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The University of Tennessee at Knoxville plans to add a 10 percent surcharge to football and other sports tickets beginning next year to help generate some of the expected $20 million that universities like it would be able to pay athletes under a proposed legal settlement governing use of players’ names, images and likenesses.
The Athletic and other news outlets reported that Tennessee plans to add the “talent fee” to the price of tickets to build a pool of revenues the university could share with athletes if the settlement, currently under review by a federal judge, is approved. Under the agreement, major colleges’ sports programs would agree to share about a fifth of their revenues directly with players.
“It’s going to our student-athletes as part of this new world order in college sports. So I know our fans will embrace it,” Danny White, Tennessee’s athletics director, told On3.com, a sports website.
Colleges and universities are taking numerous steps to prepare for the drastically new environment that would be in place under the proposed legal settlement.
Also Tuesday, Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia signed an executive order that would allow universities in the state to pay athletes directly for their names, images and likenesses without risking penalties from the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Such payments would be allowed under the proposed settlement but are currently barred by the NCAA.
Virginia’s governor signed similar legislation last spring.
