The University of Tennessee revealed in an email to Tennessee Volunteers supporters on Tuesday that, beginning with 2025 football season ticket renewals, all football tickets would contain a 10% “talent fee” that will be used to compensate players.
“As the collegiate model changes, we have to remain flexible,” UT athletics director Danny White said in a video explaining the price increase. “The relationship between resources and competitiveness has never been stronger. Only now do we have the opportunity to share these materials with our athletes. We can create revenue that will directly benefit our players.”
In addition to the 10% talent fee, the institution declared that by 2025, ticket costs will rise by 4.5% per seat on average.
That indicates that average ticket prices will rise by 14.5% in 2025.
“We want to be a leader in college sports. “That means we want to be a leader in revenue sharing,” White stated.
However, football fans pay only a portion of the expense of revenue sharing. A UT spokeswoman told BI that the talent fee will cover approximately 33% of the overall cost of paying players. According to Knox News, the university will fund the remainder of the yearly $22 million revenue-sharing pool for athletes.
According to a UT spokesperson, the decision was made in preparation for the settlement of the House v. NCAA federal antitrust action, which may take effect as early as July 2025.
Last May, the NCAA and five major conferences reached an agreement on a revenue-sharing plan in which student-athletes would receive a share of the revenue generated by their colleges from ticket sales, broadcast deals, and merchandise bearing an athlete’s name, image, and likeness (known as NIL).
However, the judge supervising the case stopped preliminary approval, and the arrangement has subsequently been renegotiated.
“We are also preparing for additional financial aid, potential compliance, marketing, and other resource development costs that are directly or indirectly associated with the proposed House model,” a university official told BI via email. “These include new scholarships, taxes, fair market value assessment, reporting, and other unknown business and legal assessments that may be required.”
