Tennessee AD Danny White raising ticket prices to pay players isn’t as wild as what revenue sharing may bring

NORMAN, Okla. — Danny White has a vision. It might not sit well with some Tennessee fans after the Volunteers’ AD announced an across-the-board ticket increase of 10% last week.

But it is one hell of a vision. 

The increase is actually 14.5% for UT football fans if you break it down – 10% on all ticket invoices and an additional 4.5% on football tickets. White referred to that piece as a “talent fee” that will go directly to players. 

Cash money. Forget NIL, forget collectives, cut out the middleman. This is unprecedented, this is gangsta – in a college administrative sense. This is also brilliant because it’s working. Forget about fans being upset. Renewals are tracking at 90%. 

“If it was about just cold-hearted business we could have gone up 25% and I still think we’d be sold out,” White told CBS Sports before Tennessee’s game at Oklahoma on Saturday. “We had that much demand.”

The ever-evolving era of transactional college sports continues. Tennessee just happens to be near the top of the current pyramid of success. In 2023-24, the Volunteers became the first school in SEC history to win conference titles in men’s basketball, baseball and softball in the same academic year. 

This season, Tennessee’s football team is undefeated (4-0) and ranked in the top five for the first time in two years. There is a 15,000-person waiting list for a season ticket in one of Neyland Stadium’s 101,915 seats  .

White himself recently became the highest-paid AD in the country. 

A 25% increase might have been aiming too low. Tennessee’s ticket increase is already unheard of in the industry. The average increase averages between 2-5%. Notice of such a hike usually arrives quietly during the offseason in hopes fans don’t revolt. 

White…

Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/tennessee-ad-danny-white-raising-ticket-prices-to-pay-players-isnt-as-wild-as-what-revenue-sharing-may-bring/

Author : Dennis Dodd

Publish date : 2024-09-24 17:38:01

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.