But you know what? The butts aren't in the seats! We're headed for a lower average attendance than 2012, and I still contend that one in the factors to Dooley's exit after just 3 seasons was fan apathy. I've never seen the UTAD offer ticket discounts like they're offering this year, but after the waxing that this team is probably going to take from Georgia and Alabama, it is probably going to get really bad. If we can't beat Mississippi State, I'm not sure that even homecoming can save attendance for UAB...I wish I had a spreadsheet of UT's gameday financials. I'd be willing to bet that concessions + tickets are already costing the university tens of thousands of dollars on an average gameday, and it's only going to get worse. I'm not saying that's going to lead to Pruitt's hasty exit, but it sure doesn't help.
It's not that hard to do the math. Tickets are what, $80? if we count full capacity, that's $8M a game. As for concessions, I think a lot of fans don't get any. When they do, what is it per head? I will be generous and say $10 (per person). And let's say 70K per game buy at that rate, then that's $700,000 per game for concessions. You could even double that amount and it's be about $1.5M, which is a number I vaguely recall reading years ago. So while the concessions are nice bonus, ticket sales are the main revenue driver, particularly if you factor in donations.
If the upper estimate of concessions is correct, that'd be about $10 a year, or 8-10% of the total AD budget, which is a significant chunk. But I suspect it's the lower end, probably only around 3-4% of the AD budget. Probably not worth much concern. OTOH, ticket sails would be roughly 10x as much, and one of the main revenue sources for the AD. They would be concerned about that for sure, particularly the loss of donations for season tickets.
Tennessee's AD budget is a matter of public record, BTW. I might even bother to find it if I get time.
