High school sports notebook: Big games in big venues keep UHSAA coffers full

The three days of semifinal and championship football games played on the Rice-Eccles turf are among the most anticipated days of the high school sports season each year.

And not just by fans, the teams that strive to get there and the ones that make it. They are also important days in funding other Utah High School Activities Association sporting events throughout the year.

Approximately 80 percent of the UHSAA's annual budget is funded by ticket sales from revenue sports such as football, basketball and volleyball, as well as state tournaments in wrestling, drill team and soccer. The remaining amount of the UHSAA's budget comes from corporate sponsors (about 10 percent) and various items such as participation fees.

Ticket sales for football make up the largest share of the 80 percent, which is usually between 20-25 percent of it, and it is counted on to fund non-revenue activities such as tennis, golf, cross-country, drama, music and debate.

"It is very important for us to have good football revenue because it helps carry on everything else throughout the year," said UHSAA executive director Rob Cuff.

The UHSAA gets to keep the gate from quarterfinal, semifinal and championship football games. It brought in a record amount of revenue in 2007, and then saw the amount drop by about $70,000 last year.

The UHSAA caught the perfect storm of revenue raising in 2007 with big crowds for the Alta-Layton 5A championship game, Alta-Bingham in the semis, well-traveling crowds from Logan and Mountain Crest and great weather.

"The two biggest factors are the weather, and which teams get in and how well they travel — quite frankly, who shows up at the game," Cuff said.

Cuff said he's unsure of how TV affects his crowds. Even if televising the games make the crowds smaller, the revenue loss is offset by money collected from TV and sponsors.

Cuff is hoping to make a comeback in football revenue this season after a disappointing 2008. He said the state got great crowds for quarterfinal games such as Bingham-Syracuse and Davis-Pleasant Grove. The Thursday crowds for the Juan Diego-Wasatch and 4A semifinal games weren't great, but Cuff was pleased with Friday's crowds for Park City-Hurricane and the 5A games.

"We got to have that revenue in order to keep everything afloat for the whole year or we frankly can't come to places like this," Cuff said from Rice-Eccles Stadium on Friday. "We have to have revenue coming in in order to be at places like this. If people don't come in and support or we don't have the revenue from each of those playoffs, then we have to look at getting our expenses down."