IU meets football revenue

The IU athletics department made good on an Oct. 18 promise to the Bloomington Faculty Council by reaching its football revenue goals. \nIU Athletics Director Rick Greenspan announced Tuesday the department had met its $4.3 million revenue objective for the 2005 season, but declined to release the official tally.\nIn a statement on Tuesday, Greenspan said figures were not ready for release because some of the game revenues have not been settled with visiting teams, nor have the numbers been audited. \nThe $4.3 million revenue objective was $1.1 million more than the football income in 2004.\nIncreased football revenue is a key component of the athletics department's five-year \nfinancial plan, enacted this year, that seeks to end an eight-year streak of deficits. By meeting their goal this year, the department is in good position to fulfill its plan, said School of Public and Environmental Affairs professor Robert Kravchuk, who was able to review the athletics department's plan.\n"The way their plan is crafted, if they miss their goals in any of the early years, it makes it more difficult to meeting the goals in later years," Kravchuk said. "So meeting the goal this year sets them up to meet it next year too. So it's very good news."\nIn addition to increased football revenue, the athletics department's financial plan will eliminate the student athletics fee, increase men's basketball ticket prices for students, re-allocate student seating for men's basketball games, charge admission for some Olympic sports, renegotiate vendor contracts and change the distribution of merchandise revenue. The trustees approved the plan at a Nov. 4 meeting in Richmond, Ind. and it will start during IU's next fiscal year.\nThis year's football team featured a new coach, a new spread offense and a near-$300,000 marketing scheme that doubled the marketing expenditures from 2004. Season ticket holders increased by 110 percent among students and 46 percent overall.\nBut next year's football revenue will be without the hype of a new coach and home games against Ohio State and Purdue -- the two highest-attended games with more than 50,000 fans in attendance at each game.\n"I think it's going to make it a little more difficult," Kravchuk said of meeting 2006 revenue objectives. \nAt an Oct. 18 meeting, Greenspan laid out his financial plan to the BFC.\n"We will meet our revenue goals," said Greenspan at the trustees meeting in the middle the past season. \nHowever, Greenspan's hope that the football team would reach a major bowl did not occur as the football team finished the season 4-7, two wins shy of bowl eligibility.\nKravchuk praised Greenspan for the "transparency" he has given the BFC in regard to the future of the athletics department.