Shocking Duke Basketball Revenue Report

Recently, data from Duke University’s annual Equity in Athletics Disclosure report was made public. This is an annual report disclosing the revenue and expenses from each athletic program at the university. For the fiscal year from July 1, 2023-June 30, 2024 Duke football led the way. Football programs across the country unanimously lead the way in terms of revenue due to TV deals and Duke is no different.

Unsurprisingly, Duke basketball led the way nationwide in terms of revenue. The basketball program led by Jon Scheyer and superstar freshman Jared McCain earned nearly $44.8 million.

Duke Basketball With Impressive Revenue Report

Naturally, Duke basketball led the country in basketball revenue. The next closest team was Syracuse with a revenue of about $34 million. It can be challenging to pin down some of the revenue reported by other schools but you can find the data on the EADA website and compare schools.

For reference, UNC Chapel Hill reported $32 million, UConn reported $18.9 million, Kentucky reported $30.9 million, and Kansas reported $19.5 million. As demonstrated by the numbers, Duke is the King of the Blue Bloods and it is proven year after year on the court and in the bank accounts.

Factors in Revenue Report

College basketball programs count revenue in many different forms. The vast majority is made up from ticket sales, merchandise sales, media, and sponsorships.

For Duke, the ticket sales are almost always standard. Duke sells out every single game and ticket prices rarely change. However, they do occasionally play in some NBA arenas in neutral site games and can earn different revenue streams from that pending on the game contract.

Some of this revenue also comes from the ACC media deals which spreads money to all of its member schools. The ACC media deals have come under scrutiny in recent years as Clemson and Florida State have attempted to escape the conference for more money in the SEC. 

Duke Basketball 2023-24

This Duke roster was not one of the best Duke has had. The group was led by Jared McCain with incredible TikTok fame as well as Jeremy Roach and Kyle Filipowski. While it did put two players in the NBA who have been quite successful so far, the team did not earn any trophies. This is a group that lost their first ACC tournament game and then made it to the Elite Eight where they again lost to NC State.

Duke is always on TV so this group got plenty of TV time but it did not quite have the pop that recent Duke teams have had led by Paolo Banchero or Cooper Flagg.

Duke Basketball 2024-25

This next fiscal year report that comes back will likely be a shocker. Last season’s Duke group was one of the most enertaining ever, rivaling the Zion Williamson crew. It also had more success than usual including an ACC tournament championship and a Final Four run. The team success paired with the individual superstardom of Flagg leads to a lot of cha-ching!

This group also was responsible for five of the ten most viewed men’s basketball games on ESPN last season, including the most viewed game which was Duke @ UNC.