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Thursday, March 3, 2011

Auburn spent nearly $3 million on trip to Glendale, Ariz., for BCS national championship game

Auburn spent nearly $3 million on its trip to Glendale, Ariz., for the BCS national championship game in January, according to a bowl expense report obtained by the Ledger-Enquirer on Thursday.

The Tigers reported spending $2,901,706 on the nine-day trip that resulted in the school's first national championship since 1957.

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Auburn received a $2,287,600 expense allowance from the SEC for the trip, meaning the school ran a $614,106 deficit overall.

"A lot has to do with travel distance," said Scott Carr, Auburn's Senior Associate AD for External Affairs. "Basically, the reason we ran a deficit with this bowl trip was simply distance. Everybody that we took had to be on an airplane.

"If we had gone to a different bowl that was closer in proximity and could drive, you have a much better chance at a break even. But when you have to do airline charters, that's really where the expenses came in."

The school spent $601,245 for the 473-member traveling party of team and staff to go on the trip for nine days. An additional $362,547 was used to send 435 band members and cheerleaders for four days.

Auburn's official party, made up of faculty and athletics department officials, went for four days at a cost of $80,527, bringing the total travel cost to $1,044,319.

The trip cost $886,718 for meals and lodging, with additional costs for entertainment ($19,648), promotion ($50,335), awards ($31,014) and equipment and supplies ($87,847).

Auburn sold 14,944 of the 17,400 tickets it committed to, absorbing 2,456 tickets for a total cost of $781,825. The absorbed tickets were for a number of people associated with the program, including the band, players' parents, coaches' families and athletic department officials.

Additional bowl money schools receive from the conference is not included in the report. Last year, that payout was around $2.21 million per team.

Carr also expects additional revenue to be added from licensing fees related to winning the national championship, although he did not have an exact figure.

"For the Auburn brand, that exposure being on that national stage, it's hard to put a dollar figure on that," Carr said.

Auburn reported a $150,896 deficit from last year's trip to the Outback Bowl, although that did not include the revenue earned from the conference's second BCS bowl participant. The school spent $1,363,096 on the trip to Tampa, Fla.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

How did the university absorb over 2000 tickets?

Andy Bitter said...

Seeking clarification on that. Might be a case where those were tickets given out to staff/university officials. I'm not sure.

Postermom said...

Could those be tix for people who got snowed in? Because I sure would've liked to have one.

AUTiger93 said...

Please see what you can find out about the "absorbed" tickets. I know several TUF donors who qualified and were turned away from a purchase though the alotment. Seriously, sitting there we had well more enough to have used the entire amount and then some of Oregon's tickets as well.

Anonymous said...

The whole thing is confusing to me. How much of the $18m bowl revenue does Auburn get. Surely, the entire amount does not go directly into the SEC coffers.

Andy Bitter said...

Still checking on the absorbed tickets.

The $18 million figure that is out there is misleading. That's money split among the 12 SEC schools evenly. That's factored into the SEC bowl allotment that each school receives.

Anonymous said...

Saw where UConn lost $1.6m by going to the Fiesta Bowl. I guess going BCS bowling is expensive!

Andy Bitter said...

Got a clarification on the absorbed tickets: they were for for the band, players' parents, coaches' families, ath dept families, etc.

Chip said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
JoeinFP said...

If it had cost a million, i don't care. War Eagle

Andy Bitter said...

Whoever posted that the conference also gets a share of the bowl money equal to the league's member institutions was correct.

Mia Dentice said...

AMEN!!! (to JoeinFP said...
If it had cost a million, I don't care. War Eagle!!!)

anotheraufan said...

"Auburn's official party, made up of faculty and athletics department officials, went for four days at a cost of $80,527..." The athletic department including administrators & coaches and their families spent more than 8 days in Arizona. I believe they left Sunday the 2nd on a charter and returned Tuesday the 11th. Where do they get 4 days?

Andy Bitter said...

They were probably considered part of the team traveling party. That group was 473 people, so it was more than just the team and coaches.

Andy Bitter said...

They were probably considered part of the team traveling party. That group was 473 people, so it was more than just the team and coaches.

MikeP said...

Money well spent, if you ask me. The experience of a lifetime and the band, parents, coaches' families and so forth deserved to do it up right!

CHB said...

This is all a little misleading. The money made from memorabilia will more than make up for the extra cost, and you can't put a price on the extra exposure.

Unknown said...

so? what's the issue

Unknown said...

Heck we might spend a billion...what's it to you?