USA Swimming CFO Eric Scufka told the organization’s House of Delegates on Saturday that the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials turned a profit of “over $5 million,” the first public indication of the financial results of the blockbuster events that boasted both record audiences and record ticket prices.
While the prices combined with audience sizes gave reason to believe that the event was a financial success, the scale of renting out such a large venue for such a large period of time left uncertainty among stakeholders about what the costs might be for the event.
USA Swimming had $8.2 million in revenue budgeted from the event, with just under $2 million in obvious budget line items (most substantially $1.3 million for the Aqua Zone) for the Trials, though it’s not clear if that tells the full picture of the anticipated profits.
Scufka was also not specific about whether the “over $5 million” number was USA Swimming’s portion of the profits or the profits of the joint venture with the USOPC and Indy Sports Corp, or just USA Swimming’s budgeted portion.
Scufka also says that the overall quad budget came out balanced after a $10 million operating loss (and $17 million in net lost assets) in 2022, with a much better financial performance in 2023. Members of the House of Delegates have not been provided with a full accounting record that would allow for an apples-to-apples comparison to prior years.
Other Positive Highlights from Scufka
- USA Swimming currently has a net increase of 43 clubs year-over-year, among about 2,500 clubs nationally.
- USA Swimming has seen a year-over-year net increase of 4,000 athlete members to 319,000, still well down from the 346,000 athletes members at its peak in 2018.
These numbers indicate that USA Swimming is getting the typical post-Olympic bump in registrations.
Do a story contrasting the experiences of Paralympic and Olympic swimmers from Trials through the White House visit. The disparity is pathetic.
Lots of generalities – again – with no details, from USA Swimming. “Not specific ….” and “left uncertainty … ” and “not been provided with a full accounting record” USA Swimming: hey, trust us, everything’s going so well.
Public confidence is lower than I’ve ever seen in this NGB. This HOD was their first public opportunity to begin restoring their members’ faith after staff debacles, resignations, international meet performance issues, and serious financial concerns.
This will be a long road, so the jury will be out for months/years. But the first step was not taken at this event.
imagine if y´all added the 50s to the program. . indiviual events: fly, back, breast and 4X50 free & medley RELAYS
Why not milk the teet dry and add quarterfinals!
They aren’t Olympic events so why would we contact those at Olympic Trials?
lol, why are they so cagey with their financials? Ok it came in under their expectations, that’s completely fine! It was a resounding success and everyone would admit that.
Still resorting to the same communication framing, it’s old and annoying
It’ll always be that way.
It was a great spectacle, if that is what you mean by resounding success. But declaring it a resounding success depends on what the goals were. If the goal was to have a meet with record crowds and TV viewership, it was absolutely a success. If the goal was to also make say $8 million, and you only made $5 million, or even a piece of $5 million, then it wasn’t. As a fan, I’d be fine with them losing some money on an event like Trials which is a huge showcase event for the sport, considering it something like a loss leader. (To be clear, I’m not advocating USA Swimming lose money on events, but if the reality was… Read more »
Insert “sure, ok” gif here