Below, you will find questions provided to answer as you work through your paper

Below, you will find questions provided to answer as you work through your paper. This DOES NOT
need to be formatted like an essay.
 You are more than welcome to number off the questions.
 There is NO LENGTH REQUIREMENT, but you should have well thought-out responses to the
questions, not short answers. Think critically as you work through the case study. I would
expect it to be between 3 – 4 pages.
Respond to the following questions, using the below Case Study as a guide
1. How may the new donor seating program (discussed in below case study) impact overall ticket
sales? Why would it possibly have this impact?
2. Will increased donations offset any lost revenue from season ticket sales? How can the
University obtain these donations?
3. What role does the team’s on-field success seemingly play in season ticket sales?
4. What other revenue sources will be impacted by a change in season ticket policy? If there’s less
fans, does that mean less concession or parking spot sales? What could be a new source of
revenue the University uses to raise revenue?
5. Should ticket prices be raised? If so, how much? What are the PROS AND CONS of doing this?
There is no correct answer, but realize that while raising prices might increase short-term
revenue, it can also chase away fans and result in future lower revenue levels.
6. Imagine you are developing a Budget for the new year for your University. Using the case study
below:
o Determine the final total gross ticket revenue that you would include in the proposed
budget.
o Of this budget, how much revenue would be from season ticket sales?
1 From G. Fried, T. DeSchriver, and M. Mondello, Sport Finance Instructor Guide, 4th ed. (Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics,
2020).
Point Breakdown – 100 Points Total
 Proper Grammar / Length 20 points
 Answer the above questions with critical thinking 80 points
 Total 100 points
All papers must be typed and double-spaced with 1 inch margins on all sides. Please use 12-point font.
CASE STUDY BEGINS ON PAGE 3
Case Study:
2 From G. Fried, T. DeSchriver, and M. Mondello, Sport Finance Instructor Guide, 4th ed. (Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics,
2020).
For this case, you are the director of athletics at the University of Nowhere (UN). The UN Greyhounds
are located in Nowheresville, Pennsylvania, and compete at the NCAA Division I level. The football team
plays in a 20,000-seat stadium that was built in 1950. UN is a public institution with 15,000
undergraduate students and 3,000 graduate students for a total enrollment of 18,000. Nowheresville is
a relatively small city with a population of 50,000 located about 50 miles northwest of Philadelphia. The
UN Greyhound football team is very popular, primarily due to a history of on-field success. In the last 20
years, it has qualified for the playoffs six times and advanced to the championship game three times. It
won the national championship in 2009 and 2017, and currently has five players in the NFL, including
one of league’s top running backs. Due to this success, the football team has an average attendance of
18,500 and a season ticket holder base of 10,250. The athletic program offers 18 sports overall—10
women’s and 8 men’s—but the football team is the largest revenue generator for the athletic
department. It competes in the Colonial Athletic Association along with schools like James Madison,
Towson University, and the University of Delaware.
The athletic department has an overall operating budget of $30 million per year. On the revenue side,
the athletic department generates $15 million itself with their primary sources of revenue being fund-
raising, ticket sales, concessions, parking, merchandise, game guarantees, and the rental of facilities. It
also receives $1 million per year from conference and NCAA distributions. The remainder of the $30
million in expenses is covered through institutional support ($12.5 millions) and student fees ($1.5
million). Table 1 provides data on the department revenue sources as a percentage of the overall
department revenues. As the director of athletics, you have been informed that the future funding from
institutional support may decrease greatly in the future. This decrease in funding is largely due to a
cutback in state legislature appropriations to the state’s university system. Thus, all university
departments, including the athletic department, are being told that financial support directly from the
institution will decrease substantially over the next five years. Therefore, you must find new ways to
generate revenue to make up for the loss of funding from the university.
One area that you are taking a hard look at is the ability to maximize revenue from football games. Up to
this point, there has been no minimum donation for the 10,250 football season tickets that are sold. At
many large universities, a season ticket holder is required to make a minimum donation in addition to
paying for the price of a ticket to have access to season tickets and preferred parking. This strategy
allows athletic departments to generate revenue from contests beyond the price of the ticket. Usually,
the size of the donation will also be a dictator of seat location with the largest donors receiving the best
seats. Currently, UN season ticket holders are not required to pay a minimum donation. This has
resulted in some season ticketholders who have never made a donation to the athletic department
having prime seats on the 50-yard line. Meanwhile, there are season ticket holders who are donating as
much as $25,000 per year who have seats at the 20-yard line. This has led to frustration amongst some
of the largest donors along with an inability to maximize revenue from the football games. It is expected
that if the best seats are tied to a donation that the athletic department would have the ability to
generate more revenue. Tables 2 and 3 provide historical data on season ticket sales, attendance, ticket
revenue, and donations. It is evident that there was an increase in interest, attendance, and revenue as
3 From G. Fried, T. DeSchriver, and M. Mondello, Sport Finance Instructor Guide, 4th ed. (Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics,
2020).
a result of the on-field success in 2017 when the team won the national championship. The result was
more revenue coming into the program for 2018.
Given the current financial environment across UN and the team’s recent on-field success, you believe
that it may be time to implement a season ticket plan in which seat location is tied to the size of the
season ticket holder’s annual donation. However, the implementation of this plan may be highly
controversial and you are also unsure of exactly how much additional revenue will be generated from
such a plan. As the athletic director, it is your job to develop a revenue and expense budget for the
department each year. The implementation of a new minimum donation program for season ticket
holders may have a significant impact on several different budget items. These may include revenue
from ticket sales, donations, parking fees, concessions, and merchandise sales. For example, while the
new policy should increase donations, how will it affect ticket sales if some fans decide to not buy
season tickets because they do not want to pay the minimum donation? If these fans do not attend
games, or attend fewer games, what is the impact on parking ($15 per vehicle) and concession sales?
Thankfully, you do have some financial data to help you in the decision-making process. As stated
earlier, tables 1 and 2 provide historical financial and attendance data for the football program. Also,
three years ago, you instituted a similar plan for men’s basketball games. As a result of a minimum
donation being required for the best 1,000 seats in your arena, the number of basketball season tickets
sold actually dropped by 10% (from 1,200 to 1,080). However, the amount of donations that were made
toward the basketball program increased by 15% (from $300,000 to $345,000). Thus, you have some
idea of the impact of a mandatory donation program in another sport.
4 From G. Fried, T. DeSchriver, and M. Mondello, Sport Finance Instructor Guide, 4th ed. (Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics,