Study finds Washington State athletics’ financial impact is expansive

Washington State University athletic director Anne McCoy hired Collegiate Consulting to conduct an economic impact study on the Cougars’ athletic department, and the results show major financial influence on the region.

As part of the analysis of WSU athletics’ branding, visibility, game-day events, and the direct and indirect impact of salaries, spending and volunteerism, Atlanta-based Collegiate Consulting said the collective the advertising value of WSU athletic events via broadcast television, streaming, and social media over the past three years totaled $1.52 billion.

When the findings were presented to WSU President Elizabeth Cantwell at a Zoom meeting of the WSU Board of Regents, she pushed back a little bit and urged these findings to be put in context.

A recent article from 247sports.com detailed the study’s findings about Washington State’s economic impact. Below is an excerpt from the 247sports.com article.

Cantwell offered up sharp context to those numbers and what is realistic revenue for WSU to achieve in that arena.

“We’re going to need to temper these numbers with reality,” Cantwell said. “There is no world in which $1.52 billion over three years is a receivable number by the institution … It will never be that Pac-12 again. And you guys know this. I know you do. We’re moving into a whole new world.

“So again, I think this is an incredibly important analysis. But I always want to put a pin in it for all of our observers … it’s not the number that we could achieve in any way. I think it really tells us how valuable our assets are though. Which is hugely important.”

Among Collegiate Consulting’s other findings are these:

• “Game day and event economic impact of Washington State athletic events, camps, and non-athletic events held in (WSU) athletic venues is $183.1 million over the past three years.”
• “Economic impact of athletic staff and student-athletes is $252.5 million over the last three years.”
• “Direct revenue impact of $298.6 million over the last three years (average of $99.5 million per annum).”

“Thus,” stated Collegiate Consulting, “over the course of an athletic year (July 1 – June 30), Washington State athletics provides a total average annual economic impact of $751.2 million and over the three-year analysis a total impact of nearly $2.3 billion.”

Interestingly, the advertising value of streamed WSU athletics events totaled just $340,000 over the last three years, the report said. A regent asked Wright why the streaming numbers were so far below the advertising value equivalency of broadcast TV ($1.51 billion) and radio ($2.22 million).

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“The streaming numbers are much lower than we had anticipated,” Wright said. “And I will say this, we have seen this across all eight of our (university) studies as we ask those respective institutions to pull their streaming numbers. They have not been as robust as you would think anecdotally when you listen to some of the pundits talk about how valuable streaming is going to be.

To read the full story from 247sports.com, click here. And to read the full study about Washington State athletics, you can view the PowerPoint presentation here.