Hundreds of fans lined up to purchase tickets at the Nov. 21 men’s home basketball game against Brownsburg. As a result of its large fan base, men’s basketball is a top revenue sport at this school. Even though men’s basketball is a top revenue sport at this school, it is second to football year after year, according to Assistant Athletics Director Bruce Wolf.

Wolf said, “It’s obvious when you go to a football game and you look in the stands. Each of those people paid $5 or bought a sports pass. We’re talking about 5,000 to 6,000 people a game compared to the next highest, which is boy’s basketball, which if 1,500 to 2,000 people come it is a good amount.”

Although most sports charge admission to games and have fundraisers, many do not make more money than they spend on equipment and other fees. Only football, men’s basketball, volleyball, and men’s cross country had profitable revenue in the 2011-2012 school year. As a result, the money earned by top revenue sports is distributed to other sports to pay for uniforms and equipment, according to Wolf.

Wolf said, “The reality is, if we only gave money made by sports only to those sports, pretty quickly we would only be sponsoring three or four sports instead of 21.”

According to Wolf, most of the money a sport makes is from its admission. Typically, the home team receives all of the admission, so usually the school that hosts the game alternates. However, there are some exceptions.

Wolf said, “In some cases, one school or the other will agree to play the contest multiple years in a row at the same place. For example, we played Cathedral four years in a row and they always played here.”

According to Wolf, in order to make more money for the team, some sports have parent support groups that go out and do fundraisers through discount cards or car washes.

Wolf said, “A lot of (sports) will go out and raise money for (their) program which is typically to buy things over and beyond the necessities that (the school) provides.”

According to Jeremy Hargraves, junior varsity wrestler and junior, the wrestling team has already had the take-down-a-thon as a fundraiser.

Hargraves said, “It really benefits the team. It provided us with our warm-up gear: sweatshirts, pants, shirts and shorts.”

According to Parker Bernhold, varsity basketball player and junior, in order to make more money to fund the men’s basketball team, parents volunteer to help, and players take part in fundraisers.

Bernhold said, “We had Mike’s Car Wash tickets (all the players) had to collect. We were each given eight and we sold them for $10 each. We use that money to buy equipment.”

According to Wolf, Carmel Athletics is in a little better shape than most of the other school’s athletics around us and it can provide the needs for its programs.

Wolf said, “We experienced some bad weather football games, so our revenue from the football season, which is an important part of our revenue, is down considerably so we might have to do a bit more budgeting than we would normally do. Still, I feel like if you compared us to everybody around us who also had those bad weather games, we’re probably in pretty good shape and probably a little better shape than they are.”