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Bulls Game To Be A Cash Cow For Bucs

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By BAIRD HELGESON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 26, 2007

TAMPA - The University of South Florida Bulls' first ever sellout for Friday's game against West Virginia will guarantee a tidy profit for the 10-year-old football program.

Athletic officials estimate that filling the 65,657 seats in Raymond James Stadium will generate $1.3 million in ticket sales, about twice as much as normal and plenty to cover the team's base rent of $105,000 per game.

But USF athletics won't enjoy the good fortune alone.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the marquee tenant of the taxpayer-built stadium, could make nearly $300,000 in profit from the sale of concessions and parking. The team will even get a cut of the Bulls' merchandise sales.

'The Bucs are really going to be happy that we are filling 65,000 seats,' said Bill McGillis, USF's senior associate director of athletics for external affairs.

The Bulls are an example of what happens when a college team shares a stadium built for a pro franchise, said Jim Grinstead, who runs Revenues From Sports Venues, a Nashville, Tenn.,-based company that researches college and pro sports venues.

The professional team gets the lion's share of the profit from rental of the stadium, leaving the college program with a big rent payment and few ways to make money in the facility other than ticket sales, he said.

Often, a school's inability to make money in pro stadiums prompts athletic officials to campaign for their own facility, Grinstead said.

Parking Is Big Moneymaker

The Bucs' deal is spelled out in the 91-page contract with the Tampa Sports Authority, which runs the stadium and three public golf courses.

Under the agreement, the Bucs get all profit when the professional team plays at the stadium. But the team also gets the first $2 million of profit from parking and concessions at non-Buc events annually, such as concerts and USF games.

The Bucs and the sports authority split any profit beyond $2 million, which happened for the first time last year, thanks to strong turnout for a concert by country singer Kenny Chesney. The Bucs and the sports authority each got $15,781.

The Bucs' contract is seen as one of the most lucrative in the National Football League.

Forbes magazine, which tracks the value of pro teams, credits the Bucs' stadium lease as a key reason the value of the team has soared to $963 million.

At the same time, the nine-year-old stadium runs a deficit of about $3 million a year, largely due to maintenance costs and a property tax bill that was never budgeted.

The county pays $2 million and the city pays the rest.

USF generally makes about $600,000 per game selling tickets, averaging about $20 per seat, McGillis said.

Attendance usually hovers at about 20,000 and 30,000 per game, peaking at 40,988.

The athletic department expects to make about $4 million a year from ticket sales.

This year, the sports authority agreed to give the school 3,000 parking spaces during home games. The school sells each space for $15 per game, which would bring in another $45,000, McGillis said.

The Bucs own the naming rights to the stadium and control all permanent advertising in the facility. USF has a $2.2 million a year deal with ISP Sports to provide temporary advertising on game day.

The school's revenue sharing agreement with cable network ESPN brings in several million dollars a year, McGillis said.

If ESPN broadcasts a Bulls game, as it will Friday night, the school gets an additional $101,000.

In late June, the sports authority approved a new lease that raised the Bulls' base rent to $105,000 per game this season, up about $19,000 per event from previous years.

But that only includes rental of the stadium's lower deck, which seats about 40,000.

The costs go up dramatically if ticket sales require the second deck to be opened, as it will for the game against the Mountaineers.

The Price Tag Gets Bigger

Additional costs include added security, the use of the large video boards and other stadium amenities.

Athletic officials generally choose which stadium features they want, but the sports authority dictates security staffing levels.

Sports Authority spokeswoman Barbara Casey said it's impossible to know how much extra it will cost to host the upcoming game because the team has never sold out before.

'We are just thrilled they are having so much success,' she said. 'But it's expensive to open the whole building.'

McGillis said he is prepared for a big bill.

The Bucs, however, won't have any extra costs on game day, just profit.

Stadium staff figure that every ticket holder for Friday's game will spend an average of $9.02 on food and drinks.

The company that runs the concession stands gets about 60 percent of that and the Bucs get the rest. If the game is a sellout, the Bucs could make $236,890.

The USF Bulls do not share in the profit from concessions.

The Bucs also get the game-day profit from the sale of 6,000 parking spaces at $10 a piece, or about $60,000.

McGillis has no qualms about his team's contract with the sports authority, which runs through 2011, with a five-year renewal option.

'We think it's a fabulous stadium,' he said.

He described the facility as a first-class recruiting tool, and praised the excellent playing field.

The challenge will be to keep fans in the stands.

McGillis hopes to see opposing teams come to Raymond James Stadium and be overwhelmed with the feeling that they are in Bulls country.

'We want to have a terrific home field advantage,' he said.

Reporter Baird Helgeson can be reached at (813) 259-7668 or bhelgeson@tampatrib.com.

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