Though initially budgeted to lose money on the bowl game, Ohio Athletics earned about $360 from the football team’s trip to Alabama for the Raycom Media Camellia Bowl in December, according to budgets from the athletic department.
For the first time in its bowl history, Ohio Athletics made money off a bowl game.
Though initially budgeted to lose money on the bowl game, Ohio Athletics earned about $360 from the football team’s trip to Alabama for the Raycom Media Camellia Bowl in December, according to budgets from the athletic department.
Ohio lost to Appalachian State 31-29 in Montgomery, Alabama, on Dec. 19.
The total revenue from the game was about $568,700, and the expenditures totaled about $568,300, according to the final budget.
Original budget predictions indicated OU’s athletic department might lose about$26,000, according to a previous Post report.
In its last bowl game, which occurred in 2013, Ohio Athletics broke even with about $470,000 in both revenue and expenses.
Ohio had to use about $30,000 from its Post Season Opportunity Fund, which is money from the university’s general fee, for the then-called Beef 'O’ Brady's Bowl that year to pay for remaining expenses.
The university did not have to use any money from that fund this year to pay for bowl game expenses, according to the budget.
“The university has a budgeted line item for a postseason opportunity fund to cover expenses for postseason play including expenses for bowl games that exceed the allotted bowl payout by the Mid-American Conference,” Anthony Reynolds, assistant athletic director for media relations, said in an email. “It was not necessary to access this fund for the 2015 Camellia Bowl.”
OU Spokesman Dan Pittman said each MAC team that participated in a 2015 bowl was given a one-time charter stipend of $50,000.
“This was provided in an effort to assist with the additional costs of travel and other bowl-related expenses,” Pittman said in an email.
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The 2015 game made more than $13,000 in ticket sale revenue and about $5,000 in student promo ticket sales. Reynolds said 692 tickets were sold.
The game garnered 1.9 million viewers on ESPN2, which was a 73 percent increase from the Beef 'O’ Brady's Bowl, according to a previous Post report.
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