Forbes ?? Candidate for SC

GregBarnes

Heisman
Staff member
Jun 29, 2025
2,469
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Serious question: what is the reading behind keeping so many sports, especially given the fact that we’re behind the big 2 conferences.
It becomes much simpler financially if UNC can get to a P2 conference, for one, but there's also minimal cost in maintaining the 24 non-revenue sports outside of baseball and women's basketball. That's why UNC is working hard on program-specific endowments to cover the operational costs for those sports. But collectively, yes, it becomes a challenge with 26 sports operating at a loss. That being said, there remains a commitment to funding the sports currently being played.
 

premn

All-Conference
Aug 1, 2025
1,550
2,545
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I don’t think letting your coach who’s coaching on a home team discount walk while football is a train wreck and there’s major controversy over the future of basketball will help drive revenue. Baseball is the only sport where it doesn’t feel like we’re burning money right now. Just my opinion.
 
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bluebooksandbluecups

All-Conference
Aug 19, 2025
566
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I understand this thinking, but for the fans who believe this is the right approach, there has to be an accompanying conversation about how to generate more interest in the program to help drive revenue. It's a legitimate challenge with UNC currently sitting in the ACC.

In 2024-25, UNC reported a $22.9 million surplus in men's basketball, a $14.2 million surplus in football, and a $2 million deficit in baseball.
Greg…any ideas on some revenue-generating approaches? The First Pitch dinner has done well, correct? Maybe we can expand it some or raise the cost a little. I don’t post this with any solutions in mind…but I agree with you that we need more money generated given how good our program has been and how high demand gets when postseason rolls around.
 

UNCAlum83

Senior
Jul 17, 2025
383
674
93
Greg…any ideas on some revenue-generating approaches? The First Pitch dinner has done well, correct? Maybe we can expand it some or raise the cost a little. I don’t post this with any solutions in mind…but I agree with you that we need more money generated given how good our program has been and how high demand gets when postseason rolls around.
A table for 8 has doubled over the past 2 years, so costs have been raised.
 

GregBarnes

Heisman
Staff member
Jun 29, 2025
2,469
17,571
113
Greg…any ideas on some revenue-generating approaches? The First Pitch dinner has done well, correct? Maybe we can expand it some or raise the cost a little. I don’t post this with any solutions in mind…but I agree with you that we need more money generated given how good our program has been and how high demand gets when postseason rolls around.
Those types of meet-and-greets certainly are beneficial, but the more the fanbase grows, the more butts you get in the seats and the more you can charge for tickets.

Here are the per-seat ticket revenue breakdowns for the four primary sports in 2024-25:
Football:$39.85
MBB: $53.33
WBB: $5.64
Baseball: $8.98 (includes regionals/supers)
 

LenoirHeel

Freshman
Aug 1, 2025
22
58
13
I understand this thinking, but for the fans who believe this is the right approach, there has to be an accompanying conversation about how to generate more interest in the program to help drive revenue. It's a legitimate challenge with UNC currently sitting in the ACC.

In 2024-25, UNC reported a $22.9 million surplus in men's basketball, a $14.2 million surplus in football, and a $2 million deficit in baseball.
I know there are probably regulations around the NCAA host sites, but it blew my mind that I didn’t see a single mention of the Diamond Heels club and being able to join for only $100 a year. Felt like a huge opportunity to cash in on some positive momentum.
 

premn

All-Conference
Aug 1, 2025
1,550
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I know there are probably regulations around the NCAA host sites, but it blew my mind that I didn’t see a single mention of the Diamond Heels club and being able to join for only $100 a year. Felt like a huge opportunity to cash in on some positive momentum.
Athletics needs to do more promotion of baseball generally
 

CarolinaBlue

All-Conference
Jul 27, 2025
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Those types of meet-and-greets certainly are beneficial, but the more the fanbase grows, the more butts you get in the seats and the more you can charge for tickets.

Here are the per-seat ticket revenue breakdowns for the four primary sports in 2024-25:
Football:$39.85
MBB: $53.33
WBB: $5.64
Baseball: $8.98 (includes regionals/supers)
Making sure I understand what this means. Is it (total revenue) / (total tickets sold)?
 

mpaer

All-Conference
Jul 1, 2025
2,511
3,206
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Those types of meet-and-greets certainly are beneficial, but the more the fanbase grows, the more butts you get in the seats and the more you can charge for tickets.

Here are the per-seat ticket revenue breakdowns for the four primary sports in 2024-25:
Football:$39.85
MBB: $53.33
WBB: $5.64
Baseball: $8.98 (includes regionals/supers)
No way we had 8.98 million on revenue for baseball?????????????????
 

Tarheelgrad90

All-Conference
Jul 8, 2025
889
1,908
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Rumblings this evening around Columbia is that the search is “very close to wrapping up.” The expectation is that it ends this week, sooner rather than later.
So, funny…I posted on here last week because i was told it was done. Then it wasn’t done because apparently there was at least some inside that didn’t want the Coastal coach. Then they waffled on the Troy coach. And as of this morning, that was where they were… hire Coastal coach or wait til Troy’s coach was done. I think the “word around Columbia“ is from last week…. But still- I expect it to happen this week, especially since last Friday my contact told me it was “done”.
 

unctarheel1984

All-Conference
Aug 15, 2002
8,232
4,701
101
Because baseball isn't going to get us an invite to a new league. We need to invest heavily in the two programs that keep the lights on for the other 26 programs. Until we get in SEC or B10 we're going to constantly battle the revenue gap those leagues have over the ACC.
Not just “until we get in SEC or B10”, but UNC will continue experiencing that revenue gap for years after the move. Texas and Oklahoma both accepted substantially less conference shares (OK’s 2024 share was just $2.6M) to join SEC and paid B12 a huge exit fee. UCLA paid $30M to exit the Pac13. Oregon and Washington both accepted less than full conference shares to join the Big Ten.

So don’t count on UNC getting a full conference share from either the SEC or B1G, but absolutely bet your last dollar on UNC paying a substantial (min $75M) exit fee to the ACC. It will be a number of years to reach the financial break even point with any conference move.
 

Mahler19

Heisman
Dec 10, 2009
30,822
71,261
113
Well this has been an interesting read. Some stuff close to the mark, some stuff way off. ‘Twas an interesting few days in chapel hill…
 

Calheel

All-Conference
May 31, 2025
887
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Not just “until we get in SEC or B10”, but UNC will continue experiencing that revenue gap for years after the move. Texas and Oklahoma both accepted substantially less conference shares (OK’s 2024 share was just $2.6M) to join SEC and paid B12 a huge exit fee. UCLA paid $30M to exit the Pac13. Oregon and Washington both accepted less than full conference shares to join the Big Ten.

So don’t count on UNC getting a full conference share from either the SEC or B1G, but absolutely bet your last dollar on UNC paying a substantial (min $75M) exit fee to the ACC. It will be a number of years to reach the financial break even point with any conference move.
UNC is one of the few schools that would be a perfect addition for both the Big10 and SEC. So that gives us negotiation leverage that none of the other schools had or have.

Year 1 of the move will be revenue positive - even with a financed buyout fee.
 
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unctarheel1984

All-Conference
Aug 15, 2002
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UNC is one of the few schools that would be a perfect addition for both the Big10 and SEC. So that gives us negotiation leverage that none of the other schools had or have.

Year 1 of the move will be revenue positive - even with a financed buyout fee.
UNC is my school and I love it, but we don’t have anywhere near the negotiating leverage of Texas.
 
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Calheel

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May 31, 2025
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UNC is my school and I love it, but we don’t have anywhere near the negotiating leverage of Texas.
True, but the Texas discount was part of the Big12 early exit settlement and the GoR with the Big12. Texas will get a full SEC share this year.

We have already settled the GoR issue with the ACC, so we would be looking to get a full share (and perhaps some help with the exit fee) from the highest bidder.
 
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UNCHeel64

All-Conference
Dec 2, 2025
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Not just “until we get in SEC or B10”, but UNC will continue experiencing that revenue gap for years after the move. Texas and Oklahoma both accepted substantially less conference shares (OK’s 2024 share was just $2.6M) to join SEC and paid B12 a huge exit fee. UCLA paid $30M to exit the Pac13. Oregon and Washington both accepted less than full conference shares to join the Big Ten.

So don’t count on UNC getting a full conference share from either the SEC or B1G, but absolutely bet your last dollar on UNC paying a substantial (min $75M) exit fee to the ACC. It will be a number of years to reach the financial break even point with any conference move.
Big difference between UNC and UT/OU is that we’re top priority for two conferences so I highly doubt we take a reduced share to join either league.
 
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nutz4Dheels

Freshman
Nov 7, 2006
127
86
28
I'll be the oddball here, but I wouldn't pay double for baseball season tickets. It's 2 hrs for us to get to the Bosh for games. Because the start times for Sunday games is usually 1 PM, we can't make church then the game. So we already lose out on the Sunday game each series. Then add the fact that most midweek and some Friday games start around 3 PM, we struggled to make 50% this year. I think you'd do better with attendance if you made the start times a little more friendly.
 

cucampbe

Sophomore
Dec 2, 2024
43
123
33
I'll be the oddball here, but I wouldn't pay double for baseball season tickets. It's 2 hrs for us to get to the Bosh for games. Because the start times for Sunday games is usually 1 PM, we can't make church then the game. So we already lose out on the Sunday game each series. Then add the fact that most midweek and some Friday games start around 3 PM, we struggled to make 50% this year. I think you'd do better with attendance if you made the start times a little more friendly.
They aren't going to have February and March midweek and non-con Friday games later at night. It's cold and isn't good for player safety and welfare. Sunday games can't be moved back because visiting teams are very often on travel curfews where they need to leave Chapel Hill by a certain time because many college baseball programs do not have chartered flights.

I'm sure the department would love to have better start times for a lot of these games but there's more factors at play there than just finding a way to get more butts in seats.
 

nutz4Dheels

Freshman
Nov 7, 2006
127
86
28
They aren't going to have February and March midweek and non-con Friday games later at night. It's cold and isn't good for player safety and welfare. Sunday games can't be moved back because visiting teams are very often on travel curfews where they need to leave Chapel Hill by a certain time because many college baseball programs do not have chartered flights.

I'm sure the department would love to have better start times for a lot of these games but there's more factors at play there than just finding a way to get more butts in seats.
This is the type of response I expected. The player safety comment is utter bull crap. Guys don't get hurt because they're playing baseball in February and March. And pushing a start time back an hour or two doesn't endanger them in any way. High school games are played in the afternoon and evenings in February and March all across the state of NC. I participated in a homerun derby and tournament when it was 34 degrees in March in a high school tournament. It sucked, but no one got hurt.

I live west of Winston and know for a fact Wake Forest has more favorable midweek game times than UNC does. Their midweek and Friday games are often at 5-7 PM. The ACC seems to hold the 1 PM start time on Sunday unless the game is televised (which is usually 3 PM for ACCN Sunday games). A 2 PM Sunday start wouldn't make a huge difference in travel for schools but it could for fans.

In today's ACC, we're not competing with the SEC as far as the $$$ they can throw at their programs and players. But any way we can generate even a dent in the revenue gap will help. It's basic economics - generate demand where you can, which will dictate cost. As it relates to Coach Forbes, I hope he doesn't leave. But I know for certain...well, let's leave it at this. We aren't even close to being on a level playing field with a team who finished next-to-last in the SEC.