Euless Trinity is back in the playoffs, its undefeated record allowing fans, coaches and players to dream of another trip to the state title game, an accomplishment Trinity has attained three times in the last four years. Such a deep playoff run can bring important bragging rights, school and civic pride, and, as a bonus realized perhaps only by the district’s athletic department, the opportunity to make a lot more money this year.
Football victories conjure images of pep assemblies, bus caravans to big games and improved confidence for athletes. But success also allows respective districts to reap financial benefits. As schools are forced to cut back, football teams can offer a rare revenue generator to a district’s general fund — if they are winning football teams.
In 2008 and 2009, winless Mesquite Poteet football teams grossed about $44,000 each year. In 2010, when Poteet won 12 games and advanced to the state semifinal, it grossed $124,049. Denton ISD, with three playoff teams and two that made the state title game in 2010, grossed nearly $230,000 more than it did in 2009. And then there’s Euless Trinity. Combining with school-district mate Hurst L.D. Bell, it helped the Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD gross over $2 million for a net profit of $343,791 from the 2006 season to the 2010 season.
“Everyone wants to be connected with a winner,” said Denton ISD athletic director Ken Purcell. “Right or wrong, good or bad, pretty or ugly, that’s the way we are in our society.”
The Dallas Morning News compiled financial information from 31 area school districts based on numbers taken from open records requests. Allen, Cedar Hill and Duncanville do not separate football expenses from other athletic expenses and were not included in this report.
The most common expenses for football are equipment, transportation, maintenance, the cost to host a home game and miscellaneous items such as trophies or food. Nothing costs a district more than coaching stipends and salaries.
Of the data compiled from 102 area coaches, the average head coach's salary was $90,911.80. Taking into account football expenses as defined by respective districts and head coaching salaries and assistant coaches' stipends the last five seasons, the average expenses on football per school per year were $229,376.76. Plano ISD spent the most, $442,377.68 per school, and Dallas ISD the least, $120,930.
Rarely profitable
High school football is rarely profitable. Of the 20-plus school districts that turned in financial records for football, only Highland Park, HEB and Coppell reported a net profit over a five-year period. Carroll ISD totaled a loss of less than $200,000. All revenues go to a district’s general fund.
“Every penny is precious to us, and every dollar we make and every dollar we save keeps the teachers in the classroom,” Carroll ISD athletic director Kevin Ozee said. “I think most ADs that you talk to are going to share that perspective. We love winning and the championships and the great things our kids do, but we are trying to generate things for the entire district.”
Southlake Carroll and Highland Park are, to an extent, exceptions. With affluent fan bases, playoff traditions, and monarch status as the lone high schools in their districts, seats will be filled every year, sponsors will line up to endorse stadium signs, boosters will contribute significantly and merchandise will sell, as it does for Carroll at its 24-hour online spirit shop.
But would they start to suffer if the teams started going 2-8 every season?
“No doubt,” Ozee said. “Winning correlates to increased revenue.”
Mesquite Poteet
Indeed, even though we’d all like to think communities will support local high school kids the same every year, demand for high school football is elastic, its changes dictated by winning rather than price. Mesquite Poteet, with a recently moribund football program and a demographic containing varying levels of socioeconomic status, provides a case study.
Although Mesquite ISD has made around $75,000 per year district-wide from sponsorships, most revenue — as is the case for all districts surveyed — comes from ticket sales. Winning, of course, drives those.
In 2009, when Poteet finished 0-10, the school grossed $44,774.77. When the school played its first home game in 2010, against Arlington Seguin, the gross for gate receipts was $7,372. But Poteet won that game. In its next two home games, the gross for gate receipts was $16,721 and $14,072. Although its final two homes game didn’t earn as much, they still brought more revenue than the first game, before Poteet had enticed fans with victories.
At the end of the regular season, Poteet was 8-2. The team was bound for the playoffs.
With fewer Mesquite teams to watch, fans of other district schools started attending early-round Poteet games. As the playoffs go on, even fewer teams remain. Now, not only other Mesquite residents wanted to watch Poteet; casual D-FW football fans did, usually paying for a more expensive ticket the later the round.
At a triple-header at Cowboys Stadium in the third round of the playoffs, in which Poteet defeated Highland Park, the school grossed $31,829.34 as part of $63,658.68 split gate. Two weeks later in the state semifinal, when it lost to Aledo, Poteet split a net receipt of $44,126.88 for $22,063.44 in revenue. In two games, Poteet had grossed more than it did the entire year before.
“Any money we can make is vitally important to provide for our kids, and that was one thing we got into this year with the state problem in funding public education,” Mesquite ISD athletic director Steve Bragg said.
Similar stories
Other districts provide similar examples. In addition to Denton ISD and HEB ISD, which have made more revenue off success, Coppell, a budding power, generated an average of $321,577.86 in revenue from the 2008 to 2010 seasons. It made the second, third and fourth round of the playoffs those years. The previous two years, making the first round of the playoffs in 2006 and not making them in 2007, Coppell grossed an average of $185,647.69.
“It’s an added extra bonus,” Coppell coach Joe McBride said. “And I probably would never tell our kids, but we coaches and all that know that. In the back of our mind, we do enjoy bringing money to the school district.”
To develop into a revenue machine like Euless Trinity, Southlake Carroll and Highland Park, a school must turn into a winning machine. Consistent victories mean more season tickets and lucrative playoff runs, welcome antidotes to an era of recession and shortfall.
“Everybody’s in rough shape,” HEB ISD athletic director Mike Fielder said, “but we’re doing pretty good because of what we are doing out there.”
Notes: Allen, Cedar Hill and Duncanville do not separate football expenses from other athletic expenses and are not included. Mesquite, HEB, Lovejoy and Midlothian totals also include sub-varsity football revenue and expenses. The revenue and expense totals reflect fiscal years 2006-07 through 2010-11, with a few exceptions. Carrollton-Farmers Branch (CFB) and DeSoto reflect years 2005-06 through 2009-10. Northwest, Lake Dallas and Lewisville reflect four years: 2007-08 through 2010-11. Lovejoy reflects 2008-09 through 2010-11, and Forney and Lancaster reflect 2009-10 through 2010-11. Expenditures include coaching salaries and stipends, transportation, equipment, game officials and workers' payments and miscellaneous items. Revenue includes gate and concession receipts, booster contributions and sponsors. The categories included under revenue and expenses vary by district, depending on what information each respective district provided. Richardson's expense total includes estimated travel numbers for 2006 and 2007 based on travel expenditures from 2008.