WRAL Sports Fan

North Carolina

Big Boshamer crowds won't mean Carolina makes a profit in baseball

By Dane Huffman

Jun 4, 2009

Chapel Hill, N.C. — Baseball fans will pack Boshamer Stadium this weekend for the Super Regional between North Carolina and East Carolina, but the Tar Heels’ recent run in the sport won’t mean the sport is profitable.

The only sports at UNC that make a net profit, according to Martina Ballen, senior associate athletics director, are football and men’s basketball.

Baseball is drawing more fans and more interest, but still lost $675,416 in the fiscal year 2008. That year began July 1, 2007 and ran through the 2007-08 academic year.

That season is unique because Carolina played home games in Cary while Boshamer was being renovated. The Tar Heels brought in $608,241 but spent $1,283,657, Ballen said.

Carolina will pack 4,100-seat Boshamer this weekend, but even then, don’t look for the program to make a net profit despite being in a renovated home.

“It’s not going to close that gap of $600,000,” Ballen said. “It’s not going to make it a net profitable sport.”

By the way, the sport that ran the biggest deficit in 2007-08 academic year was women’s basketball.

The Tar Heels spent $2,412,052 on women’s basketball that season and had revenues of $575,423, Ballen said, for a total deficit of $1,836,629 million.