Penn State's Paterno is priceless
-
Penn State coach Joe Paterno.
Share with others:
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Penn State Hall of Fame football coach Joe Paterno's trademark Coke-bottle glasses recently sold for $9,000 in a charity auction.
So if his signed glasses are worth that much, then what price tag can be placed on the 83-year-old Paterno's value to the school in his 44 seasons at the helm of the football program?
Not even the university can answer that question, although it has reaped the profits and benefits of Paterno's high profile to become the third-most valuable football program in the country.
"I couldn't even imagine putting a dollar value on Joe Paterno," said Rick Kaluza, Penn State's associate athletic director for finance.
Penn State's football program is one of the most valuable in the nation (figures in millions):
• $1.03M: Joe Paterno's salary in 2008.
• $6M: Penn State's estimated earnings from ticket, concessions and parking sales on a typical football Saturday.
• $14M: The Nittany Lions' yearly earnings through various TV contracts, including $10 million for football.
• $99M: Forbes magazine's value of the Penn State football program ranked third behind Texas ($119 million) and Notre Dame ($108 million).
Forbes magazine recently rated the Nittany Lions' football program No. 3 with an overall team value of $99 million, based on revenue and profits. It trailed only Texas ($119 million) and Notre Dame ($108 million) in the national rankings, and was significantly higher than No. 8 Ohio State ($85 million) and No. 11 Michigan ($81 million) in the Big Ten Conference.
Forbes also reported that Penn State generated $66 million in revenue and earned a profit of $50 million for the 2008 season, although Kaluza said those numbers are a bit high. He said Penn State generated $61,767,717 in revenue and $42,635,760 in profit. One of the major discrepancies is that Forbes' numbers include seat donations from the Nittany Lion Club -- the booster club -- as part of its overall revenue, while Penn State's figures do not.
First Published March 2, 2010 12:00 am
