URI Rams women’s basketball won more games than men but still trails far behind in ticket sales

University of Rhode Island (URI) Director of Athletics Thorr Bjorn recently shared the secret for the best sports marketing tool with the university’s Board of Trustees: “Winning.”

That seemed to hold true for the university’s football team, which sold more season tickets than ever for its 2023 season — one that ended in a 6-5 overall record. But that notion got wobbly when held up to the men’s basketball team, which sold the most group tickets ever at a Feb. 3 matchup with the Duquesne Dukes — one loss in their 12-20 record for the 2023 season.

But the third revenue-generating sport at URI — women’s basketball, which boasted a 21-14 record for the 2023 season — made less money for the entire season than the men’s team can make in a single game.

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“I think we’ve done a great job in terms of growing attendance; the revenue numbers just aren’t there,” said Bjorn, director of athletics, in his presentation to the trustees’ Student Life and Athletics Committee on April 16. “And that’s just not unique for us.”

In the 2023 season, total ticket revenue for Rhode Island Rams women’s basketball team was $48,584. Rams football saw $289,788 in ticket sales. And the men’s basketball team towered over both with $951,575 in ticket revenue — actually a 32% decrease from the 2022 season, when URI raked in nearly $1.4 million. 

The decrease, Bjorn explained, can be attributed to a particularly lucrative contest. “That $1.3 million number: A big part of that is the PC (Providence College) game at home,” he said. “That’s always a gross revenue number of $180,000 to $200,000 for us.”

Since 1998, Providence College’s Friars have routinely thwarted the Rams in men’s basketball, with a 19-6 record. The Rams lost that home game in the 2022 season as well — but an attendance of 7,662 that night certainly contributed to that $1.3 million in revenue.

“Revenue is critical and winning is the best marketing tool out there,” Bjorn said. “And so we know we have to win. We’ve got to get better and so we’re spending a lot of time right now with some of the marketing initiatives we’re doing. We’re getting our student athletes, our players and our coaches out in the community this summer.” 

The Board of Trustees’ Student Life and Athletics Committee meeting took place only a day after the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) held its 2024 draft. The ESPN broadcast of the draft was the most-watched event in the league’s entire history, with first-overall draft pick Caitlin Clark likely driving a large share of those views.   

For Bjorn, the increased visibility of women’s basketball was a good omen for collegiate teams needing to fill the seats: “The amount of exposure the WNBA draft got yesterday was awesome,” he said. “So, I completely agree that we’ve got to make sure, because we’re in a very fortunate situation with a coach and with the success over the last few years, to really capitalize on it and grow it.”

But victory has apparently not translated to riches for the URI women’s basketball team. Bjorn said the women’s team’s current success has been crucially shaped by the team’s head coach Tammi Reiss, who took the reins in 2019 after serving as an assistant coach at Syracuse University.  

Reiss’ record since 2019 is 93-52 for a winning percentage of 64%. Meanwhile, Ryan “Archie” Miller, the men’s basketball coach and the highest paid state employee in Rhode Island, has a record of 21-42, or a winning percentage of 33%, since he began as head coach in the 2022 season. 

State payroll data shows Reiss’ salary is technically higher than Miller’s — $435,625 to Miller’s $409,999 — but Miller’s 2022 contract stipulates additional benefits, including a portion of gate receipts. In fiscal year 2024, he has earned a little over $1 million, while Reiss has earned $340,096.

“If there’s anything that you’re thinking about from an idea standpoint that the board can be helpful with — it just feels like it’s such a successful program but just can’t seem to get the people there,” Margo Cook, chair of the board, told Bjorn.

Board member Thomas Ryan was also confused: “We have an enthusiastic, community orientated coach. We have a great season. I mean our record speaks for itself. Yet we’re not attracting fans…It seems like we have the elements: Low ticket prices. Great coach, great teams. Good record, and attendance doesn’t follow.”

The low revenue is partially because ticket prices for women’s basketball games are low. 

“We do that because our demographic is certainly an older demographic or young families,” Bjorn said. “We always want to grow season ticket sales. Even though the prices are very inexpensive, that will ideally encourage more people to come to games night in and night out.”

Season tickets for the 2024-2025 season begin at $185 for men’s basketball, and can go all the way up to $575. Women’s basketball season tickets run from $115 to $225. But football season tickets, also capped at $225, start even lower, at $100.

The difference might be found in the average number of attendees per game. In the 2023-2024 season, women’s basketball averaged 1,674 attendees per game. Men’s basketball averaged 4,237. And football saw an average of 4,045 people in the stands every game.

Bjorn promised trustees a more detailed analysis of revenue differences between years and with similar schools. The university is in the midst of a makeover to its budgeting model: For fiscal year 2025, URI will test out a new incentive budgeting model, and begin transitioning away from an incremental model. Incentive models emphasize the importance of revenue with department budgets, and make managing a “bottom line” more important, according to another state university that took a similar approach.

Bjorn presented three seasons’ worth of sport revenue at the board meeting, and noted broader perspectives will be useful for future analytics and planning — especially when some games, like the ever-popular head-to-head with the Friars, can account for such massive portions of annual ticket revenue.