Penn State men’s basketball and men’s hockey both recorded record-high ticket sale figures during the 2019-20 fiscal year, according to athletic department’s annual financial report released on Friday.
For men’s hockey, the Nittany Lions capped off a Big Ten regular season title run with fans buying just over $2 million in tickets. The mark is the first time the program had crossed over $2 million in ticket sales in the program’s relatively short history. While not all Big Ten hockey institutions report their financial information the same way, that $2 million is comparable to similar programs.
Wisconsin men’s hockey sold $2.6 million in tickets while Minnesota topped out at $3.5 million. Ohio State hockey on the other hand saw just over a half million in ticket revenue. All three programs host games within vastly different size arenas and with various ticketing processes and prices.
As a result of the ticket sales boost, men’s hockey rounded out the fiscal year with just over a $1 million in profits and managed to make just over $5.07 million in revenues, up from $4.66 million the previous fiscal year. Program expenses stayed roughly the same as they had been over the previous four years at $4.06 million.
In terms of men’s basketball, the Nittany Lions made a run into the Top 10 behind a crowded Bryce Jordan Center and $1.54 million in ticket sales, well up from the $965,773 in sales the year prior. Overall the Nittany Lions brought in $10.5 million in revenue with program costs just over $7.36 million. Big Ten media rights are included in that figure.
The Nittany Lions would have likely brought in more revenue but the cancelation of the NCAA Tournament resulted in no additional postseason shares.
For comparison, while now former head coach Patrick Chambers had seen program revenues above $900,000 back in 2012, the Nittany Lions sold just $684,535 in ticket sales according to that year’s financial report.
