I Went Through Penn State’s 2023-24 Athletics Financial Report So You Don’t Have To

It’s back. 

Rick Kaluza’s magnum opus is once again here. 

Of course by that I mean Penn State’s 2023-24 NCAA Financial Report. This is the best glimpse we get into the dollar figures that are pumping and running Penn State’s athletic department. 

This year, we’ve added some charts to compare some year-over-year numbers. The charts don’t always sum up to the total figure – especially the ticket one. However, the overall totals are included.

Keep in mind this is the school year that included Penn State football’s trip to the Peach Bowl and Mike Rhoades’ first season as men’s basketball coach – among other things. 

Like last year, we will do this bullet point style. It’s probably easier to digest that way. Additionally, you can follow along with the report here. You can also see last year’s numbers here. 

Revenue 

• Penn State made roughly $18M more in 2023-24 than 2022-23. It also spent more (but that’s in the expenses part. This is the revenue part.) In total, Penn State earned $220M in revenue during 2023-24. That is obviously the most it has ever made.
•  Like every year, ticket sales, contributions (Nittany Lion Club, fundraising, etc.) and media rights made up the largest percentage, $129M in fact. 

Ticket Sales 

• This is my favorite one to dive into because it is somewhat related to performance. For starters, Penn State made $50.6M off of selling tickets, up from $47.9M last year. 
• Football sales increased by $3M in 2023-24 to $44.5M. 
• The No. 2 driver on campus was once again the men’s hockey program, once again making $2.2M in 2023-24. 
• Men’s basketball saw a 4% increase to $1.8M. With the passion that grew in 2022-23, this makes sense it’d carry over, especially with a new head coach that’s deeply rooted in the state. 
• Wrestling remained in 4th place but saw a loss of about $300k in 2023-24 to $1.3M. This is probably attributed to the fact the program’s biggest home match in 22-23 was vs. Iowa at the Bryce Jordan Center. In 2023-24, the biggest home match of the season was against Ohio State and that was at Rec Hall.  
• Women’s volleyball saw a nice jump up 22%. 
• Women’s basketball – which was on the cusp of making the tournament – saw a 32% increase in sales up to $210k. 
• Penn State women’s sports saw a 17% increase in ticket sales in 2023-24, compared to just a 5% increase from the men’s side. It seems that Penn State attributed more sports to the general bucket — hence the big uptick there.

Other Revenue Notes

• Contributions fell roughly 9% down to $37M, compared to $40M a year ago. This could have something to do with the 2024 season increase in NLC donations for football season tickets. 
• However, Penn State made that up in media rights and various conference distributions. 
• Penn State’s parking and concessions revenue grew by about $5M to $15.2M in 2023-24. 
• In particular $12.2M of that concession and parking revenue came from football. That’s up from about $9.6M in 2022-23. This is what happens when you can sell beer for an entire football season – and probably why there are so many beer vendors inside Beaver Stadium as well. 
• Interestingly, Penn State listed sports camp revenue in 2023-24 at $2.7M. It did not list any of it in the previous report. 
• So how does that revenue shake out by team? Well $113M of the revenue came from football. In second place was men’s basketball at $11.8M while men’s ice hockey generated $4.6M. Wrestling generated $2.4M. Women’s volleyball was the only women’s team above $1M at $1.2M. 

Expenses 

• You’ve got to spend money to make money, right? Well Penn State spent $215M, the most it’s ever spent to keep the athletic program ticking. 
• About half of those expenses go to student aid and salaries. 
• Student aid (AKA the cost to go to college) went up 3% to $24.1M. This will be an interesting number to keep an eye on as NCAA scholarship rules begin to change for various reasons.
• Coaching salaries saw a 10% bump to $42.4M. An annual reminder that Penn State does not list any of its coaches’ salaries except for head football and men’s basketball coach – so if you came here through a Google search looking for the swimming coach salary, you’re out of luck. 
• Of course, James Franklin makes around $7M — plus some bonuses and other payouts. We also know that Micah Shrewsberry made around $1.8M according to Right To Know paperwork. We may not find out Mike Rhoades’ salary until a little later in 2025. 
• Penn State football spent about $2.8M on recruiting in 2023-24, while men’s basketball spent the second most at $399k. 
• We’re still a year away from having an idea of how much travel costs are impacted by the Big Ten expansion but Penn State’s travel costs increased to $12M in 2023-24. 
• About $6M went to buying equipment and new jerseys. 
• It costs $766k to cover the cost of Penn State football’s equipment. Second most expensive? Men’s hockey at $274k. Women’s hockey costs $216k. 
• So those sports camp numbers are back once again. It cost $3.4M to run those camps. 
• Spirit group expenses increased to $652k from $398k last year. It’d be interesting to know why. Chances are that price is going to go up again thanks to the new 4th Quarter Flag. 
• Severance payments decreased to $929k from $1.6M. It appears Penn State is no longer on the hook for Pat Chambers’ severance as no spend is attributed to basketball. $905k of it comes from football. (Most likely Kirk Ciarrocca and some of Mike Yurcich’s buyout if I had to guess). 
• It takes at least $64M to operate Penn State’s football program. Second highest on campus is Penn State men’s basketball at $11M while women’s basketball costs $5.4M to run. 

In total, Penn State made about $5M in profit compared to just $126k last year. 

If I recall correctly, Penn State charged around $15 for a Beaver Stadium chicken basket. That means with the profit, you’d be able to buy 376,723 chicken baskets. If a beer costs $11 at Beaver Stadium, you’d be able to buy 19,555,279 beers with Penn State athletics’ operating budget. That’s enough to buy everyone inside Beaver Stadium a beer for the next 26 seasons. 

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