Details on how much Georgia athletics budget is slated to rise for fiscal year 2025
The Georgia Athletic Association board of directors next week will be asked to approve a budget of more than $192 million, an increase of about 10 percent.
That’s what deputy athletic director for finance Stephanie Ransom told the finance committee which met by Zoom Monday morning and recommended the board approve the fiscal year 2025 budget.
Georgia football season ticket revenue is projected to increase from season tickets and from new premium spaces in Sanford Stadium which relocated the press box, opening up prime seating. The football team also has a neutral site game in Atlanta against Clemson along with six home games and the annual game with Florida in Jacksonville.
No specific figures were mentioned in the meeting but the SEC distribution also is projected to rise with the addition of Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC and a new TV deal with ESPN/ABC. An average of about $51.3 million was distributed to SEC schools in fiscal year 2023, according to USA TODAY sports.
Concessions revenue is also expected to grow as Sanford Stadium introduces alcohol sales to the general public.
Plant operations and facility maintenance is seeing “significant cost increases,” Ransom said, ”with the main driver preventative maintenance at Sanford Stadum and infrastructure work on concessions in the venue." No specifics were offered on the expense side.
Georgia’s football indoor practice facility will also be getting a new video board.
“The cost of doing business is going up whether we’re talking about planes, buses, hotels, meals, staffing increases, things like that,” athletic director Josh Brooks told the committee. “It’s just a reality.”
Ryan Nesbit, UGA’s vice president of finance who chairs the Athletic Association finance committee, said the university’s consumption is going down even with new facilities and higher enrollment but the costs continue to rise.
“A lot of the inflationary pressures that are reflected in the Association’s ’25 budget, we’re also grappling with on the institution's budget as well,” he said.
The athletic board holds its end-of-the-academic year meeting May 22-24 at the Ritz Carlton Lodge on Lake Oconee.
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Here are details on Georgia athletics proposed fiscal year 2025 budget
