Report: Colorado set revenue, expenses records in Deion Sanders' first season

When Deion Sanders took over as Colorado head coach in 2023, the Buffaloes became the talk of college football. TV ratings and attendance soared – and it led to record revenue and expenses for the school, The Boulder Daily Camera’s Brian Howell reported.

Colorado generated $142 million in revenue from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024, which was an increase from $117 million the previous fiscal year. On the other side, CU spent $132 million in expenses, which was up roughly $5 million from the year prior.

Ticket sales increased in a big way after Coach Prime took the reins. Colorado set a new record with $31.2 million in ticket revenue, which was nearly double the previous record of $16.57 set in 2021. A combined $16.7 million also came in from merchandise, licensing, sponsorships, game-day parking and concessions – up from $8.9 million the in FY23.

CU was also able to report a profit, The Daily Camera reported, thanks to support from the university. The school pledged $27.1 million, which helped make up the prior year’s deficit and the decrease in revenue from the Pac-12. In Colorado’s final year in the conference, its distribution fell to $28.3 million, which was $7.5 million than the school originally budgeted and $5 million less than the year before.

Colorado senior associate athletics director for business operations Cory Hilliard told The Daily Camera the support from the university helped on multiple fronts. For starters, the athletics department is still emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, and conference realignment is also sure to have an impact on the budget.

“The campus has been working with us over the last few years in cleaning up the balance sheet and some of the previous fiscal years’ deficits that all had different components to it – COVID, the Pac-12 shortfall in conference distribution due to legal settlement stuff,” Hilliard said.

Colorado struggled on the field in Deion Sanders’ first season as head coach, finishing 4-8. But Coach Prime engineered an impressive turnaround as the Buffaloes moved to the Big 12, taking the program to a bowl game en route to a 9-4 record.

Travis Hunter also put together a historic campaign to win the Heisman Trophy, further increasing his draft stock. Shedeur Sanders also had a year for the ages to also come in as a top draft prospect after leading the country in completion percentage. ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. ranked Hunter as the top player in his latest Big Board and Sanders as the No. 4 overall player.