Building a Premium Seating Plan for Tennessee Tech

Client Challenge

Tennessee Tech University was planning a renovation and expansion of Tucker Stadium, home of Golden Eagles football since 1966, that would add 3,680 new seats on the stadium's west side — including 500 club seats, 12 private suites, two party suites, 1,850 chairback seats and 1,000 berm seats. To guide pricing, inventory sizing and a project funding strategy, Tennessee Tech needed a market and financial analysis grounded in comparable FCS programs and the realities of the Cookeville, Tenn., market.

Approach

Victus Advisors partnered with Van Wagner Sports & Entertainment to conduct a comprehensive market and financial analysis for the project. The work included historical review of Tennessee Tech ticket sales, fundraising and attendance trends; benchmarking against Ohio Valley Conference peers and selected FCS programs with established premium seating; market penetration analysis tying premium seating revenue at comparable stadiums to football attendance, living alumni and local business inventory; and a pricing, revenue and project funding analysis across three scenarios.

Benefits to Client

The analysis equipped Tennessee Tech with a data-driven premium seating plan for the Tucker Stadium expansion. Victus recommended conservative suite pricing of $15,000 to $22,000 per suite and club seat pricing of $850 to $1,200 per seat, producing total annual revenue projections of roughly $1.0 million to $1.7 million across low, medium and high pricing scenarios. Translating those incremental revenues into debt service capacity, the study estimated the new seating alone could fund approximately $7.3 million to $16.0 million in capital project costs. These findings positioned Tennessee Tech Athletics to move forward on pricing, inventory and financing decisions with a clear market-based foundation.