The Savannah Bananas introduced their rollicking brand of baseball to the University of North Carolina’s Kenan Stadium for 2 sold-out video games in April, attracting greater than 100,000 Banana Ball followers to a venue that gained’t be in-season till the fall and delivering the kind of income increase that athletics departments throughout the nation are in search of.
The video games at the soccer stadium-turned-baseball subject generated greater than $17.1 million in direct financial affect for Chapel Hill and the surrounding area, in response to the faculty. It additionally generated greater than $1 million in revenue for the athletics division, vital {dollars} at a time when the Tar Heels — and almost everybody in school sports – are on the lookout for further income to assist offset hovering prices, together with tens of thousands and thousands in direct income sharing funds to athletes.
Concerts and baseball or soccer exhibitions in soccer stadiums? Check. Corporate names and logos on stadiums, fields, courts, video boards and, coming quickly, uniforms? Of course. Naming rights for division positions and trophy circumstances? Creative scheduling agreements? Overseas video games? Yes, sure and sure.
“You’ve got to try to be creative in what you do,” mentioned North Carolina State University athletics director Boo Corrigan, who’s technically the McMurray Family Director of Athletics due to a $5-million endowment. “It’s not a single source. There’s no magic pill, those types of things that are going to fix all your problems, so you’d better be creative and, as we say, you’d better keep your knees bent because it’s going to come at you from all kinds of different angles.”
Athletics departments in main conferences, together with the Charlotte-based Atlantic Coast Conference which is residence to UNC, NC State and Duke, added a $20.5-million expense merchandise for the 2025-26 educational yr in the type of revenue-sharing fee with athletes, the consequence of a 2025 authorized settlement. Roster constructing and retention prices are hovering via title, picture and likeness offers, some of which is coming from companions funds to departments.
And so the search is on for extra income.
NC State hosted signer Chris Brown at Carter-Finley Stadium final yr, the faculty’s first main live performance at its soccer venue in almost a decade. The Wolfpack are internet hosting two extra exhibits — legendary band Guns N’ Roses and signer-songwriter Noah Kahan — in late July. Revenue from the exhibits will go to the athletics division, which is projected to have a deficit this yr.
Generating extra income to assist its basketball program and general athletics division was the driving pressure behind North Carolina’s now-paused deliberations about constructing a new basketball enviornment off campus. A brand new basketball enviornment with an abundance of premium high-dollar seating choices and growth round the venue could generate more than $20 million in additional revenue annually over the present Dean E. Smith Center, in response to the athletics division, which had a deficit final yr.
UNC and NC State are promoting naming rights to their soccer stadiums. The Wolfpack are in search of cash to sponsor trophy cases at Reynolds Coliseum. Duke crafted a take care of Amazon to broadcast three of its marquee men’s basketball games this season, working with ESPN and the ACC. UNC and NC State will open their respective 2026 soccer seasons abroad, a distinctive expertise for his or her gamers and likewise a help to the bottom line. The crunch has some departments throughout the nation cutting sports.
In that setting, carry on the pitchers on stilts and the flaming bats, staples of the Bananas.
“That’s very representative of the kind of new thinking that we want and the type of events we want to be bringing onto campus,” mentioned Rick Barakat, the chief income officer for UNC’s athletics division.
“It’s a bit of a stake in the ground: ‘Hey, we’re back and we’re going to be doing more than football games at Kenan Stadium,’” Barakat mentioned. “We think there’s an opportunity there, a bit of an obligation to the local community to provide some additional forms of entertainment and at the same time be bringing new [revenue] streams into the athletic department.”
Rising prices and large deficits
Barakat was employed in March 2025, simply months earlier than the House authorized settlement was finalized and months after the Tar Heels’ dedicated thousands and thousands in further spending on soccer with the rent of coach Bill Belichick.
UNC spent about $188 million on athletics throughout the 2024-25 educational yr, up greater than $30 million from the earlier yr and greater than $57 million from 2021-22. The Tar Heels had revenues of almost $173 million. That was earlier than income sharing and earlier than UNC fired males’s basketball coach Hubert Davis, triggering a buyout, and employed Michael Malone at greater than double Davis’ common wage.
North Carolina is at the moment negotiating a contract extension with Learfield, its multimedia rights holder, Barakat mentioned. Learfield’s take care of UNC, value greater than $13 million yearly and set to run out in 2029, included a “competitive review” window after July 2025. “We’re very optimistic about a positive longer-term outcome,” Barakat mentioned.
UNC’s settlement with attire big Nike and Jordan Brand pays the faculty greater than $5 million per yr, along with tools ensures, and runs via the 2027-28 educational yr. Renewal talks are set to start this fall, Barakat mentioned.
NCAA guidelines now enable applications to promote two company patches on their uniforms. Arkansas sold jersey patches across all of its 19 sports to Tyson Foods. LSU made a department-wide deal with Woodside Energy. Barakat mentioned the Tar Heels are nonetheless exploring the way to promote that stock, together with contemplating one sponsor for the faculty’s profitable girls’s sports applications.
“There’s no doubt that college sports are having to adopt some of the practices that professional sports have already polished and matured over time,” mentioned incoming UNC athletics director Steve Newmark, a former NASCAR govt. “And we’re going to need to do that because there’s no doubt that the cost of supporting collegiate athletics is continuing to rise.”
College sports are borrowing one other side from professional sports of their quest for extra money: expanded postseasons. The males’s and ladies’s basketball tournaments are increasing to 76 groups. The College Football Playoff, which was at 4 groups in 2023, could increase from its present 12 groups to 24 in the future — if the monetary equation works.
And the funds have to work, given how massive enterprise has develop into. The ACC generated a record $826 million in 2024-25, in response to tax paperwork launched Friday, and distributed a mean of $47.1 million to its long-term football-playing members. The Big Ten generated $1.47 billion and the SEC $1.1 billion for the identical interval.
Even with conferences making greater than ever, largely on the again of rising tv rights contracts, faculty athletics departments are discovering themselves in the purple, depending on the college to assist them out. In latest weeks, officers at Virginia Tech, Kansas, Louisville, Florida State and elsewhere have outlined their monetary points.
It has left some questioning how sustainable the present school sports mannequin is. President Donald Trump warned that rising costs for football and basketball could push departments and entire colleges to insolvency.
“I hope that answer isn’t that it all crashes, which is a solution, right?” Corrigan mentioned. “I don’t think it’s a solution anyone wants.”
NC State carried a projected deficit of more than $18 million in 2025-26, the first yr of income sharing and unequal ACC distribution, in response to a presentation to the faculty’s trustees earlier this yr. Corrigan informed the board that the division will discover a approach to stability its finances, however he mentioned the program gained’t put all the burden on followers via ever-increasing ticket costs.
“We’re not going to go out to every season-ticket holder and charge $500 more dollars for everything that we’re doing,” he mentioned. “That’s not fair either. You can still get into Cater-Finley for a family. Now the seats are in the end zone or in the upper deck and those types of things, but you can still get in for a reasonable price and that’s important to us.”
Interest, as measured via tv rankings and ticket gross sales, is increased than ever in school sports. But some worry that in an period of professionalization the connection that has bonded faculties and followers for generations could be in peril of fraying.
“At the end of the day, it’s still going to say NC State or Wolfpack across the front,” Corrigan mentioned. “People want to be a part of that and they love the experience that they have supporting our students, supporting the competition, getting together, tailgating, being a part of all that. We just need to make sure that we protect that on some level.”