When it gets to the point where a business columnist like me is dissecting the case for and against UGA football coach Mark Richt, you know it’s troubling times for the Bulldawg Nation.
UGA football is a business, bringing in boatloads of revenue that supports other athletic programs. But it’s a business with a difference: UGA’s program doesn’t feel the same stabbing financial pain that most businesses do when they disappoint customers.
I’m not convinced that’s a great thing for fans. Yet that oddity may be enough to keep Richt employed as team CEO.
Two of my colleagues, AJC sports columnists Jeff Schultz and Mark Bradley, have written that Richt should go. Friends complain about the coach frequently, and on a visit to Athens for the Missouri game, I heard fans noting how little energy there seemed to be around town. In the stands I heard lots of groans, which is not what you hope for at an event that's supposed to be enjoyable.
If you go to a sandwich shop and order a turkey on sourdough to go, then take a bite and find out the bread is stale, there's a decent chance you won't go back. If it happens often, sales will drop off.
That’s not the way it works with UGA football.
First, despite all the sniping and second guessing, the team has an especially large and loyal fan base. Believers pile in from hours away to show up for games and tailgating traditions that have spanned decades.
Georgia is topped by only Texas and Notre Dame when it comes to major university football programs that bring in the most money, after controlling for variables like win-loss records and school location, according to analysis by Emory University marketing professors Manish Tripathi and Michael Lewis. The football program generated nearly $87 million in revenue in the last fiscal year, far above its $26 million in expenses.
“They have built a really strong fan base that supports them” no matter how the team fares, Lewis said. “They are still going to sell out that stadium out next year.”
Locked in dollars
Much of the season’s revenue is locked in before the first kickoff.
More than half of Sanford Stadium’s nearly 93,000 seats are in the hands of season ticket holders.
Because the games always sell out, even frustrated season ticket holders are likely to hold their seats rather than risk losing a shot at getting back in for years to come.
Feeling locked in is the kind of thing consumers have revolted against in other arenas, like long-term contracts for cellphone service. But UGA football has limited direct competition.
UGA fans even have to “donate” to the program’s Hartman Fund in hopes of getting eligibility to later buy or hold season tickets. And that fund has risen every year since 2012, totaling over $26 million annually most recently, according to figures I got from UGA.
Most other seats in the stadium are snatched up by students or held out for fans of the visiting teams.
Plenty of tickets that have already been sold by the university do end up in the hands of ticket brokers and street hawkers. And, after some disappointing losses, the average price of those seats dropped for a couple of the most recent home games, according to broker StubHub.
There are other visible effects of underperformance. Some people with tickets don’t show up for games or leave early.
I filed a request for data from the university under the state’s Open Records Act and then did a little math. Attendance during the first five home games this year is down nearly 7 percent compared to the first five a year ago. And stadium concessions sales are on pace to be the lowest in at least four years.
But the athletic program is safer when it comes to bigger pots of money. Hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue from televised games is pooled by the SEC and then evenly divvied up to every team in the conference, even those doing poorly.
But there is a financial wild card UGA has to worry about: big donors.
UGA’s athletics program is trying to raise $30 million for an indoor football practice facility. So far, it’s booked about $6 million in cash and pledges.
Helping to raise money and keep the program financially strong is part of Richt’s job. In fact, it’s written into his contract.
When it comes to annual raises, he’s supposed to be judged on lots of factors, including the team’s regular season and post-season success, graduation rates, fan attendance, season ticket sales, alumni giving, fund-raising activities, compliance with rules, and efforts to encourage favorable publicity.
SEC arms race
In the last two and a half years, Richt has been approved for two fat raises that would put him at a little over $4 million a year, part of a wild arms race in pay for SEC coaches.
For that kind of money — roughly middle of the pack for the SEC — it’s reasonable for fans to have high expectations.
During Richt’s 15-year tenure, the Dawgs have won a lot. But the team has struggled against the nation’s top teams lately and has had three embarrassing losses so far this season, despite having a bunch of top-notch recruits.
Richt could end up being fired for being merely good. Or maybe even really good.
Which is a shame. He seems like a guy who cares about his players and runs a program that’s generally been good for the university’s image.
Lewis, the Emory professor, has been crunching figures to see which major college coaches consistently outperform in wins, after equalizing the impact of each program’s spending.
He comes up with a few predictable names, like Alabama’s Nick Saban and Ohio State’s Urban Meyer. Guaranteed greatness is rare.
“Richt performs a little better than average” for a program with UGA’s resources, Lewis told me. “For the metric we are talking about, he’s not bad.”
Not bad may not be good enough at UGA. Even Dawg loyalty can’t be counted on to make customers sit forever.
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