You knew that things weren’t going to look rosy when we got a look at the Ohio State athletics revenue for 2020-2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. We found out exactly how bad it was with reported numbers from the university on Tuesday.
All told, athletics revenue for the fiscal year 2021 was just $106,896,918, down from $233,871,740 for the fiscal year 2020. The reporting period is from July 1, 2020, through June 30, 2021.
The reported deficit for the year is a big one, checking in at $63,655,002. It can almost all be attributed to ticket revenue lost because of a shortened season in the Big Ten, and virtually no ticket sales for the three games that were played in Ohio Stadium because of public health measures. Ohio State reported just $7,386 in ticket sales for the year.
For comparison, the department took in $65,978,534 in ticket sales for the 2019 fiscal year. The difference alone would have made up the deficit from this past reporting period, but other factors as well were involved. The loss could have been even worse had the season been shelved altogether. The department received $40,568,770 in television revenue, down just over $6 million from the previous year.
Ohio State's athletic department reported a $63.6 million operating deficit in the 2021 fiscal year.
A financial hit was expected, but its annual report to the NCAA showed a clear picture of the impact from the coronavirus pandemic: https://t.co/FYumXKXkhH
— Joey Kaufman (@joeyrkaufman) February 1, 2022
There may need to be more loans and cost-cutting to make up for such a large deficit this past season, but through it all, OSU never cut any of its varsity sports.
“This was a most challenging year for our department and for everyone, and I am so proud of our student-athletes, our coaches and our support staff who continued to deliver at a championship level,” said Gene Smith, senior vice president and Wolfe Foundation endowed athletic director in a statement. “Despite the difficulties we all faced working through the pandemic, we preserved our commitment to our student-athletes and the sports they love.”
Ohio State continues to house one of the largest athletic departments in the country, supporting 16 men’s teams, 17 women’s teams, three mixed teams, and approximately 1,000 student-athletes.
The athletic department had to be creative through the pandemic to keep things running, and will have to continue to be to get back to where things need to be in the future.
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