Over the last six times, the Louisville women’s tennis team has steadily spent its way up to the club’s wealthy. On Sunday, the emerging Cardinal play for their first federal subject against Penn State, a powerhouse program.
The Nittany Lions have seven NCAA titles and made 13 appearances in the Final Four. By comparison, Louisville made its initial semifinals in 2019, its first semifinal in 2021 and its first championships in 2022.
In that time, the group’s finances has grown in unison, according to data from Sportico’s university finance repository. During the 2017 season, Louisville spent$ 1.82 million on women’s tennis, the 27th largest budget among FBS open institutions. The next time, it devoted$ 1.77 million, which ranked 37th. Since then, the Chiefs have been on a solid upward trend. The school ranked 23rd in 2019 ($ 2.02 million ), 26th in COVID-disrupted 2020 ($ 1.54 million ), 18th in 2021 ($ 2.35 million ), and 10th in 2022 ($ 3.25 million ).
That 2022 funds, the most recent statistics that have been released, represented the first time the Cardinals outspent Penn State, which ranked 11th among people FBS institutions at$ 3 million. In ticket sales that season, Louisville also outearned the Nittany Lions,$ 434, 000 to$ 169, 000.
Some of that is attributable to the more frequent consumption of KFC Yum! Center, Louisville’s 22, 000-seat sports arena, which will number Sunday’s last as a pre-determined natural webpage. Until recently, the group often played in the place, which is 18x larger than the tennis player’s solution, L&, N Federal Credit Union Arena. At KFC Yum, Louisville played three regular-season game. This year, the 2024 set will be sold as a standalone ticket item starting at$ 78. The six seats will be at facility in 2023.
Louisville’s increased saving coincides with rising popularity, investment, funding and revenue for women’s sports across the U. S. Basketball has received much of that focus, but the business opportunities in women’s volleyball—and in the Midwest in certain —have likewise expanded dramatically. Nebraska, which like Penn State has previously enjoyed huge achievement, sold out the school’s 92, 000-seat football stadium for a game next year, a professional team in Omaha almost outdrew MLB’s Athletics this year, and another master league is launching in 2025 with teams in Madison and Omaha.
Women’s handball” can be a income generating sport,” according to Louisville trainer Dani Busboom Kelly earlier this year. She continued,” While the KFC Yum! She hoped the Cardinal might have a facility of their own in the future because Center was a benefit to her program.
” That’s always the hope”, Busboom Kelly said in August. ” With so many things changing with]Name, Image and Likeness ] and just college athletics, I don’t think that’s coming anytime soon, but I know that would be a goal for this administration and myself to have our own facility somewhere”.
Since at least 2017, and probably long before that, Penn State’s tennis team has been ranked among the 15 highest-spending common college programs in every year. For those wondering, Nebraska ranked No. 1 in ticket sales ($ 2.22 million ) in fiscal 2023, and No. 3 in spending ($ 4.41 million ).