Only football and men’s basketball turn profits among Louisville’s 23 sports
University of Louisville athletic director Josh Heird said there is no “silver bullet” that will help his department’s current revenue race. This spring, the university launched Cardinal Ventures, a nonprofit designed to help the athletic department leverage its brand to generate new revenue streams.
The launch aims to keep pace with the multibillion-dollar market around compensating athletes for the use of their name, image and likeness. To compete in the increasingly commercialized world of college sports, programs of Louisville’s size might spend more than $40 million a year on talent acquisition, revenue sharing and other costs, according to experts.
The scale of the challenge shows in the department’s books: just five of Louisville’s 23 sports generate any revenue, according to the athletic department, and only football and men’s basketball turn profits.
Louisville, like a growing number of major conferences’ public universities, is trying to narrow that spending gap, and its supporters created Cardinal Ventures to help. The nonprofit oversees everything from third-party multimedia deals to hospitality packages.