A year after Auburn’s athletics department operated at a deficit for the first time since the 2013-14 fiscal year, the program experienced a major financial bounceback.
Auburn athletics reported record revenue and profit numbers for the 2021-22 fiscal year, according to a copy of the department’s annual NCAA financial report obtained Tuesday by AL.com through an open-records request. Auburn reported an operating revenue of $174,568,422 against an operating cost of $151,590,763 during the last fiscal year, which ran from Oct. 1, 2021, to Sept. 30, 2022.
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The result was a reported profit margin of $22,977,679 — the highest annual mark in Auburn athletics history. The previous record for reported profit by the athletics department came during the 2007-08 fiscal year, when Auburn reported a profit of $19,470,624, while the previous record for annual revenue was during the 2019-20 fiscal year, just before the pandemic, when the program reported an operating revenue of $153,703,749, according to AL.com records.
Auburn’s record year financially comes after the program experienced the true effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Auburn athletics operated at a $9.7 million deficit during the 2020-21 fiscal year, as revenue fell by $30 million year over year. It was the first time in seven years that the program operated at a deficit.
The program’s rebound during the most recent fiscal year can be attributed to an increase in ticket sales, as full capacity returned to Jordan-Hare Stadium during the 2021 football season and to Neville Arena for the 2021-22 basketball season, which was one of the most successful in program history. Auburn reported $34,140,396 in ticket sales for the 2021-22 fiscal year, which up nearly tenfold from last year’s financial report, when the program reported just $3.7 million in ticket sales due to the pandemic. For comparison, Auburn reported $33,820,864 in ticket sales for the 2019-20 fiscal year.
The latest report included $30,555,705 in football ticket sales, which was up exponentially from $3.2 million the year prior. For basketball, revenue from ticket sales increased from $180,757 to $2,299,783 in the most recent fiscal year.
Along with the revenue from full-capacity venues for Auburn’s two most profitable sports, Auburn saw a significant increase in donor contributions in 2021-22. After reporting $15.9 million in contributions in its last NCAA financial report, Auburn reported $35,791,591 in contributions this time around. Auburn also saw revenue from licensing, royalties and sponsorships more than double year over year, reporting $11.1 million in the latest report.
Meanwhile, one of the department’s biggest cost-savers during in the latest report was in severance payments. The program saw those costs cut in half, from $16.6 million during the 2020-21 fiscal year—when the football program fired Gus Malzahn and owed a considerable amount to he and his staff in buyouts—to just $8.2 million during the 2021-22 fiscal year. Of course, the buyouts owed to Bryan Harsin and his staff will be full reflected in next year’s financial report, since Harsin was fired a month into the 2022-23 fiscal year.
| Fiscal Year | Total Revenue | Total Expenses | Surplus/Deficit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-22 | $174,568,442 | $151,590,763 | $22,977,679 |
| 2020-21 | $123,546,999 | $133,289,885 | $(9,742,886) |
| 2019-20 | $153,703,749 | $135,816,431 | $17,887,318 |
| 2018-19 | $152,455,416 | $139,260,711 | $13,194,705 |
| 2017-18 | $147,620,569 | $139,798,191 | $7,822,378 |
| 2016-17 | $147,511,034 | $132,885,979 | $14,625,055 |
| 2015-16 | $140,070,593 | $124,864,399 | $15,206,194 |
| 2014-15 | $124,657,247 | $115,498,047 | $9,159,200 |
| 2013-14 | $113,716,004 | $127,340,380 | $(13,624,376) |
| 2012-13 | $103,680,609 | $104,546,603 | $(865,994) |
| 2011-12 | $105,951,253 | $97,128,835 | $8,822,418 |
| 2010-11 | $103,982,441 | $100,497,784 | $3,484,657 |
| 2009-10 | $92,611,558 | $90,908,902 | $1,702,656 |
| 2008-09 | $87,001,413 | $85,480,343 | $1,521,070 |
| 2007-08 | $89,311,824 | $69,841,200 | $19,470,624 |
| 2006-07 | $81,799,266 | $68,910,465 | $12,888,801 |
| 2005-06 | $66,599,925 | $63,249,119 | $3,350,806 |
Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.