Tiger AD Operating Budget has run 100 + million a year

Posted on: July 15, 2023 at 20:13:43 CT

During the decade that Mizzou has been in the SEC, the Tiger AD's annual expenditures have run more than 100 million a year.

You can access a couple of good data bases on the web.
One is the Knight Newhouse Base maintained by Syracuse University.

It is privately funded by the Knight family, operated by the Syracuse University and in my experience is quite easy to use.

Another data base you can access is the Equity in Athletics Data Base maintained by the Department of Education as part of its Title IX enforcement proceedings.

These bases indicate the Tiger AD has been spending somewhere in the range of 100 to 120 million a year. There have been local news stories that it has had losses more often than not in recent years, i.e. the last five or six.

The SEC payout has been far less than you suggest. Under the new media rights deal with ESPN, each school is projected to receive about 58 to 60 million a year. That's a substantial increase over what they have been receiving.

Bear in mind that virtuallly none of the Tiger sports generates a positive cash flow, the sport's revenue does not cover its expenses. The negative cash flow has been covered by the University.

Also, bear in mind that when Mizzou joined the SEC it made substantial improvements to Memorial Stadium. Since being in the SEC it has built the South Endzone Facility.

The numbers thrown around at the time the initial improvements were authorized suggested that somethng in the area of 150 million of bonds would be issued by Mizzou (the University, not the Tiger AD) to cover the costs.

The South Endzone Project had just under a 100 million price tag. There supposedly was to be a fund raising drdive to generate these funds. However, my understanding is the bonds may have been issued by the University to cover as much as half the costs.

My recollection of the Knight Database info is the Tiger AD has several hundred million of debt that must be serviced.

Finally, if you compare Mizzou to some of the other SEC programs you will find that while it like the other programs requires a premium be paid in order to acquire good seats, boxes, etc., my understanding is the permiums are substantially less than some other SEC schools, i.e. Georgia and Alabama charge.