How are Missouri State basketball financials impacted by its attendance dip?

Missouri State men’s basketball has seen a downward trend in ticket sales when it was previously relied upon heavily in the university’s athletics budget.

It’s been said to be a point of emphasis for several years by Missouri State’s outgoing administration but has yet to be fixed. Kyle Moats, the university’s former athletics director, said he’s conservative when he budgets, lowering his expectations for what the program expects to receive via ticket sales annually.

The university has around a $31 million athletics budget that’s expected to increase by $6 million in what the school said will be a “budget neutral move” when Missouri State joins Conference USA for the 2025-26 athletics season.

According to the school’s NCAA financial report for fiscal year 2023, men’s basketball ticket sales were nearly 2.3% of the athletics program’s generated revenue. As recently as 2012, Bears basketball ticket sales were about 12.3% of the athletics program’s generated revenue.

About 49.2% of Missouri State athletics’ total operating revenues from fiscal year 2023 was the subsidy the department receives from the university.

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Missouri State’s 2023-24 season ticket sales detailed

Via open records request, the News-Leader obtained Missouri State’s ticket sales data from the 2023-24 men’s basketball season. The numbers won’t appear on the school’s annual NCAA financial report until early 2025.

Compared to previous NCAA reports, it appears Missouri State declares ticket sales using the figure before adding in suite sales. The school reported $360,312 for the 2022-23 season when the number dropped by $21,113 this season. The school’s statement of revenues and expenses for the 2021-22 season was reported at $518,076.

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Missouri State men’s basketball ticket revenue by year since Great Southern Bank Arena opened

Figures were gathered from Missouri State’s NCAA reports from previous years except for the 2024 fiscal year. The figure listed under fiscal year 2024 is from the ticket sales data, obtained via open records request, minus the suite sales figure, which lines up with the downward trend in attendance and sales the school has had in recent years.

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Among the notables is Missouri State men’s basketball making less in ticket sales than during the COVID-impacted season after inflation for the last two seasons. After the News-Leader filed an open record request for ticket data from the 2023-24 season, Missouri State athletics spokesperson Rick Kindhart reached out to note that the school changed its season ticket prices before the 2022-23 season.

When adjusted for inflation, the dropoff from the most recent Missouri State men’s basketball season compared to the one that opened Great Southern Bank Arena in 2009 seems more dire. Between the 2009 number adjusted for inflation and the most recent men’s basketball season, there is a difference of over $1.2 million.

How much money does Missouri State subsidize toward its men’s basketball program?

Football receives the most subsidized funds from the university while men’s and women’s basketball follows, sometimes with the Lady Bears receiving more institutional support than the men.

Reported subsidies for men’s basketball first cracked over $1 million in 2016. It should be noted the school adjusted its accounting in its NCAA reports after under-reporting different figures for the previous decade, particularly in the facilities and administrative support areas.

In fiscal years 2022 and 2023, the men’s basketball program has averaged around a $1.4 million subsidy from the university before adjusted for inflation which makes up for about 44.7% of the men’s basketball program’s total operating revenue between the two seasons. The most recent season’s data won’t be available until the next NCAA financial reports are released.

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Moats, Missouri State’s former athletics director, recently said he doesn’t expect the athletics program to receive much of an increase in subsidies when the school moves to Conference USA in 2025. The move will lead to increased travel expenses, among other items, for the men’s basketball program when flying to Miami and Delaware for conference matchups instead of a bus trip to Carbondale, Illinois, or Des Moines, Iowa.

Missouri State will make more money via football television rights, conference distributions from bowl games and additional funds from buy-games against power-conference opponents. How those funds will be spread out for other programs remains unclear when the football program requires more scholarships and facility upgrades.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Missouri State men’s basketball attendance and its financial impact