COLUMBIA, Mo. — For the first time in six years, the University of Missouri’s athletics department reported a budget surplus, but athletics director Desireé Reed-Francois isn’t throwing a victory parade. In her first fiscal year running Mizzou athletics, the department generated record revenues of more than $141 million during the 2022 fiscal year. MU athletics also spent a record amount of money — more than $125 million — but the $15 million surplus marks a stark contrast from five consecutive years of operating at a deficit under past leadership.
“We're making investments for competitive success,” Reed-Francois told the Post-Dispatch. “Quite frankly, we need to be aggressive in raising revenue. We’re going to be great stewards of our resources, but we need to provide excellence around our programs — and part of that is investing. So we've got to keep growing our revenue.”
Mizzou’s financial data comes from the school’s annual submission to the NCAA Membership Financial Reporting System, obtained through an open records request.
Mizzou’s athletics revenue for the 2022 fiscal year (July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022) included Eli Drinkwitz’s second year as football coach, a 6-7 season, and Cuonzo Martin’s final year as men’s basketball coach. Athletics revenue increased from $110,458,144 in the 2021 fiscal year to $141,157,028 this past year. One factor was a dramatic uptick in ticket sales as MU home venues re-opened at full capacity following the coronavirus pandemic. With Memorial Stadium, Mizzou Arena and other on-campus facilities fully open, ticket revenue climbed from $3,574,357 in 2021 to $13,929,479 in 2022 — but still fell short of the pre-pandemic total of $16,124,731 during the 2020 fiscal year.
Mizzou will see an even greater increase in ticket revenue in next year’s report as ticket sales for MU’s two primary revenue sports — football, men’s basketball — have increased dramatically during the current academic year. Mizzou football’s average home attendance increased by 16% in 2022 to 54,525. Under first-year coach Dennis Gates, men’s basketball has sold out five home games this season with average attendance up 69% from last year to 11,151 fans per game. For total home attendance, MU has climbed from No. 17 in Division I, up from No. 75 last year.
“We’ve rebuilt our ticket sales force and we've seen some good early returns,” Reed-Francois said. “In fiscal year 2023, we’ve led the Southeastern Conference in attendance growth. We've made an emphasis on bringing students to games. So we hired a director of student engagement. We've seen a 38% growth in student attendance. We're trying to be innovative.”
Mizzou’s revenue and spending figures have historically ranked near the bottom in the SEC but among the top 30 to 40 programs nationally.
Donor contributions also increased under Reed-Francois’ watch, from $24,589,042 to $29,512,444, as did revenue from athletics royalties, licensing and advertising, up from less than $1 million in 2021 to nearly $8 million this past year.
Another major source of enhanced revenue: MU reported a significant increase in direct institutional support from the university’s coffers, from just more than $1 million in 2021 to $12,030,003 in 2022. That’s because campus provided funds to pay off contract buyouts for both former AD Jim Sterk ($1.5 million) and former basketball coach Cuonzo Martin ($6 million). Campus funds were also used to pay Reed-Francois’ buyout from UNLV ($500,000) and buyouts for multiple football assistants. Also, the university paid athletics $4 million to cover out-of-state tuition fees for scholarship athletes.
Mizzou’s Southeastern Conference bowl revenue distribution nearly doubled in 2022, increasing MU’s payout from $4,617,196 to $8,038,060. That’s because in 2021 the SEC withheld part of MU’s bowl revenue as part of its 2019 postseason ban for NCAA academic violations.
Mizzou’s media rights revenue, which accounts for all revenue for radio, TV, internet, digital and e-commerce rights, dropped slightly from $38,280,619 to $36,749,503.
The biggest decrease in revenue came from Mizzou’s SEC distribution, down from $29,868,483 the previous year to $4,826,827. There’s a good reason for that: In May 2021, the SEC distributed $23 million in supplemental revenue to each school to help mitigate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, using future earnings from its media rights contract to allocate those funds to each school.
Those SEC funds are reflected in MU’s 2022 expenses and helped pay down the department’s facility debt service, down from $28,306200 in 2021 to $15,888,580 last year.
Mizzou spent the most on personnel: $22,072,515 on coaching salaries, benefits and bonus pay — an increase from $20,200,329 in 2021 — and another $23,740,954 for support staff and administration pay, up more $5 million from 2021.
After playing limited schedules during the pandemic year, spending on guaranteed games in nonconference play increased from a little more than $500,000 to $3,805,228. Mizzou’s travel expenses also saw a sharp rise, from $5,182,764 to $8,478,803.
With MU’s rare budget surplus, Reed-Francois will use those funds to build more resources for her teams.
“We need to build back our savings account,” she said, “but I’ve got to invest in my programs, too.”
In December, in a move driven by campus leaders and the University System Board of Curators, MU hired global consulting firm Huron to conduct an analysis to identify areas the school can “further invest in athletics excellence.” The Board is paying the firm’s fee of $540,000 through investment income and reserve funds. The assessment will run through August.
“This is one way that the campus and our Board can invest in athletics so that we can have continued competitive success,” Reed-Francois.
