The gold standard of basketball tournaments can be found in the Atlantic Coast Conference, home of the nation’s oldest and most successful college hoops event.
A glance at the legendary coaches and players past and present provides ample evidence of why the tournament remains an impossible ticket — and must-see TV from Tobacco Road and beyond. Michael Jordan, David Thompson, Len Elmore, Christian Laettner, Tim Duncan and Grant Hill are among the ACC tournament’s notable alums.
That star power pays off: The ACC reaps well over $10 million a year in revenue from the tournament, based on tax documents and industry estimates. For the 2006 tournament in Greensboro, N.C., the most recent federal filing available, the ACC generated $7.6 million in revenue primarily consisting of ticket sales, merchandise and concessions.
The tournament’s haul is much larger than that, though, since TV money is not included in the revenue figure included in the federal filing. That’s because ACC tournament TV rights are part of the conference’s overall $30 million-a-year pact with Raycom Sports for all men’s basketball games throughout the season.
With perennial powers North Carolina, Duke and Maryland, among others, the 12-school ACC commands high interest and viewership all year long. The postseason ratchets that fervor up another notch: Ratings are three times as high for the ACC tournament as for the conference’s regular-season games.
“The TV package is significantly more valuable to us because of the ACC tournament,” said Ken Haines, chief executive at Raycom. “It’s also a major part of driving corporate sponsorships.” He declined to discuss how much of the annual TV fee is apportioned for the tournament.
The current Raycom-ACC contract expires after the 2010-11 season. It includes all TV rights for men’s basketball. Raycom sells games to other networks and syndicates games on its own during the regular season. For the tournament, Raycom retains exclusive syndicated broadcast rights across the ACC’s geographic area and brokers a separate, national broadcast deal for the games to air on ESPN in other areas.
The ACC tournament produces more than
$10 million in revenue.
In addition, Raycom sells corporate sponsorships for the ACC as a whole, with all deals including the basketball tournament. Current sponsors include Food Lion, Pepsi, Chick-fil-A, RBC Centura, Geico, Chrysler/Jeep, Alltel, Gatorade and Progress Energy. Raycom would not disclose financial terms of its sponsorships.
A big hook for companies to sponsor the conference is the chance to obtain tickets to the annual men’s basketball tournament — a hot, and scarce, commodity.
How scarce? Raycom distributes a total of just 300 tickets to sponsors and clients. Nine companies are official ACC partners with ticket privileges.
Officials for one of those sponsors, RBC Centura, point to participation in the tournament’s fan festival (Raycom estimates the tournament weekend fan festival attracts 15,000 to 20,000 fans each year) and advertising in the arena (only league sponsors receive those rights) as well as on the TV broadcasts as prime attractions. But there is one change RBC Centura would like to see.
“We’d love more tickets,” said Tami Wiggs, the bank’s marketing director. “Every year we say, ‘Come on, can’t we get a few more tickets?’”
RBC Centura receives eight to 12 tickets for each tournament, which comprises six sessions and 11 games, with only top clients and prospects invited to attend with bank executives. Similarly, the member schools use their annual ACC tournament ticket allotments — 1,450 per school this year — to drive alumni donations. Schools award ticket-buying rights to those who give the largest donations on an annual basis.
“That is one of the biggest hidden revenue sources and it’s one that goes to the individual institutions,” said John Swofford, ACC commissioner. “That desire to purchase tournament tickets really helps with scholarship programs.”
Specific figures for the schools’ donor revenue from ACC tournament ticket sales are unavailable.
There has not been a public sale of ACC tournament tickets since 1966. One obvious option to generate more tickets and revenue would be to play in bigger arenas. The ACC played at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta in 2001, selling 36,000 tickets a session and setting attendance records. Driven by additional ticket sales, tournament revenue excluding TV reached $7.5 million, the highest in league history until the 2006 tournament.
In 2009 and 2012, the Georgia Dome again will host the ACC tournament. Swofford and the ACC are comfortable with occasional forays into the dome, but prefer to maintain the tradition of a tough ticket in college basketball hotbeds. This year’s tournament is at Charlotte Bobcats Arena.
“We move the tournament around, but more often than not, it’s in North Carolina,” Swofford said. Greensboro, home of the conference headquarters, has been awarded the tournament in 2010 and 2011 as well as 2013-2015.
| ACC men’s basketball tournament revenue |
| Driven primarily by sponsorships and game-day receipts, the ACC has seen its men’s basketball tournament revenue grow 76 percent since 1998. The figures, taken from federal tax filings, do not include television revenue. |
Year | City | Facility | Revenue | Expenses | Net |
| 1998 | Greensboro, N.C. | Greensboro Coliseum | $4,317,169 | $542,902 | $3,774,267 |
| 1999 | Charlotte | Charlotte Coliseum | $4,829,260 | $996,860 | $3,832,400 |
| 2000 | Charlotte | Charlotte Coliseum | $4,822,250 | $997,219 | $3,825,031 |
| 2001 | Atlanta | Georgia Dome | $7,554,422 | $1,762,911 | $5,791,511 |
| 2002 | Charlotte | Charlotte Coliseum | $5,254,850 | $1,168,538 | $4,063,312 |
| 2003 | Greensboro, N.C. | Greensboro Coliseum | $5,592,945 | $1,477,617 | $4,115,328 |
| 2004 | Greensboro, N.C. | Greensboro Coliseum | $5,538,700 | $1,052,397 | $4,486,303 |
| 2005 | Washington, D.C. | Verizon Center | $6,261,560 | $1,292,439 | $4,969,121 |
| 2006 | Greensboro, N.C. | Greensboro Coliseum | $7,614,916 | $1,831,764 | $5,783,152 |
| 2007 | Tampa | St. Pete Times Forum | NA | NA | NA |
NA: Not available
Source: IRS Form 990s filed by the Atlantic Coast Conference |
The conference has an option to move one of the Greensboro dates between 2013 and 2015 elsewhere with the guarantee that Greensboro would get the event back in 2016. As the ACC has expanded its membership, the conference has aimed for a bit more geographic diversity in tournament sites, including stops in Washington (2005) and Tampa (2007).
As the conference looks ahead, the largest untapped revenue source is a presenting or title sponsorship agreement. Other conferences, such as the Big 12, have sold similar rights for their basketball tournaments. With its standing in college basketball, an ACC title sponsorship for the tournament could reap millions for the conference on an annual basis.
The ACC already has a corporate name (Dr Pepper) on its football championship game. It is sold as part of the overall football season TV package by ABC/ESPN. Putting a corporate name on the ACC basketball tournament has been discussed and rejected before, Swofford said.
Still, he expects the topic to surface again, especially with the proliferation of corporate names attached to college football bowl games and increased sponsorship across college sports.
If a corporate name were available for the ACC tournament, interest from companies would be high, experts say.
“Every other conference aspires to be like the ACC tournament,” said Mike Trager, a sports TV consultant. “It just stands out because of the history and strength and success over the years.”
For Raycom, the primary rights holder, potential growth areas include an increase in new media offerings (highlights packages for online and cell phones) as well as more hospitality and entertainment tied to the tournament weekend.
“The conference has been very open to exploring new ways to expose games and the tournament to fans,” Haines said. “We’re always talking about what might work to make it bigger and better.”
Erik Spanberg writes for the Charlotte Business Journal, an affiliated publication.
