Question for ADs

[Virginia HS Football Fan]

Hello everyone.

I'm posting this question on this board since it's the most active. If you're an AD in any classification, feel free to respond. You don't have to tell me the name of your school. Classification would be helpful though as one could construe that bigger schools may bring in bigger amounts on average.

I was wondering what your revenues and expenses were for home football games. A rough estimation would be fine. The rough Net would be better.

I'm guessing the revenues would be gate, merch, and concessions.

Expenses would be power, officials, up front costs for merch and concessions, any other workers (from chain crew to concession stand/merch table workers if applicable to police officers and ambulance crew).

If there are any other types of revenue and expenses, feel free to factor them in.

The TL;DR of my post, is that I was wondering what do you on average from a home football game along with the classification your school is in.

Thanks in advance.

 

[DinwiddieProud]

I’m certainly not an AD, but I can shed a little light on the Dinwiddie situation.

OOD games vary based on the contract agreed to. Some opponents agree to splitting the gate regardless of home or away. More often than not, the home team keeps the gate. The GATE is a little misleading. All expenses come out the gate before it is split.

The gate for Central District games (7 games), are split 50/50, after expenses. (District rule).

Expenses:
Officiating Crew
Security
Parking/Traffic Control
Ticket Booth and related attendants.
Statistician
Game Administers, (including visiting team and band “gate” attendant, sideline administrator, etc)
Post Game clean up crew
Field Prep
? Possibly a deduction from the shared gate is made for electricity, but I’m not sure about this.
$1 per online purchased ticket is deducted by GoFan

Our concessions are a stand alone entity. The school incurs no expense nor receives any funds. However, the school organization that runs the concessions, (Band Boosters), uses their profits to support their organization’s projects.

Incidentally, team meals and similar related cost are not part of the expenses deducted from the gate. The football booster club, known as the Cow Bell Boosters, along with community support from Churches, Civic Clubs, and individuals provide ALL meals. The Cow Bell Boosters raise all of their own money from numerous projects and fund raisers including merchandize sales.

The chain crew receives no compensation other that some apparel and liberal passes for their family members for home and away games.

EMS is provided at no cost by the County Volunteer EMS providers.

Typically there are 8-10 people that handle the varied task that I will lump under The Press Booth Gang. Media relations, PA announcer, 40 second clock keeper, (the official scoreboard/clock keeper is part of the paid group of officials), spotters for the PA announcer, hospitality, control and security, and overall supervision/management are all volunteer and are self-funded with respect to incidental expenses and hospitality food and beverage.

Those that have been to a game at Dinwiddie will know that a part of the production is a very large siren, a cannon, and a horse and rider. All of this is provided by at no cost to the school.

Income:
Gate is it.
There is no other income. Of course, the athletic budget for the entire high school gets funded by the school board, but it’s ridiculously low. Football makes up the lions share of what is spent each year. I can’t say with any certainty, but boys basketball might make a small profit some years, and baseball and softball are probably about break even. Everything else is a net income loss with respect to gate vs expense.

I will toss out $15,000 to $20,000 as the average pre-expense gate income over the five home games. To that you can add a minimal amount from our 50% (after expenses), from the away Central District games. Dinwiddie travels well and typically outnumber the fans at our away games, but the gate at most away games probably averages less than $5,000 to $8,000. Thomas Dale and Matoaca are probably better than that, but Meadowbrook, Petersburg, and Colonial Heights bring the average way down. Hopewell and Prince George are mid-range. But, the total we receive for our 50% of away District games each year is minuscule, truthfully.

And of course, playoff games are a net zero.

I’m going to throw out a WAG as to what I think the bottom line gross is per season, before any fixed overhead like salaries, building maintenance and the like. I would say less than $100,000 annually.

 

[knightfan64]

I don’t have a lot of figures but had a buddy who used to be a middle school AD and work closely with their high school AD. He said putting on MS games was like taking a money bath, and talking to the HS AD, if they could make $400 at a ms basketball or baseball game that would be just enough to cover officials at that level. Can’t imagine a varsity football game but you know the schools rely on those five football gates to help every other sport break even