The University of Tennessee Athletics Department submitted its annual financial data report to the NCAA this week. For the first time in school history, the department eclipsed the $200 million mark in revenue generation.
For fiscal year 2023, Tennessee Athletics finished with $202,097,305 in total operating revenue. The fiscal year was July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2023.
The meteoric rise was due to record levels of self-generated income for Tennessee Athletics. Ticket sales increased over 13 percent from $35.1 million in FY 2022 to $39.7 million in FY 2023, while contributions saw a historic jump of over 90 percent from $32.7M in FY 2022 to $62.2M in FY 2023.
Concessions and parking also saw a dramatic rise of 83 percent ($12.2M) from the previous year, while royalties, licensing, and sponsorships grew 34 percent ($23.9M) over the last 12 months.
One of the top priorities in “Rise Glorious” was to intentionally grow the annual operating budget as part of a relentless commitment to resource all Tennessee Athletics programs and departments at an elite, championship level. UT is already outpacing the 2026-27 goal of a 200+ million-dollar budget and well ahead of the stated goal of $170 million for Fiscal Year 2023.
“As we seek to build upon our championship tradition across all sports, generating new revenue is vital so we can invest back into our student-athletes, coaches, and staff to give us as many competitive advantages as possible,” said Vice Chancellor/Director of Athletics Danny White. “I continue to be amazed by the passion and support of Vol Nation. Reaching these new heights on Rocky Top provides a winning edge by generating resources for strategic investments in student-athletes, coaches, and programmatic infrastructure.”
The new revenue benchmark for Tennessee Athletics coincided with unprecedented athletics success last year.
In 2022-23, Tennessee repeated as SEC All-Sports champion while becoming only the second school to sweep the men’s and women’s all-sports standings.
The record-setting year continued in 2022-23 as Tennessee finished at an all-time best No. 6 in the final 2022-23 LEARFIELD Directors’ Cup standings—second among SEC schools. The 1,078.75 points scored were the most in school history, with 19 different sports contributing at least 25 points. It was Tennessee’s first top-10 Directors’ Cup finish since 2006-07, when UT landed at its previous-best No. 7.
UT also became the only school ever to win a New Year’s Six bowl game, advance both its men’s and women’s basketball teams to the Sweet Sixteen and send both its softball and baseball teams to the College World Series—in the same academic year.
The NCAA requires that institutions submit revenues and expense information for their athletic department and other general details online annually. To view the full report, click here.
