Investigation of Stadium Performance: Case of NCAA Division I Football Stadiums as Non-Sporting Event Venues

Traditionally, sport facility performance has been overlooked in the scholarly literature. However, in recent years, as the sport industry has become more revenue-driven, non-game day sport facility performance has begun to receive increasing attention. In intercollegiate athletics in the United States, one way that university athletic departments have begun to generate revenue is through the utilization of football stadiums as non-sporting event venues (Lee, Kim, & Parrish, 2015). However, little research has examined how intercollegiate athletic departments strategically utilize football stadiums as non-sporting event venues. Using a mixed methods approach, including qualitative content analysis and open-ended questions, the present study assessed how National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I athletic departments utilize their football stadium as a non-sporting event venue. Results showed that more than half of NCAA Division I athletic departments provided information as to the availability of their football stadium as a non-sporting event venue. Specifically, almost 70% of Power Five schools provided such information versus only 35% of non-Power Five schools. Also, findings revealed that some athletic departments do not provide this information on their website because they either prefer to keep stadium rental information internal or they are in a transitional stage in which they are working toward providing information about using their football stadium as a non-sporting event venue in the near future. Additionally, the results demonstrate that a majority of the users of football stadiums as non-sporting event venues were from local businesses or organizations. A discussion of the implications of these findings as well as opportunities for future research conclude this study.