The Univ. of Illinois will pay "almost $675,000 for the right to play three Thanksgiving weekend games at Soldier Field in the next five years," according to Julie Wurth of the Champaign NEWS-GAZETTE. But UI is "banking on much higher profits from ticket sales and other revenue at the games." UI will play three "home" games scheduled against Northwestern in '15, '17 and '19 the Saturday after Thanksgiving. UI will keep 100% of the revenue "from ticket sales, a major cut of sponsorships and a share of merchandise and concession sales." The school also will get 70% of the "net revenue from merchandise sold at the game," with the other 30% held by SMG, Soldier Field's management group. It is a "different structure" from the contract for UI's '13 game at Soldier Field against Washington. In that agreement, negotiated through a third-party promoter, UI "paid no rental fee and was guaranteed" a minimum of $1.3M. In exchange, UI "was obligated to sell" $1.2M worth of tickets. UI Exec Senior Associate AD Jason Lener said, "We didn't hit any of the additional ticketing thresholds." Lener added he is "very confident" the new contract structure will generate more income. He said that the fact that UI "was willing to commit to three games" at Soldier Field gave it "a bit more leverage" with SMG (Champaign NEWS-GAZETTE, 3/8).
