NKU’s move to increase athletics’ revenue has Norse basketball fans doubting, debating the plan

By Dan Weber NKyTribune sports reporter From rising prices at the gas pump to groceries, it’s no surprise to hear folks complaining about the hit to their wallets these days. But Northern Kentucky University season basketball tickets? Excuse us. And yet there it is. NKU’s top boosters, the ones who have been there the longest and given the most, are being asked – in some cases – for more than a doubling of the cost of their sideline seat tickets for next season.

NKU calls the new higher prices for the better seats a “seat equity plan.” But many longtime NKU season-ticketholders call it a price hike that’s too steep for the team’s most loyal boosters and one that could backfire. Coming off a so-so season where the 18-15 Norse made it only to the Horizon League semifinals after a recent history of advancing to the NCAA Tournament with regularity, the price jump does not appear to be going well on first impression. And this among a fan base that has supported the program. The NKU men averaged 3,270 a game in 2023-24 and 3,457 for Horizon League games, a 16.5 percent increase for league games. Only Wright State, with an average attendance of 4,006, outdoes NKU in the 11-team Horizon. Two teams – Robert Morris (872 average) and Detroit Mercy (856) averaged less than 1,000 fans. Average game attendance for all 11 Horizon teams was 2,074. On the 4,400-member Norse Nation fan site on Facebook, the great majority of the 186 commenters on what posters have labeled NKU’s “seat license” issue have expressed their unhappiness with the increases and probable unwillingness to stay on board. Denny Egan, who played for the first-ever NKU basketball teams more than a half-century ago and has had season tickets – now at midcourt — “since a year after I graduated,” says he’ll not be one of those renewing according to the new plan.

“It’s not a financial decision to me,” Egan says. “My four season-tickets cost me between $1,000 and $1,200.” But an additional $400 a seat assessment for his tickets in the third row would be an additional $1,600. “It’s a bad business decision (for NKU) and I’m not supporting that,” Egan said. “They’re beating up the people who have been most loyal.” The NKU rep he talked to “told me I could move down to the corner (with no additional cost) but I’m not doing that.” Bryan Allen, NKU’s associate athletics director for development, counters that talk. “We feel it’s a very reasonable position,” Allen said of the three new levels of seat increases — $400 a seat, $350 and $250 – for three middle sections on each side of Truist Arena and are the result of consultation with what NKU considers “benchmark” Division I programs, including Wright State. “We’re not charging what people in our area are charging,” Allen says which is certainly the case for the two major programs in the Greater Cincinnati area. A comparable season ticket at Xavier last season, when the Musketeers were coming off a season with 11 sellouts and fans could see a Big East schedule of two-time NCAA champion UConn, Marquette, Creighton, Seton Hall, St.John’s, Butler, Georgetown and Providence, offered a comparable seat for $650 plus a premium of $1,500 a seat. “That NKU price sounds like a great deal,” said a Northern Kentuckian with UC season tickets who pays $1,800 for a comparable seat with the premium included to see a Big 12 schedule that included Houston, Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, TCU, Iowa State, Kansas State and West Virginia. “We’re moving forward with the plan,” Allen said, noting that “there will be 18 sections with no increase” for what he calls NKU basketball’s “young Division I program.” Allen’s read of the fan reaction to this point is that “a vast majority are in a wait-and-see” mode after the school’s reps have talked to them. He says he’d characterize it as “neutral if not positive . . . we’re hearing them out. It’s a healthy conversation. Everybody’s been very good. We hear their pain points.” Egan says he’s been told the goal is to raise an additional $700,000 although Allen says “we haven’t shared an overall goal” for the program. Egan worries that if a number of season-ticketholders choose to do what many are saying they will, buying tickets only for whichever game or games they choose to attend – which is no problem in the 9,000-seat Truist Arena — will cost NKU fans. NKU’s only near sellout in recent seasons came two years ago when Cincinnati’s Bearcats – in a deal for using the NKU arena while UC’s Fifth-Third Center was being renovated – came to Truist and a crowd of 8,543 showed up to cheer on NKU’s 64-51 upset. But that’s it. NKU can barely get major programs like Washington, Washington State and St. Mary’s (California) to play them even if NKU agrees to fly the more than 2,500 miles to get there. Getting major programs to come to Highland Heights is a non-starter. Egan, who twice presided over the Go Norse Fund, wonders why the school ended the Gala and the golf outings for athletics. “I always thought of those as much ‘friend-raisers’ as fundraisers,” he says. But it’s a different world in athletics at Highland Heights these days with the majority of athletic administrators and coaches non-Northern Kentucky natives, Egan says. “For the first time since I was a student, I don’t know a single person in the Athletic Department.” Allen, a native of Huntington, W. Va., and graduate of Marshall, is a veteran of athletic departments at James Madison, Cincinnati and Virginia Commonwealth that you can count as a local now. He lived in Ft. Thomas previously and after moving around the country, says “it’s the first place we’ve chosen to come back to.”

The ticket renewals have yet to go out and won’t be due back until the end of July, Allen says. And there will be “installment plans and extended payments through the end of December . . . we know it’s hard.” Asked for his best argument for the increases, Allen says “It’s an investment in the student-athletes who come here and get their degrees and most of them stay here. It’s an investment in Northern Kentucky.” They are working on “value-added” bonuses for these buyers including — just announced — free season tickets for the NKU women’s basketball games. “We really believe in Jeff Hans,” Allen says of the recent hire of the NCAA’s winningest women’s basketball coach coming over from Thomas More. MONEY AN ISSUE FOR NKU ATHLETICS No question NKU needs the money. In the annual USA TODAY survey of 249 Division I public college athletic budgets that Allen said he “wasn’t familiar with,” NKU is No. 26 when it comes to percentage of financial support that comes from the school. Of the $16,521,511 NKU spent in 2023 on athletics, $13,525,219 came from allocated school funds which figures out to the university ponying up 82.14 percent of NKU’s athletic expenditures. Outside support makes up just $ 2.996,292. And that was before NKU added three non-revenue sports and six new teams: men’s and women’s swimming, men’s and women’s triathlon and women’s stunt (competitive cheerleading) for this coming fall and men’s volleyball the next year at an estimated additional cost of $1.1 million. Those costs, however, have no connection to NKU’s “seat equity plan,” Allen says. “Our rationale is that it’s 100 percent for student-athletes.” NKU’s will have a total of 22 programs, with none of the six new programs currently supported by the Horizon League. That’s almost double the number of Wright State’s sports and teams (eight and 14) at NKU’s closest Horizon League rival and more than the 11 sports and 16 teams at the University of Cincinnati with its athletic budget of $75.9 million. To put those numbers into context, NKU subsidizes its athletic program with more institutional dollars than major powers, all with football, like UCLA, Utah, Missouri, Alabama, Texas Tech, North Carolina. West Virginia, Washington, Colorado and on and on – none of whom subsidize sports with the $13.5 million plus of institutional funds that NKU does out of its $16.15 million. COMPARING THE PROGRAMS Here are the numbers for other public programs in Kentucky (all figures from the USA TODAY research: *** University of Kentucky: $0 subsidy of its $153 million athletic budget; *** University of Louisville: $6.1 million of its $140 million athletic budget; Three regional universities – all with football – contribute less of a percentage than NKU does. *** Eastern Kentucky: $15.4 million out of $19.4 million (79.24 percent); *** Morehead State: $9.4 million out of $11.4 million (81.36 percent); *** Murray State: $12.86 million out of$18.6 million (69.13 percent). Here’s how NKU stacks up in the Horizon League where it’s No. 3 in the total spent on athletics: *** Youngstown State (with football): $17.77 million; *** Oakland: $17.36 million; *** NKU: $16.15 million; *** Milwaukee: $14.16 million; *** Cleveland State: $14.14 million; *** Purdue Ft. Wayne: $13.3 million; *** Wright State: $11.05 million; *** IUPUI: $10.29 million; *** Green Bay: $9.5 million. In terms of percentages, three Horizon schools contribute more than NKU: *** Milwaukee: 89.32 percent *** IUPUI — 87.37 percent; *** Cleveland State – 82.93 percent; *** NKU: 82.14 percent; *** Purdue Ft. Wayne – 81.86 percent; *** Wright State – 77.02 percent; *** Oakland – 76.94 percent; *** Youngstown State – 73.12; *** Green Bay – 65.47. To contact Dan Weber, email dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter (formerly X) @dweber3440.