FSU Athletics suffers financial loss during 2016 fiscal year
By Jason Parker
FSU had a major problem last year as they brought in less money than the year before and ended up spending more money for several different reasons.
It can be argued that the 2016-17 calendar year for FSU athletics programs might have been one of the more successful ones of all time for the school. The football team went to a New Years Six bowl, the baseball team went to the College World Series while the softball team went to the Super Regional round and sports like men’s and women’s basketball along with soccer and many more went to the NCAA tournament.
At the same time, all of that didn’t end up helping the bank account of the department, as it turns out.
USA Today late last week released the results of financial records turned in for the fiscal 2016 year – and the Seminoles are operating not just in a shade of red for their uniforms, but also in that same color when it comes to their checking account, according to the Tallahassee Democrat:
"FSU was 18th in the country in revenue ($113.7 million) and 17th in expenses ($115.6 million), which left the department at a $1.9 million deficit for the year.The total revenue for the 2016 year was down $7.1 million from the 2015 year ($120.8 million). This was mainly due to a steep drop-off in ticket sales. FSU sold $26.2 million worth of tickets for the 2015 year, but just $20.2 million in 2016."
At the same time, the paper reported that expenses went up by over $4 million for the year before – almost all of that due to an increase in coaching salaries from the last set of records.
Of the other eight football playing schools in the ACC who reported their results (as the five private schools and Pittsburgh did not), FSU clearly operated in the biggest debt with Virginia Tech being the only other school in the red. At the same time, both Louisville and Clemson posted seen figure profits.
Of the seven state of Florida schools, FSU was joined by USF and FAMU in debt while UCF broke even. Florida had a $20 million profit – mostly due to television contracts that Florida State hopes will be the same for them once the ACC Network takes off – while FIU and FAU both had profits in the millions (mostly cause the use the theory that bad teams make money, like the LA Clippers under Donald Sterling).
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This issue is not something new and has been talked about this past season no matter the sport. FSU’s fan and alumni base is so spread out, and the empty seats were noticeable in the Champions Club next season. Having a home schedule that keeps being depleted by neutral site games doesn’t help either.