“Rocky Top…you’ll always be Charging an additional Fee…”
Tennessee Athletics went viral this week for announcing it will be adding a 10% “talent fee” to its football ticket invoices, the first university to make this move. UT Knoxville is doing this, and more schools will be soon, in the never-ending chase for revenue. Even in the mighty SEC – and maybe especially in the mighty SEC – the pursuit of dollars is at an all-time high.
Much has been written about the upcoming House settlement, where schools and conferences and the NCAA will be on the hook for backpay to former athletes and also revenue sharing to current athletes moving forward. Feel free to look up the thousands of takes and updates on House. There’s no need to rehash that in this space.
What Will Tennessee Make On The Talent Fee?
Let’s do the math, based on past figures and what’s been reported today.
Tennessee averaged 101,915 for home football games in 2023, and with another strong season will more or less match that number this year. That’s for seven home games. Take that 101K figure and let’s take out the student ticket allotment (11,500) and the allotments for the marching band and for student-athletes (about 1,000 tickets). That leaves 89,400 or so tickets left over for sale. More or less. So Tennessee is selling 89,400 tickets seven times, equaling 625,905 tickets sold.
According to Vivid Seats, the average ticket price at Neyland Stadium is $118.15 in 2024. We also know there will be a 4.5% price increase in 2025, on top of the “talent fee”. That makes the new average ticket price will be $123.46 next year. The “talent fee” per ticket will come out to $12.34 a ticket, which we can multiply 625,905 times.
With this new football “talent fee,” we can now estimate an extra $7,723,667 in revenue for Tennessee in 2025. That right there is more than 1/3 of the expected future revenue share in the House settlement. Let’s also consider a reported $5 increase per ticket in the student section, going from $20 for students to $25. That’s $57,500 per home game, or another $402,500 for the 2025 season. Between the “talent fee” and student increase alone, Tennessee can make an extra $8,126,167 next year.
That could probably get you 12 All-SEC players, just from the “talent fee” and another five bucks per student.
Commentary On The Rollout
Get8 Sports really liked how Tennessee went about this move. They were a first mover, which comes with a lot of risk. But the following elements made it a success, coupled with the timing of a baseball natty in June and a hot football start right now:
- Early announcement to give fans time to adjust and digest
- A video with Athletic Director Danny White making the case and relating to fans
- Announcement of 10-month payment plans
- Making clear the direct relationship between winning and resources. Per the emailed announcement, “There has never been a time in college sports where revenue growth had such a close correlation to winning.”
Similar initiatives are sure to follow across the college sports landscape. Kudos to Tennessee for the transparency. But every audience and announcement is different. If your department is making a similar move, consult Get8 Sports for a full audit and communication strategy session so you hit the right notes with your fanbase.
