Written by Leela Anderson
During the 2022 football season, the University of Michigan football team gained momentum all season, beating famous rivals like Michigan State University and Ohio State University, before being stopped by Texas Christian University just short of the National Championship. Fueled by their close brush with victory and the fact that many of the team’s starting players were approaching the end of their NCAA eligibility, the team became Big Ten Champions for the third year in a row in 2023. After beating The University of Alabama in the Rose Bowl game, the 2023 University of Michigan football team beat the University of Washington and became national champions for the first time since 1997. In Ann Arbor, local bars, restaurants, and stores– like the M Den– benefitted immediately from the National Championship Game, and there will be long lasting economic benefits for Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan.
The immediate economic impact of the championship game was visible in Ann Arbor. Students had recently returned from winter break, and downtown Ann Arbor was full of people. On gameday, local bars showing the game were packed and busy all night and people were lined up outside bars hours before the game. Conor O’Neill’s is a restaurant on Main Street that showed the Championship game. According to Caroline Kaganov, a manager at Conor O’Neill’s, since the game was aired on ESPN– a channel the restaurant pays for year round– there was no additional charge to play the Championship Game. With the low cost to draw in patrons, restaurants had the opportunity to make large profits. Two bars close to campus, the Blue Leprechaun and the Brown Jug, charged a 20 dollar cover (The Blue Leprechaun, 2024). The Brown Jug even required that customers spend an additional 20 dollars every 45 minutes in order to keep a table during the game, thereby increasing the Brown Jug’s revenue (The Brown Jug, 2024). Further, the Championship game was played on a Monday, which brought in extra revenue to the bars and restaurants on a typically slow night.
Since the 1980s, the M Den has been selling University of Michigan branded merchandise. Almost immediately after the championship game, the M Den website added over 150 limited edition sweaters, glasses, and other championship game memorabilia. Some of their sweaters were bought as soon as they were released. Through the M Den’s partnership with the University of Michigan, a portion of the revenue from the sales is returned to the University of Michigan Athletic programs, and helps support Michigan athletes (The M Den).
Many local theaters showed the game, including Ann Arbor’s historic Michigan Theater, who sold out their 1600 seats for 20 dollars each. The Michigan Theater supports many nonprofits and programs for the arts, so the revenue generated from showing the championship game goes back into the community.
Although there is no additional payout to the conference of the teams that make it to the CFP Championship Game, the Big Ten Conference will receive six million dollars for the University of Michigan’s participation in the Rose Bowl (College Football Playoff). The Big Ten Conference received an additional 5.7 million dollars to cover expenses for sending the U of M football team to the Rose Bowl and the National Championship Game (College Football Playoff). It is up to the Big Ten to distribute this money, so the economic impact is less direct, but some of the money eventually goes to Michigan Athletics.
Though it is too early to definitively quantify the long term effects of the championship game, it is possible to make predictions about the wide reaching effects. In Fall 2024, the University of Michigan football team will play eight home games (University of Michigan Athletics). Increased interest in the University of Michigan football team as a result of winning the National Championship will drive up demand for tickets in the coming season, allowing the university to charge more per ticket.
The University of Michigan has gotten the nation’s attention right when juniors in high school start going on college tours and thinking about which colleges to apply to. During the 2019 season, the Louisiana State University football team had a dominant season leading to a CFP Championship win. Coincidentally also led by a quarterback wearing the number 9, LSU became the number one football team in the nation after beating Clemson University. The following fall, LSU reported an increase of 4,000 applicants after their application volume had remained stagnant for the previous two years (Louisiana State University, 2023). Similarly, following Texas Christian University’s Rose Bowl win in January 2023, the university’s total enrollment increased by 4.2% and undergraduate transfers into TCU increased by 10.5% the following fall (Texas Christian University, 2023). It is likely that the attention from the Championship win will boost University of Michigan’s number of applications next fall, providing additional revenue for the university. Further, an increase in applicants may result in an increase in enrollment. The restaurants and convenience stores surrounding campus rely heavily on the student population for their business, so an increase in the student population would benefit many of the businesses in downtown Ann Arbor.
So many local businesses and programs benefit from the success of the University of Michigan Football team. It is clear that for Ann Arbor, football is much more than just a sport, it’s a crucial part of the economy.
Works Cited
College Football Playoff. College Football Playoff Revenue Distribution.
https://collegefootballplayoff.com/sports/2017/9/20/revenue-distribution.aspx
Louisiana State University. (2023, January 31). Degree-Seeking New Freshman, Transfer, and Graduate Application Statistics Fall Semesters. https://www.lsu.edu/bgtplan/trend/data/appstats.pdf
Texas Christian University. (2023, September 18). TCU Enrollment, Retention on the Rise.
https://www.tcu.edu/news/2023/tcu-enrollment-retention-on-the-rise.php
The Brown Jug [@thebrownjugannarbor]. (2024, January 7). Monday 1/8 CFB Playoff $20 cover must spend $20 every 45 minutes to keep table [Photograph]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/C10DsKLvWM3/
The Blue Leprechaun [@theblueleprechaun]. (2024, January 7). Doors open 4pm Monday 1/8 Natty Game Go Blue Drinks on special $20 cover [Photograph]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/C10ChV8peyU/?img_index=1
The M Den. About Us. https://www.mden.com/about-us.html
Image:
“An Ann Arbor Tri-fecta” by Mark Sprague