Austin Hepola is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Desert Vista High School for AZPreps365.com.

Football is unquestionably one of the most participated high school sports across the country. 

Not only is it popular with the students, but also people within each school’s respective community, making the sport a high income producer for thousands of schools. 

When people think about what brings in the largest amount of revenue for a high school football program, most tend to believe it comes from ticket sales. 

While ticket sales do result in a large amount of income for Desert Vista, it doesn’t necessarily mean it all results in actual revenue. 

“When you’re talking about revenue, really you’re talking about ticket sales,” Tempe Union District athletic director David Huffine said. “With that generated revenue, you have to pay your security, the announcers, the scoreboard operator, the chain crew, police and the referees.”

All Tempe Union high schools pool their income from football ticket sales in order to help pay for the staff that helps operate games. 

“With the amount of money a school is bringing in for ticket sales, sometimes it’s not a lot of revenue,” Huffine continued. “For us, the money from ticket sales goes to an auxiliary account for the district. And the district then uses that money to pay for all of those workers that help us put on games.”

So if ticket sales don’t actually generate the most revenue for Desert Vista, what does?

“The biggest revenue for football and their boosters would be the snack bar,” Desert Vista athletic director David Klecka said. “And what they do is sometimes, along with those concession stands, bring on an outside vendor like a pizza company and take a percentage of what they make.”

Concession stands are pivotal for high school football games as they can generate more income than ticket sales depending on the circumstances. 

Klecka is given a budget sheet each year in order to evaluate where the money needs to be spent.

Football equipment is covered by the district as helmets are recertified every year and new uniforms are processed every three years through a bidding process from potential sponsors.

“Football in a way doesn’t have to raise money for equipment,” Klecka said. “They’re raising money for playing in California, for their banquet, for the senior posters. That’s why they raise money.”

The Thunder’s uniforms are currently being sponsored by Under Armour, giving them great rebates on all uniforms and apparel which helps out the school in a huge way as it saves them a lot of money.

Football boosters play a massive role in assisting student-athletes by raising money in various ways. It is another element for high school football programs to utilize as it’s a collaborative effort to help bring in revenue. 

“A big portion of our revenue probably comes from booster fees,” said president of the Desert Vista football booster club, Sarah Schiermeyer. “That’s an annual fee that we assign each year to all players' families.”

Booster clubs are very versatile in how they raise money.

“We also have a big chunk that comes from fundraising that is supported by the booster club,” Schiermeyer continued. “One of the successful campaigns that we’ve had is actually an email campaign, so instead of asking the players to sell items they will essentially petition family members for cash donations.”

Desert Vista will continue to find new ways to raise money to support their football team. The Thunder will look to finish out the second half of the season strong as their playoff window is closing.