Indiana athletic department’s 2023 financial report shows surplus of $5.6 million

BLOOMINGTON — The Indiana athletic department reported a $5.6 million surplus in the 2023 financial report it submitted to the NCAA.

The annual report was provided to The Herald-Times in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. The NCAA requires all Division 1 member schools to submit an audited financial report at the end of the year.

“Anytime we finish in the black, it’s extremely positive,” Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson said. “We have got to really work every year, we are close to break even, so that $5.6 million was a real accomplishment for our department.”

That surplus will help the athletic department fund the upkeep of the many athletic facilities on campus. Part of the 2023 funds will go towards replacing the turf in the Mellencamp Pavilion this spring. Last year, the athletic department replaced the turf on one of the outdoor practice fields.

“We want to create enough capital to fund those things on a timely basis," Dolson said. "One of the toughest things to budget for is R&R (renewals and replacements). It’s really hard if you want to put a new roof or put in new turf or resurface the track. All those things are extremely costly and easy to put off in some ways if you can’t fund them, but they are critical.”

Indiana athletic department generates $144.7 million in revenue for FY23

Last year, Indiana ranked No. 13 nationally in total revenue ($166.7 million), but that was largely due to a one-time $150 million gift from the IU Foundation that helped the university offset losses from the pandemic. The school transferred $38 million of the foundation's gift to the athletic department. It was recorded in the 2022 financial report among the $61.2 million in donor contributions the department received.

Indiana reported $144.7 million in operating revenues in 2023 including $24.5 million in ticket sales, $19.6 million in donor contributions and $47.8 million from media rights distributions.

The media rights distributions were nearly identical to last year’s numbers, but the department’s overall ticket sales were up from 2022 ($21.2 million) and pre-pandemic levels.

Indiana men’s basketball ticket sales ($12.2 million) outpaced the football team ($10.3 million) by nearly $2 million. The revenue from program, novelty, parking and concession sales was nearly identical for the programs.

Former Indiana football coach Tom Allen's buyout will be on next year's financial report

The athletic department reported more than $139 million in expenses — up from last year’s record $132.3 million — including $19.1 million in athletic student aid, $5.3 million in game guarantees, $25.9 million in coaching salaries, $23.8 million in support staff salaries and $3.6 million in severance payments.

Indiana’s 2023 financial report doesn’t include the buyout for former football coach Tom Allen or the money owed to his former assistants.. The school negotiated Allen’s buyout down to $15.5 million and paid out in two equal installments, but those funds were distributed during the 2024 fiscal year.

The FY2023 includes the last six months of 2022 and first six months of 2023.

“We have gifts coming in over time,” Dolson said, of those expenses. “We’re taking out a loan for the immediate expenses. What it will show (next year) is higher expenses, but also an influx of a loan that we will be paying off over time with donor funds and operating money we put towards that."

“It should not affect a profit or a loss. It should be a wash in fiscal year 2024.”

Much of what Indiana owed to Allen’s coaching staff has been offset by those assistants finding jobs elsewhere. The athletic department has a standard mitigation clause in their assistant coach contracts.

Indiana’s listed $10.4 million in expenses to non-program specific athletic facilities debt service, leases and rental fee is the outstanding loans for recent major completed projects such as Wilkinson Hill, Assembly Hall renovation and the South End Zones.

The university pays off the loan as it receives the annual pledges for those projects, according to Dolson.

Indiana’s football team accounted for $34.1 million of those expenses and the men’s basketball team had $17 million in expenses.

The rest of Indiana’s athletic teams operate at a $34.9 million deficit, with the women’s basketball program bringing in $1.2 million against $7.3 million in expenses and the other sports reporting $5.1 million in revenue with $31.3 million in expenses.

Indiana has 24 total teams (13 women’s programs) with 703 student-athletes (499 of them receive scholarship money), according to the report.

Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Indiana athletic department earned $144.7 million in revenue in 2023