After having a home-court advantage throughout the CollegeInsider.com Tournament, the Ohio men’s basketball team’s three-game postseason run yielded a substantial price tag.
In order to pay all expenses without running a deficit, Ohio University paid $78,793.50 out-of-pocket from the Post Season Opportunity Fund — a $120,000 annual allotment from the General Fee. OU also pulled $32,642.08 from the fund for the football team’s trip to St. Petersburg in December for the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl.
Athletics’ final bill totaled $112,893.50 including buy-in fees to host games, as well as officials’ meals, maintenance, electricity and labor for The Convo’s workers and scorers.
The CIT charged $108,000, but Athletics made just $34,100 back through ticket sales, which is less than one game’s $36,000 buy-in fee.
Essentially, OU was forced to pay $26,264.50 for each game after only 3,140 total tickets were sold at $10 apiece.
The combined attendance for the three games was just 10,528 fans after Ohio averaged 6,837 per game for its 17 regular season contests. Director of Marketing and Sales Drake Bolon said short turn around between games hindered turnout.
“Comparing postseason to regular season is kind of an apples to oranges comparison,” Bolon said. “But at the end of the day if you look relative to our peers in the CIT, we had the highest average attendance.”
The only other school to host at least three games was CIT champion Murray State, which averaged 3,800 fans over the span four home contests. The Bobcats averaged 3,509 fans.
Ohio advanced to the “elite eight” of the 32 participating teams, but
lost 92-90 to Virginia Military Institute
in the quarterfinals to conclude its season. It was the Bobcats’ fifth straight postseason appearance, a program record.
The Post
requested public records of all expenses on April 1, but OU did not respond to the request until Friday. Dan Hauser, Ohio’s outgoing senior associate athletic director for development, did not respond to requests for comment.
cl027410@ohiou.edu
@ChadLindskog
FAST FACTS:
Expenditures
Cost to host three games: $108,000
Other expenses: $4,893.50
TOTAL EXPENSES: $112,893.50
Revenue
Ticket Revenue: $34,100
Money pulled from the Post Season Opportunity Fund: $78,793.50
TOTAL REVENUE: $112,893.50
