Report: Clemson football projects halted to offset revenue reductions

by TigerNet Staff - Apr 20, 2020, 4:10 PM

Clemson is bracing for millions in lost revenue due to the mandated response to COVID-19 across college athletics.

The NCAA Tournament's cancellation, which is a big moneymaker no matter if teams make the Big Dance or not, is a key part of that in addition to fringe-revenue sports like baseball being canceled.

The topic of how, when or if a football season is played is the critical topic college athletics is facing, where the bulk of revenue comes into play.

Clemson deputy AD Graham Neff told Bloomberg that the topic of cutting sports or salaries has not yet been discussed at Clemson, but they have halted capital projects like planned upgrades to the concourse and parking lots surrounding Memorial Stadium.

Per the report, Clemson has around $70 million in reserve and the ACC would have insurance policies for games potentially canceled during the season. Bloomberg reported Minnesota's "severe" scenario for the athletic revenue loss is $75 million.

Clemson told Bloomberg that its athletic budget has gone from $74.7 million in 2014 to $131.9 million in 2019. The second-biggest moneymaker in revenue was tickets ($28.7M) and donations were a tick over $44 million, where Clemson is expecting a 10 percent drop this year.

Neff told the outlet they aren't quite to the point of buying health-related supplies to hold events with fans this fall.

“Are we getting into pricing out thermometers? We’re not there yet, but we do have the luxury that we’re not playing games until September,” Neff told Bloomberg. “Our hope is that college sports won’t be the first sports to return to play, so we’ll try to follow their lead.”