Iowa cuts bowl ticket losses by nearly $114,000

Iowa's athletics department cut its ticket losses by nearly $114,000 when comparing the 2009 Outback Bowl with the 2010 Orange Bowl.

Through the Big Ten's partnership with its bowl partners, Iowa was responsible for selling 17,500 tickets to the Orange Bowl. Iowa lost $36,080 in revenue for unsold tickets but that figure was much lower than from the 2009 Outback Bowl, however.

Big Ten schools are responsible for selling 11,000 tickets to the Outback Bowl. For the 2009 Outback Bowl, Iowa asked for 15,000 but failed to sell about 2,300 tickets. That left Iowa losing nearly $150,000 in unused tickets.

Iowa earned an overall profit of $54,954 after spending 11 days at the Orange Bowl in Miami. Figures were released to various media outlets Wednesday afternoon.

Iowa did turn a larger profit at the 2009 Outback Bowl, however. Iowa took home $130,200 after expenses. Iowa's athletics personnel stayed in Miami 11 days for the Orange Bowl, compared to eight days in Tampa for the Outback Bowl.

Here are the major numbers for comparison:

Total expenses -- 2009 Outback Bowl: 1,519,800; 2010 Orange Bowl: $1,895,046

Budget (provided by the Big Ten Conference) -- 2009 Outback Bowl: $1.65 million; 2010 Orange Bowl: $1.95 million

Bowl revenue (given to the Big Ten, then equally dispersed after paying for budgets) -- 2009 Outback Bowl: $3.3 million; 2010 Orange Bowl: $4.5 million

Meals/lodging (for athletics personnel) -- 2009 Outback Bowl: $425,625; 2010 Orange Bowl: $674,444

Band expenses -- 2009 Outback Bowl: $328,340; 2010 Orange Bowl: $457,307

UI leadership expenses -- 2009 Outback Bowl: $50,758; 2010 Orange Bowl: $83,119

Unused ticket costs -- 2009 Outback Bowl: $149,755; 2010 Orange Bowl: $36,080