It's Your Turn to Pay the Athletes.
Oh, you thought you'd skate?
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You know the old saying, Nobody rides for free?
Yeah. We’re there.
The University of Tennessee just announced a 10% increase in ticket prices for its football season-ticket holders starting next season. Explanation: “Talent fee.”
No, they’re not putting on better post-game concerts. Talent fee, in this case, is a euphemism for paying the players, and Tennessee is only the first, and there will be others.
All the others.
This is an almost inevitable byproduct of college sports’ new era of blatantly paying athletes to come to their schools, as opposed to the good old days of blatantly shoving money under the table to athletes to come to their schools.
What, you thought that athletic departments were going to take the financial hit of the new Name, Image and Likeness era? Nope. The players will be paid by you. Tennessee is merely making that reality a little more apparent than other schools might.
The university shared the news of the 10% hike via a four-minute video emailed to the season-ticket folks. Danny White, Tennessee’s athletic director, said in the video that the fee is "part of an extensive plan to continue our dominance in college athletics and build something like never seen before."
I mean, okay. That’s one way to sell it. And by the way, the Volunteers also slapped a 4.5% general increase on there, so their most dedicated fan base is actually facing a price bump of almost 15% per seat, per game.
White didn’t sound too apologetic. "In this era of name, image and likeness (NIL), there has never been as close a connection between resources and competitive success," he said. "We want to be a leader in college sports. That means we want to be a leader in revenue sharing."
Revenue sharing = you, kid.
So if you care, and if you buy tickets to college games, understand that this is your future. Schools will pay players to compete for their services, and that money has to come from somewhere, and it turns out that even the most ardent set of school boosters has a limit on how many times they’re willing to be gouged contribute.
By ESPN’s accounting of available data, the Tennessee football program turned a $75 million profit in 2023, but I suppose that’s not enough. (I suppose enough is never enough.) The Volunteers led the SEC in total home attendance in 2023 with 713,405 fans, an average of 101,915 per game. The wait list for season tickets is about 15,000 deep.
So those fans will wait, and when it’s their turn they will pay, including a 10% talent fee. That’s how schools do college payrolls in 2024 and beyond. Coming soon to a stadium near you.
That quote from the AD, about building something like never seen before, is another data point toward confirming that the salesy sayings of a certain former president have rubbed off on the populace.
What next, no players have to be students? College education not required? Do you just fire a kid so you can hire a new one? I've not been a fan of the open portal or NIL thus far. Maybe they'll get to a point where this works for college students to get a quality education that lasts beyond their playing days, and we have some student athletes we can build pride around for more than a season. But it won't serve athletics or universities much to keep kids eligible for a semester at a time and drop kick them or have them leave for perceived greener pastures.