How Much Money Does Syracuse Basketball Make Annually?

Of all the basketball teams in private universities in the United States, Syracuse University rakes in the most revenue. Since 2003-04 season through to 2013-14, the basketball team had made over $204 million in revenue with an increase of 155% to have the 2013-14 income standing at $29.8 million. In the 2016-17 season, Syracuse Athletics set a new record in athletic revenue by bringing in $91.4 million which is an increase by $9 million from the previous season. Since the basketball team is the primary contributor to this high figure, how much money does Syracuse basketball make annually?

TV rights

When ESPN and ACC announced they were extending their partnership and among the schools that benefitted is Syracuse University. Before the extension in 2012 the school was getting around $4.1 million but when ACC and ESPN decided to keep their partnership for a little while longer, through 2026-27 to be precise, then Syracuse also received a hike and will be receiving $17 million annually till the contract expires. Before then, the ACC-ESPN agreement was to run through 2022-23 and was worth $1.86 billion for twelve years.

IMG Marketing deal

Although the school does not reveal how much it gets from its partnership with IMG, the amount is quite lucrative. In 2012, IMG entered into an exclusive deal with Crouse in which it made Crouse the official hospital of Syracuse Athletics. The deal was worth presumably worth $400,000 a year and it gave Crouse the privilege of attending to any hospital marketing related needs that the school's athletics department would require, among them is advertising inside the dome.

However, the vice president of Crouse would not reveal details of their deal other than saying it was for several years and not even in the assumed vicinity. Still, although Crouse has those privileges, sometimes, the injured athletes get treatment from Upstate Hospital since Crouse and Upstate are connected via a pedestrian bridge.In 2018, the University announced an extension of the IMG partnership which started over 20 years ago. The multi-year agreement extensions will maintain the relationship that IMG has with Syracuse Athletics.

Nike deal

Syracuse University has been in a partnership with Nike for at least two decades, and Jim Boeheim made it clear that the relationship has been very beneficial for the basketball program. In 2016, Forbes ranked the top 65 valuable college apparel deals, and Syracuse University came in at number 35 with an average of $3 million per year although it did not disclose the duration of the contract. The current contract entered its last year in 2018, and since more schools are changing their uniforms and signing up new apparel deals, the situation between Nike and Syracuse remains apprehensive. Browsing on the websites does not show any new products and fans think that the school should go back to using a script logo for all sports except football.

Still, John Wildhack believes that Syracuse is a national brand and he would gladly leave Nike if another firm were to put Orange in the national brand position it deserves. That does not seem to sit well with Nike since they removed Syracuse among the sneaker company's national signature partners. However, their contract is yet to end, and Syracuse might be eyeing other companies such as Adidas and Under Armor who have a reputation of offering schools very lucrative deals.

Besides, these two companies have already approached Syracuse for a deal, but John is holding on until the right time for negotiations arrives. He was however clear about his philosophy of first considering Nike before any other company proposal.

Donations

Syracuse University has various donors for its different facilities such as the studio, media innovation center, Institute for Veteran and Military families among others. The basketball players, also benefit through donations for the practice center, Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center is named after Carmel Anthony who started a fundraising campaign in 2006 for a new practice center to help student-athletes better their game. He gave $3 million, and in 2015, Howard and Louise Phanstiel donated more than a million dollars to the practice facility.

Ticket sales

During the 2013-14 season. Syracuse basketball sold so many season tickets that it made more revenue from gate receipts than any other school in the ACC, although the standard practice is not to reveal the exact number of ticket sold, the basketball season tickets sold were almost 21,000, which was ten percent more than the previous season's sales.