Duke #1 in Men's BBall Revenue

[Billy Dat]

http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news/2011/10/13/college-basketball-revenue-duke.html

While there are other worthwhile arguments for why the program always insists on playing away games at large neutral sites, this is the best one by far. K has done an amazing job of, essentially, endowing the men's basketball program which will ensure it's success way past his time, as long as a like-minded financial steward eventually takes the reigns. It's a huge reason why the program has had continued success. If it makes the program seem too corporate, that's a criticism I am, as a fan, willing to take. The results speak for themselves.

[Faison1]

Interesting that UConn was so low. I wonder if it's just an accounting issue.

Wasn't it just 2 or 3 years ago that Calhoun made the big scene at a press conference about his salary? I think he mentioned that the basketball program brought in $12mm, so it justified the state paying him so much. Maybe my memory is off.

[devildeac]

http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news/2011/10/13/college-basketball-revenue-duke.html

While there are other worthwhile arguments for why the program always insists on playing away games at large neutral sites, this is the best one by far. K has done an amazing job of, essentially, endowing the men's basketball program which will ensure it's success way past his time, as long as a like-minded financial steward eventually takes the reigns. It's a huge reason why the program has had continued success. If it makes the program seem too corporate, that's a criticism I am, as a fan, willing to take. The results speak for themselves.

Well, this should finally explain why we get all the calls.(jk)

[UNCleRod]

UK would probably be higher on the list if its players payroll wasn't so high

[uh_no]

Interesting that UConn was so low. I wonder if it's just an accounting issue.

Wasn't it just 2 or 3 years ago that Calhoun made the big scene at a press conference about his salary? I think he mentioned that the basketball program brought in $12mm, so it justified the state paying him so much. Maybe my memory is off.

If I recall, there are some inconsistencies with what counts as revenues, which demotes them some, but the issues are greater than that.

First, Calhoun doesn't have the business sense as someone like K. K has a vision of how to bring money in to/grow the program and executes. Calhoun knows basketball, but as has been pointed out many times here, his acumen outside of basketball is somewhat lesser.

Duke has a brand that can appeal to people without a duke relationship....Uconn is mostly limited to connecticut....where they play in a crappy stadium in hartford......i hate watching games at the XL center....it's pretty terrible....and gampel is nice, but it doesn't really have a good feel to it

But really, I think its just that there was never a Uconn brand....they've had success only topped by 1 or 2 teams in the past 20 years, but they never had an idea of how to convert that into dollars. Unfortunately new england is a pro sports area...sitting between boston and new york....so I'm not wholly suprised they're that low.

[-bdbd]

UK would probably be higher on the list if its players payroll wasn't so high


LOL!!!! :D

Kinda an offshoot of that old line, "KY, the best pro team in all of OH/KY."

[JimBD]

The $26.7 million mentioned in the article is probably only the direct basketball revenues such as ticket sales, tv revenues, apparel sales, and direct donations to the basketball program. It is my belief that Coach K and the basketball program are responsible for much free publicity and goodwill to Duke University that attracts students and a hugh amount of donations that Duke might not otherwise get. The full impact of Coach K and the Duke basketball program is hugh, much greater than $26.7 million.

[Billy Dat]

Considering the tectonic shifts in conferences driven by football, I did a quick search for the equivalent football list. I found some data from 2009 that showed Texas at #1 with revenue over $100MM and a profit of over $50MM. Every top 10 team, was in the $80MM-$100MM topline and $35MM-$60MM profit range. When everyone says football money drives the changes transforming conferences, these are the kinds of numbers they are talking about.

Of course, the rights to the NCAA BBall tournament went for $700MM per year. By comparison, the BCS Bowls go for $20MM-$40MM per game per year. I wonder if the desired (by some) NCAA Football Playoffs would command a bigger TV deal than the BBall tourny?

[Fletch]

Honest question: How does Duke bring in so much more basketball revenue than schools like UNC & UK? Especially considering UNC & UK can sell twice as many tickets per game as Duke. Is is advertising or donations or something else?

[uh_no]

Honest question: How does Duke bring in so much more basketball revenue than schools like UNC & UK? Especially considering UNC & UK can sell twice as many tickets per game as Duke. Is is advertising or donations or something else?

well, tickets are much more expensive than UNC or UK tickets, we play games up in NY every year that are always near sellout, we are on national tv more than any other team in the country, and K is a brilliant businessman. I think its one of his most overlooked qualities. He built a great team and capitalized. He embraced the "evil duke" thing around the turn of the century because it equals huge press, and press = $$$. Now that duke has been established, he worked to change the image (with stuff like DBP) and it creates more popularity for duke. It's all brilliant.

[ACCBBallFan]

I tried to factor in both gross revenues and net revenue minus expenses to determine the top 24 BBall programs.

6 - B1G
6 - ACC (4 before Cuse/Pitt)

3 - BE (5 before Cuse/Pitt)
3 - P12
3 - SEC

2 - B12
1 - A10

ACC Duke University
Big East University of Louisville
ACC University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Pac-12 University of Arizona
ACC/BE Syracuse University

Big Ten University of Wisconsin-Madison
Big Ten Ohio State University
Big Ten Indiana University-Bloomington
Big Ten Michigan State University
Big Ten University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

SEC University of Arkansas
Big Ten University of Minnesota
Big 12 University of Texas at Austin
Big East West Virginia University
ACC/BE University of Pittsburgh

SEC University of Kentucky
SEC University of Tennessee
Big East Marquette University
ACC North Carolina State University

Big 12 University of Kansas
Pac-12 University of California-Los Angeles
Pac-12 University of Washington
Atl 10 Xavier University
ACC University of Maryland-College Park

[Indoor66]

I tried to factor in both gross revenues and net revenue minus expenses to determine the top 24 BBall programs.

6 - B1G
6 - ACC (4 before Cuse/Pitt)

3 - BE (5 before Cuse/Pitt)
3 - P12
3 - SEC

2 - B12
1 - A10

ACC Duke University
Big East University of Louisville
ACC University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Pac-12 University of Arizona
ACC/BE Syracuse University

Big Ten University of Wisconsin-Madison
Big Ten Ohio State University
Big Ten Indiana University-Bloomington
Big Ten Michigan State University
Big Ten University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

SEC University of Arkansas
Big Ten University of Minnesota
Big 12 University of Texas at Austin
Big East West Virginia University
ACC/BE University of Pittsburgh

SEC University of Kentucky
SEC University of Tennessee
Big East Marquette University
ACC North Carolina State University

Big 12 University of Kansas
Pac-12 University of California-Los Angeles
Pac-12 University of Washington
Atl 10 Xavier University
ACC University of Maryland-College Park

Would you please explain your rankings? I do not follow what you did.

[ACCBBallFan]

I rank order them in gross revenues which was given in the link.

I also ranked ordered them in net revenue/(loss) by subtracting gross expenses from gross revenues.

Then I averaged the two rank orders, with gross revenues being the secondary sort. The top 6 order did not change.

It only affected two teams no longer being in the top 24, Oklahoma State and Alabama, but order changed somewhat for teams with high expenses like UK, KU and Marquette.