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| FAMU Athletics Budget document. Click picture to enlarge. |
FAMU Athletics missed its projections for football gates receipts for the 2018 season by 13.89%. The university had expected to take in $620,000, but only took in $533,905. According to the document, athletics also says it's missed its revenue projections for football season ticket sales by 14.8% bringing in $255,545 against the $300,000 budgeted. These two factors clearly contributed to the projected $313,000 revenue shortfall the department is facing for the 2018-19 year as it tries to close its books on June 30th.
Athletics has reduced its projected shortfall from just over $1 million in 2017-18 to $313,000 today. The department hopes to mount an aggressive push to break even by the end of its fiscal year.
In 2018 the Rattlers played six home games in Bragg with a total home attendance of 107,239 fans. This translated to an average per game attendance of 17,873. For the 2017 season, the last year of the Alex Woods era, FAMU played four home games in Bragg for a total attendance of 76,190 or an average per game attendance of 19,048.
Bright Spots
From the budget documents shared with FAMU Trustees on June 6, Athletics showed a few bright spots exceeding its budget projections on guarantee games by 10% taking in $275,000 which was $25,000 more than budgeted.
Concessions and Program sale was another bright spot. FAMU took in $132,766 at the concession stands, $32,766 over the $100,000 budgeted. And exceeded its projections on athletic programs sales over 300% taking in $19,446 against the $6,000 budgeted.
What is not clear from the information shared is if the guarantees and concession sales were football only revenue.
MEAC Revenue
The budget document dated June 2, 2019, also showed a $28,453 increase in revenue from the MEAC Conference over the $200,000 that was budgeted.