Stadium revenue

[JackJD]

I was making some rough calculations of revenue generated at Coughlin Alumni Stadium with a crowd of 15,500. I do not know what NDSU has to pay in "rent" for use of the FargoDome but I believe NDSU pays something to the City of Fargo for usage. I wonder what attendance must be attained in order for NDSU to generate more revenue in the FargoDome than a crowd of 15,500 will generate at CAS. I suspect that the Dome sellouts are more profitable than 15,500 in CAS but I also suspect that equal crowds, that is, for example, 15,500 or 16,000 or whatever amount at both the FargoDome and CAS, will result in CAS being more profitable because SDSU doesn't pay rent.

I did a little looking for public information on rent paid by NDSU for the FargoDome but didn't find current figures (by "little" I mean just a minute or so). Anyone have those figures for the FargoDome? [A 2006 story said NDSU paid $120,000/yr for 40 days' usage of the FargoDome].

Even if the rent is relatively high, the FargoDome combined with a successful program nearly guarantees large crowds when the weather is bad...and weather can certainly adversely affect the crowd size for outdoor football (which I personally prefer any day over a Dome). Since crowd size is pretty reliable in a Dome, the rent factor probably becomes insignificant.

[JackFan96]

Re: Stadium revenue

When doing your math, remember that tickets are slightly more expensive. Just an FYI...I think they're $15 and $20.

[Hammersmith]

Re: Stadium revenue

I looked into some of this for a different topic. The "$120,000 for 40 days" lease expired in June of 2007, but the details of the current lease haven't been in the paper. If anything, the cost has dropped due to the $3 million the Bison stuck into the football offices and locker rooms in the basement. Even if it's the same as the previous lease, that works out to $3,000/day; figure $10,000 per game.

On the revenue side, there are about 10,000 seats at $20 a piece, 5,000 seats at $15(we'll leave out children's prices for this discussion) and 4,000 seats for students. A full house should bring in around $275,000(single ticket vs. season ticket doesn't matter: the price works out the same).

Of course, the premium pricing structure brings in just as much money on its own. This year, TeamMakers has raised just over $2 million for scholarships; most of that is linked to season ticket sales but it does not include the price of the ticket itself. About $1 million from the student activity fee goes to the athletic department and, although it's not really correct, it's often viewed as paying for the 4,000 student seats.

So, a season of six sellout games comes to:
6*($275,000) + $2,000,000 + $1,000,000 = $4,650,000/season or $775,000/game

Compared to the $4.65M number, the $90k or so for game and practice rent is pretty minor. One of you SDSU fans will have to do the Jacks cost/revenue breakdown.

[JackJD]

Re: Stadium revenue

Those are nice numbers for NDSU. I'll see what background info I can get on SDSU and then get out the calculator.