After hiring head coach Deion Sanders in December of 2022, the Colorado Buffaloes athletics department had a record fiscal year.
The total operating revenue for Colorado athletics in the fiscal year of 2023 came out to $127 million. This is a $32.2 million improvement from the fiscal year of 2022, according to a report from BVM Sports. It is important to note that the fiscal year of 2023 does not include the 2023 football season, but Sanders was present for the latter half of the fiscal year.
This also marks the first time in the history of Colorado Buffaloes athletics that they have eclipsed the $100 million-mark in revenue. Despite a record-breaking year in revenue from Colorado athletics, they still ended up $9 million in the hole.
Expenses increased massively for the Colorado Buffaloes athletics program. The school spent $136 million in the fiscal year of 2023. They only spent $96 million in the fiscal year of 2022. The increase in spending was greater than the increase in revenue by almost $8 million.
The Colorado Buffaloes football program, which is led by head coach Deion Sanders, was the most profitable program in Colorado athletics
Only two athletics programs were profitable for the Colorado Buffaloes. Those two programs were the football program and the men’s basketball program.
The football program led the way with a $15.1 million profit. The basketball team turned a profit of just $1.3 million. 83% of all ticket sales came from the football program, which accounted for $13 million of the $15.7 million in ticket sales generated by Colorado Buffaloes athletics.
The football team’s slight increase in spending was not an overwhelmingly large portion of the $40 million dollar increase from the fiscal year of 2022 to the fiscal year of 2023, but it was still significant. The football team increased spending by $9.5 million since Deion Sanders became the head coach.
The football team remained one of the only profitable programs, despite not increasing the total revenue all that much. Only $942,865 of the $32.2 million increase in revenue came from the football program, who’s total operating revenue was $50.1 million.
Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes did not see much success on the field, but they have a chance to make up for it in profit
Head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes Deion Sanders had just four wins in his first season. Despite a disappointing finish to the season after starting off 3-0, a four-win season is still a vast improvement from the 1-11 record the Buffaloes had in 2022.
Regardless of record, Sanders has brought in a great deal of publicity for the Buffaloes. Publicity means money, and that is something in which Sanders’ arrival has resulted.
It’s still so wild to me that Deion Sanders is our f****n head coach
— 🦬🤠David Talks Buffs (@DavidTalksBuffs) January 25, 2024
“I’ve been him. I’ve been a difference maker, a game changer, I’ve been that guy. So what would change, not a darn thing.”
-Mr Prime Time @DeionSanders pic.twitter.com/5wHZDlMu4q
— sms ✨🎥🎙️ (@seanmsuvie) January 25, 2024
Sanders was enough of a public figure to win Sports Illustrated’s Sports Person of the Year. In an article from Sports Illustrated, boulder bar owner Mark Heinritz explains what Sanders has done for the Buffaloes.
“It has that 1990s energy all over again,” says Mark Heinritz, co-owner of The Sink, a bar within a 10-minute walk of Folsom Field. “There were a lot of discussions over a couple decades of, ‘Why do we have football?’ This is why we have football.”
City Council member Rachel Friend explains how Sanders’ impact goes beyond the Colorado athletics program in the same article.
“Boulder felt kind of beaten up, or beaten down, through the pandemic,” says city council member Rachel Friend. “Our potholes haven’t been filled as readily, we can’t figure out how to get unhoused people what they need and we’ve had a notable increase in that population. There is a cash infusion [from football into the economy] that means more potholes are going to be filled. People living here and visiting here are going to be taken care of better.”
Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes have the chance to have even more of an impact on Boulder should they continue to keep increasing the win percentage for the Buffaloes.
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