How have Missouri State basketball’s finances been affected by the drop in attendance?

Missouri State men’s basketball has seen a downward trend in ticket sales when it previously relied heavily on the university’s athletics budget.

It has been considered a point of emphasis by the outgoing Missouri State administration for several years, but has not yet been corrected. Kyle Moats, the university’s former athletics director, said he is conservative when budgeting, lowering his expectations about what the program expects to receive annually through ticket sales.

The university has an athletics budget of about $31 million that is expected to increase by $6 million, in what the school said will be a “budget-neutral measure” when Missouri State joins Conference USA for the season. 2025-26 athletics.

According to the school’s NCAA financial report for fiscal year 2023, men’s basketball ticket sales accounted for nearly 2.3% of the revenue generated by the athletics program. As recently as 2012, Bears basketball ticket sales represented about 12.3% of the revenue generated by the athletics program.

About 49.2% of Missouri State athletics’ total operating revenue in fiscal year 2023 was the subsidy the department receives from the university.

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Missouri State 2023-24 Season Ticket Sales Detailed

Through an open records request, the News-Leader obtained Missouri State ticket sales data for the 2023-24 men’s basketball season. The numbers won’t appear in the school’s annual NCAA financial report until early 2025.

Compared to previous NCAA reports, it appears that Missouri State reports ticket sales using the amount before adding suite sales. The school reported $360,312 for the 2022-23 season, when the number dropped $21,113 this season. The school’s income and expense statement for the 2021-22 season was reported at $518,076.

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Missouri State men’s basketball ticket revenue by year since Great Southern Bank Arena opened

Numbers were collected from Missouri State’s NCAA reports from previous years, except for fiscal year 2024. The figure listed in fiscal year 2024 comes from ticket sales data, obtained through an open records request, less the value of suite sales, which aligns with the downward trend in attendance and sales that the school has had in recent years.

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Among the notables is Missouri State men’s basketball, which saw fewer ticket sales than during the COVID-impacted season after the inflation of the past two seasons. After the News-Leader filed an open records request for 2023-24 season ticket data, Missouri State athletics spokesman Rick Kindhart reached out to note that the school changed ticket prices to the season before the 2022-23 season.

When adjusted for inflation, the decline of Missouri State’s most recent men’s basketball season compared to the one that opened Great Southern Bank Arena in 2009 looks more dire. Between the inflation-adjusted 2009 number and the most recent men’s basketball season, there is a difference of more than $1.2 million.

How much money does the state of Missouri subsidize its men’s basketball program?

Football receives the most subsidized funding from the university, followed by men’s and women’s basketball, with the Lady Bears sometimes receiving more institutional support than the men.

Reported subsidies for men’s basketball surpassed $1 million for the first time in 2016. It should be noted that the school adjusted its accounting in its NCAA reports after underreporting different numbers from the previous decade, namely in facilities and administrative support areas.

In fiscal years 2022 and 2023, the men’s basketball program received an average of about $1.4 million in subsidy from the university before adjusting for inflation, which represents about 44.7% of the men’s basketball program’s total operating revenue. men’s basketball between the two seasons. Data from the most recent season will not be available until the NCAA’s next financial reports are released.

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Moats, the former athletics director at Missouri State, recently said he does not expect the athletics program to receive a large increase in subsidies when the school moves to Conference USA in 2025. The move will lead to an increase in travel expenses , among other items, for the men’s basketball program by flying to Miami and Delaware for conference games instead of a bus trip to Carbondale, Illinois, or Des Moines, Iowa.

Missouri State will make more money through football television rights, conference bowl game distributions and additional funds from games purchased against power conference opponents. It remains unclear how those funds will be distributed to other programs when the football program requires more scholarships and facility improvements.

This article originally appeared in the Springfield News-Leader: Missouri State Men’s Basketball Participation and Its Financial Impact