How much Iowa athletics earned, spent on women's basketball in Caitlin Clark's final year
IOWA CITY − Caitlin Clark’s final year as a college basketball star led to record revenue for University of Iowa athletics but also added millions of dollars in extra expenditures, the school's 2024 fiscal-year statement shows.
The report, which was due to be filed to the NCAA by Jan. 15 and obtained by the Des Moines Register via an open-records request, also showed that Iowa women’s basketball revenue exceeded that of the men’s team for the first time.
The numbers are staggering and underscore how Clark’s senior season with the Hawkeyes became a wildly entertaining experience, both on and off the court.
An important note: Iowa athletics does not take money from the university's general fund but did generate $650,000 in 2024 through student fees. According to Paste BN research, Iowa has one of about 20 Division I athletics departments that receives less than $1 million in financial support from the institution or student fees.
Here are some of the most notable findings from Iowa's 2024 report.
Iowa women's basketball ticket sales more than doubled
After Iowa reached the national championship game in 2023, season-ticket sales exploded. The university raised prices modestly but demand was so high that Carver-Hawkeye Arena sold out every game anyway, at a capacity of 14,998 fans, months before Clark’s senior season began.
Women's basketball ticket revenue went from $1,434,061 in 2023 to $3,260,451 in 2024 – a 127.4% increase, year over year – and easily the most in Big Ten Conference history. Compared with Clark’s sophomore season, when ticket revenue was $767,069, that amount grew by more than 400% in two years.
In that same period, from 2023 to 2024, men’s basketball ticket revenue fell from $3,471,938 to $2,965,969 – a drop of 14.6%.
Another reason for the sharp 2024 rise was the “Crossover at Kinnick” exhibition game vs. DePaul on Oct. 15, 2024. Iowa drew 55,646 fans, a national record for women’s basketball, for the outdoor matchup. Iowa charged $10 for adults and $5 for those 18 and under for that event, which was played in sunny weather and celebrated as a huge success. While sales for that game are reflected in Iowa’s balance sheet, the university also used $250,000 of the proceeds to donate to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.
Iowa likely will see robust women's basketball ticket revenue in fiscal year 2025, as the women's home games once again sold out.
Hawkeyes fans paid up for parking, concessions to watch Caitlin Clark
Iowa’s women's basketball income for “program, novelty, parking and concession sales” rose from $430,418 in 2023 to $858,548 in 2024, a not-surprising jump of 99.5% given Clark’s allure.
More people in the seats and parking lots meant more money spent on food and merchandise.
In that same category and time span, men’s basketball income dropped from $479,745 to $425,626.
Staging the games was a costly venture
As the money poured in, Iowa also needed to increase its spending on women's basketball to properly stage Clark’s final season at home. Fans lined up hours before games, which required additional staffing.
Also, the security presence for Clark and the national-spotlight women’s team – both home and away – added costs.
In total, Iowa spent $1,709,387 to stage women’s basketball games in fiscal year 2024 – perhaps the most eye-popping number of all on the NCAA report. That was an increase of nearly 107%, from $827,720 in 2023. By comparison, defending national champion LSU spent around $258,000 on women’s basketball game expenses in 2024, Paste BN Sports Network research showed.
UConn, a longtime national presence in women’s basketball with a two-time defending NCAA men’s champion as well, spent $601,000 to stage women’s games (compared with $610,000 for the men). In other words, Iowa's expenses tripled those of UConn on the women's side.
Expenses to put on men’s games at Iowa were $876,739 in the 2023-24 season.
The “Crossover at Kinnick” was another reason for the significant increase. A football game averaged $421,212 to put on at Kinnick Stadium in 2023. To put on a women’s basketball game with 55,000-plus fans added six figures to Iowa’s expenditures, a cost that won’t be repeated in 2025.
Hosting first- and second-round NCAA Tournament games at Carver-Hawkeye Arena for the third consecutive year also added to Iowa's income and expenses. Because Iowa was a No. 1 seed, there was an additional early-week game between No. 16 seeds Holy Cross and Tennessee-Martin and, thus, two extra days of staffing and security.
Coaching salaries, bonuses rose sharply for Iowa women
After Iowa reached the NCAA title game behind Clark in 2023, head coach Lisa Bluder earned a new contract and a significant salary increase. She made $1.4 million before bonuses, of which there were plenty as the 2024 Hawkeyes three-peated as Big Ten Tournament champions and returned to the Final Four and NCAA title game.
Iowa’s expenses for women’s basketball coaches pay rose from $2,740,287 in 2023 to $3,937,658 in 2024, an increase of about $1.2 million or 43.7%.
Another reason for the increase in salaries, according to athletics department CFO Greg Davies, was Bluder’s retirement in May and associated costs in the hiring of Jan Jensen as her replacement. Bluder also was due a $500,000 lump-sum payment on Jan. 1 following her retirement, although that cost won’t show up until the 2025 report.
Other observations: Iowa athletics has $2.8 million surplus
In the first year of operation under new athletics director Beth Goetz (who assumed interim duties from Gary Barta on Aug. 2, 2023, and was named AD in January 2024), Iowa was in the black by about $2.8 million − $173.2 million in revenue vs. $170.4 million in expenses. In 2023, Iowa had $167.4 million in revenue vs. $160.3 million in expenses (roughly a $7.1 million surplus).
Coaching salaries saw an increase from $32,040,274 in 2023 to $37,338,275 from 2023 to 2024. Football salaries accounted for $2.8 million of that $5.3 million increase, with defensive coordinator Phil Parker being the headliner after his salary rose from $1.4 million to $1.9 million after he won the Broyles Award as the nation’s top assistant coach.
One national oddity is how little Iowa spends on football recruiting. Iowa reported $683,051 in football recruiting expenses in 2024 (which is largely consistent with the $665,134 spent in 2023). It is by far the lowest amount spent on recruiting among the seven annual reports from 2024 Big Ten schools obtained by the Paste BN Sports Network as of Thursday: Penn State spent $2,837,760 on recruiting, Purdue $1,904,752, Ohio State $1,824,738, Michigan State $1,582,488, Wisconsin $1,372,745 and Indiana $1,308,491. Also of note, Iowa's football recruiting expenses are about half of the lowest-reported Southeastern Conference public school (as of Thursday): Kentucky, at $1,243,848.
Hawkeyes columnist Chad Leistikow has served for 30 years with The Des Moines Register and Paste BN Sports Network. Chad is the 2023 INA Iowa Sports Columnist of the Year and NSMA Co-Sportswriter of the Year in Iowa. Join Chad's text-message group (free for subscribers) at HawkCentral.com/HawkeyesTexts. Follow @ChadLeistikow on X.