Long-awaited video board expected by 2013 season
Season football ticket sales and donations are both up for the athletics department in 2011, athletics director Eric Hyman told the university’s board of trustees Friday.
Football season ticket sales are up to 47,698 in 2011; the university sold 45,985 in 2010. And private donations to the university’s athletic department are already above $8 million for the fiscal year—which began in July. That’s about $2 million more than the university raised during the last fiscal year.
Those donations were primarily boosted by a private gift of $4.4 million that will be given to USC over the course of six years, Hyman said. The athletics director said the program has raised more than $36 million in the past five years, which is among the top “four or five” in the SEC.
Hyman said the uptick in gifts came from the athletics department developing more personal relationships with donors. The athletics director said he has increased his fundraising presence, leaving much of the day-to-day duties to Marcy Girton, his chief operating officer.
The ticket uptick is good news for an athletics department that has struggled with sagging ticket sales in recent years, due to the YES seat licensing fee installed to boost revenue. Ticket sales dropped as much as 15 percent, Hyman said Friday, as angered season ticket holders cancelled their contributions by the thousands.
“Nobody was forecasting what we went through in the past two or three years,” Hyman said.
Now, Hyman says season ticket sales are only down about 8 percent from their peak—when USC sold about 55,000 season tickets. Auburn, Clemson and Florida are all sold out for the 2011 season.
Hyman also said USC would install its much-awaited Williams-Brice video board for the 2013 football season.
Hyman discussed the board during his presentation at Friday’s board of trustees meeting. It will be 36 feet high and “47 feet taller than Georgia’s board,” Hyman said. It won’t be the largest in the SEC—Mississippi State University will continue to hold that honor, Hyman said.
It faces state approval and the procurement process but should easily pass both, Hyman said. Funding for the project has already been secured, he said.
In other news, USC’s board of trustees also gave preliminary approval to a $14 million indoor practice facility for the football team. The facility will span 86,000 square feet and will be 120 yards long. It will have wall padding, adequate ventilation and support parking, Hyman said.
Hyman said the farmer’s market premium tailgating lot will be completed in time for next year’s football season. The softball field renovations were completed last week at a cost of $375,000 as well, Hyman said. Work on the stadium itself is ongoing.