After winning the South Division and nearly beating Washington for a Rose Bowl berth in the Pac-12 Championship game, Utah fans have a lot to cheer about with a majority of the team coming back this year.
And the news only continues to get better as the athletic department recorded record-revenues in 2018. The final audit was recently completed showing revenues of $91.3 million compared to just $87.5 million in expenses. On a year-over-year basis, revenues jumped by $7.7 million while expenses rose by $5.9 million.
The table below outlines how the University has fared over the past four years.
| 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | |
| Revenues | $62.4M | $79.4M | $83.6M | $91.3M |
| Expenses | $58.7M | $78.0M | $81.6M | $87.5M |
Revenue continues to soar since the school first joined the Pac-12 with revenue more than doubling ($40.8M) since its first season in 2011. The figure is even more staggering when compared to its last year in the Mountain West Conference when the program had revenue of just $30.9 million. In less than a decade, revenue has tripled which has allowed the University to reinvest that money into the program with numerous upgrades and new facilities.
Where The Revenue Came From
Utah received a big boost in ticket sales along with its conference affiliation to reach another all-time high during the past fiscal year. Of course, the biggest chunk of Utah’s revenue came from its Pac-12 affiliation as the Utes received more than $32 million from the conference.
The department recorded $18.7 million from ticket sales — an increase of nearly $1.7 million from the previous year. Football accounted for most of the ticket sales with $14.6 million, which is up 1.2 million from the previous year.
Men’s basketball tallied $2.5 million — right in-line with previous years — with women’s gymnastics jumping up to $545,897 compared to $474,497. The program also received nearly $9.4 million in contributions, up nearly $600,000 from last season.
Breaking it down further, Utah received $22.4 million in media rights, $9.9 million in royalties and licensing deals, $9.5 million in conference distributions, $3.2 million in NCAA distributions and $1.9 million in concession sales/parking, according to the report.
Also, for the first time since joining the Pac-12 Conference, revenue from student fees dropped. After pulling $6.05 million in 2017, this past year saw $5.95 million used which accounts for roughly six percent of Utah’s total revenue last year.
For more coverage and to see where Utah’s 2018 expenses came from, please click here.
Follow Fan Insider on Facebook and on Twitter.
Utah Athletics: 2019 Revenue Skyrockets — Here’s The Full Breakdown
