Penn State Sports Pinching 9,100 Million Pennies

One Hundred Million Pennies

The Penn State athletic department reported "only" about $91 million in revenue for the 2007-08 fiscal year. For basketball coach Ed DeChellis this meant spending some more time in the car during recruiting trips...

Subscribe to Penn State Clips via Email

“I’ve flown more out of Harrisburg and Baltimore this year than ever in my life,” DeChellis said. “I can’t tell you last time I flew out of State College.”

Last year DeChellis made $642,366. Big money? That ranked him dead last among Big Ten hoops coaches.

There is some good news on the way. The football team plays eight home games this fall. The average ticket price rises from 52 bucks to 55 bucks. Faithful fans can expect to pony up an extra 7 million bucks this year. Lots more if you count the cost of food, lodging, and transportation--and booze.

Worried that our pitiful schedule won't be enough to get us a number one ranking even if we win 'em all. Consider this explanation,

“It’s a fine line between putting together the competitive schedule that fans would like to see versus putting yourself in a good position financially,” Curley said. “That additional home football game pays a lot of bills. Moving forward, that will be something that we have to take a close look at all the time.”

Are fans starting to think they would rather spend a week in, say, beautiful Delray Beach or eight weekends in State College?

The Nittany Lions had a season ticket renewal rate of 97 percent this year, down from their average rate of 98.5 percent.

For those of you that are ponying up your hard-earned bucks, congratulations...

“Right now we’re proud of all 29 sports,” Curley said. “Eliminating any of them would be the last option we would consider.”

Subscribe to Penn State Clips via Email

Kindle: Amazon's 6" Wireless Reading Device