Iowa State University athletics’ financial climb out of the hole created by the COVID-19 pandemic continued with modest revenue growth for Fiscal Year 2023.
The Cyclone athletic saw revenues increase by 3.9 percent to a record $115.6 million, according to the department’s NCAA financial reporting documentation.
Iowa State saw a marked increase in contributions from the previous year, with donations tallying $29.1 million in this past fiscal year, which ran July 1, 2022 through June 31, 2023. The Cyclones brought in $22.2 million in contributions in FY2022.
Nearly a third of all Iowa State’s revenue came from media rights, conference and NCAA distributions.
The Cyclones saw $24.8 million come in via its media rights, with another $15.7 million coming from conference football bowl distributions. Another $6.2 million came in NCAA and conference distributions.
Iowa State generated $21.7 million in ticket sales.
Football was unsurprisingly the overwhelming driver of revenue with $53.2 million generated by the sport. That was down approximately $2 million from the year prior, though that largely represents the failure to make a bowl game in 2022. Iowa State generated about $2 million from the Cheez-It Bowl in 2021, but went 4-6 and did not make a bowl in 2022.