Arkansas athletics raked in financial surplus in 2022 — and a 1700% gain in softball ticket sales from FY19

Christina Long, Fort Smith Times Record
·2 min read
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FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas athletics raked in an operating surplus of $8.19 million in 2022, according to a copy of the department's annual revenue and expense report obtained by the Southwest Times Record through an open records request.

Arkansas' net revenue comes on the heels of the pandemic. In the year before the pandemic, Arkansas operated at a surplus of $7.87 million.

Arkansas' increased on-field success paid dividends for the department: The biggest revenue gains came from ticket sales. Arkansas made about $7.5 million more in ticket sales in FY22 — which ran from July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022 — than it did in pre-pandemic FY19.

Nowhere was that more apparent than in Arkansas' women's sports.

Arkansas' women's teams saw major increases in ticket sales revenue. The total ticket revenue from women's sports increased from about $260,000 in FY19 to about $630,000 in FY22. On an individual level, every women's sport that sells tickets increased its ticket revenue well beyond its pre-pandemic numbers.

Women's sport

2019 ticket sales

2022 ticket sales

% increase

Basketball

$144,709

$255,763

76.7%

Softball

$8,008

$147,494

1741.8%

Soccer

$13,104

$40,295

207.5%

Gymnastics

$58,568

$118,186

101.8%

Volleyball

$17,995

$33,875

88.2%

Track and Field/Cross Country

$20,674

$34,614

67.4%

Softball's eye-popping increase from $8,008 in ticket revenue in FY19 to $147,494 in FY22 is a testament to the program's growth in recent years.

Arkansas had a fine season in 2019, its fourth under coach Courtney Deifel. The Razorbacks went 38-20, played in the SEC Tournament as a No. 9 seed and made the NCAA Tournament before being eliminated in the regional round.

In each of the two complete seasons since, Deifel and the Razorbacks won the SEC regular-season title and hosted both an NCAA regional and super regional at Bogle Park.

Hosting those national tournament rounds contributed to the big numbers in ticket sales. Of the top 10 attendance numbers at Bogle Park, nine of them came in 2022. Six of them were during the NCAA Tournament.

Arkansas' major men's sports, too, saw ticket sales increases relative to 2019. Football made about $4.5 million more in ticket sales. Baseball increased by less than $500,000, and men's basketball by more than $1.3 million.

After two years in which pandemic restrictions kneecapped ticket sales, the Razorbacks' 2022 numbers are an encouraging sign of growth. Most of Arkansas' teams are performing better on the field, and fans are rewarding them by showing up in droves.

Christina Long covers the Arkansas Razorbacks for the Southwest Times Record and USA Today Network. You can follow her on Twitter @christinalong00 or email her at clong@swtimes.com.

This article originally appeared on Fort Smith Times Record: Arkansas athletics at surplus, women's sports saw big ticket sales in 2022