Costs are rising in college athletics as the industry prepares to share up to $22 million per year directly with athletes, and in preparation for that, Tennessee announced Tuesday it will increase ticket prices for Vols football games beginning in 2025.
Prices will go up by an average of 14.5 percent, with 4.5 percent account for increase costs in construction, food, travel and other traditional expenses, and 10 percent as a "talent fee" to fund the revenue-sharing pool.
“We’ve come a long way in the last few years. In this new era, it’s going to get a lot more expensive,” Tennessee AD Danny White told the Knoxville News-Sentinel, who broke the story. “But there’s also going to be a closer relationship between resources and competition than there ever has been before. And our biggest asset is our fan base.”
Currently, college athletics departments pay their athletes through a third-party, crowd-sourced method handled by collectives and relying on the generosity of their fans, who are still expected to buy tickets and donate to the athletics department while also funding their collectives. With schools permitted to share funds directly with athletes beginning in 2025, athletics departments will shift the burden from passing the hat among its fan base to... simply charging fans directly.
Tennessee has already made one significant move to open up new revenue streams. Last month, UT announced a "transformative" sponsorship by selling advertising space on the Neyland Stadium playing surface to Pilot. This was sold to fans as an alternative to selling naming rights to the stadium itself.
"Because we were committed to preserving the name of Neyland Stadium, finding a partner who shared this vision was essential," White said at the time. "With deep roots here in Knoxville, Pilot recognizes the significance of Neyland and the importance of tradition to our fans and the university. Our focus continues to preserve and honor our storied past while modernizing to ensure we lead the way in college sports."
Tennessee expects to raise an extra $7.5 million through its 10 percent "talent fee."
The news comes at an opportune time. Josh Heupel's team is ranked sixth in the latest AP poll heading into its SEC opener at No. 15 Oklahoma (7:30 p.m. ET, ABC). Tennessee has sold all 70,500 of its season tickets for two consecutive years.
“We have a waiting list of 15,000. So if we were about cold-hearted business, we would probably be a lot more aggressive with our price points,” White said. “But this is college athletics, and we have a real passionate fan base.
“We don’t take these decisions lightly. We work hard to try to thread the needle between generating the revenue we need but also being fair and reasonable.”
If and when this move is successful, it's only a matter of time until other schools follow suit.