulls a major upset, I don’t think you’re going to see massive, massive attendance. It could certainly increase. I could see them draw 20-plus [thousand] a game.”
Ridpath warned against “a perpetual cycle of negative financial books” that occurs when a mid-major team invests resources into a program but fails to win. Group of 5 schools don’t have the lucrative television contracts that Power 5 institutions do, giving them less financial security to fall back on.
Attendance revenue can come from ticket sales, program sales, concessions, novelty sales and parking. According to university income statements, since FAU Stadium opened in 2011 and through the 2015 season, the school pulled in an average of $234,917 per home game in those categories.
With an average attendance of 15,566 over that time period, each fan contributed an average of $15.09 to FAU. If that figure remains constant and FAU’s average 2017 attendance jumps to 20,000 people, that would boost revenue to about $301,826 per game — or nearly $2 million from its six home games this season. In 2015, FAU’s combined attendance revenue was about $1.7 million. Figures for the 2016 season are not available yet.
In the end, though, it always returns to winning, and a softer schedule helps. Chun wants to see how meaningful home games in November impact the bottom line. FAU has its theories and guesses, he said, but they “need to see firsthand” its affect.
FAU has yet to field a winning team at its on-campus stadium. A 6-6 season in 2013 was the closest they came, though that year was muddied by the messy divorce with coach Carl Pelini. This year will mark the 10-year anniversary of FAU’s only conference championship.
“It would be great to celebrate that with getting to a bowl game,” Chun said. “Internally, we just know that, the way the system is set up, we need to start the tradition of getting to bowl games as a football program.”
“I’m glad that Florida Atlantic is at least looking at [limiting guarantee games], but boy it’s going to be tough.” David Ridpath, Ohio University associate professor of sports business