Kentucky to eliminate faculty, staff ticket discounts in wake of revenue sharing
Ticket discounts for faculty and staff are the latest casualty of the UK athletic department’s search for additional revenue to account for new revenue sharing payments to athletes.
On Tuesday, the first day schools were allowed to begin distributing up to $20.5 million directly to athletes each year, the school announced it is phasing out faculty and staff discounts on season ticket packages as well as free single game tickets for faculty and staff to women’s basketball, baseball, volleyball, gymnastics and softball games.
“These decisions, while difficult, reflect our commitment to navigating the challenges facing college sports responsibly, ensuring we can continue to uphold the high standards that define UK Athletics,” the school wrote in a news release.
Previously eligible UK employees could purchase season tickets for men’s basketball and football at a 20% discount on up to two season tickets and 50% discount on the accompanying required K Fund donation compared to the general public. That 20% ticket discount will remain for the 2025-26 season in men’s basketball and 2026 season in football but the K Fund discount will drop from 50% to 20% for those seasons. Both discounts will be eliminated entirely for the following seasons.
Employee discounts for women’s basketball season tickets will also be discontinued for the 2026-27 season.
In addition to eliminating the free single game tickets previously available to faculty and staff for women’s basketball, baseball, volleyball, gymnastics and softball games, UK is dropping the Olympic sports passes that gave free access to those sports for K Fund donors starting in the upcoming school year.
“Because our campus colleagues are such valued parts of our community and fandom, we want to make these changes in a phased manner,” a UK spokesman said in a statement provided to the Herald-Leader. “We will remain committed to offering access to events for university employees and fans. Select discounts may still be offered throughout the year, and the department will continue to evaluate ticket pricing to maintain a strong home advantage while supporting long-term success.”
While specific numbers were not immediately available, the UK ticket office estimates the changes could affect approximately 700 season ticket accounts for football and 600 season ticket accounts for basketball, according to the UK spokesman. The majority of those accounts include at least two discounted tickets. The ticket office estimated up to a few hundred free single game tickets for faculty, staff and K Fund donors were distributed for each Olympic sports game.
All fans will have free access to men’s and women’s soccer games this fall as UK is no longer requiring tickets to be purchased for those games and is planning a series of promotional activities to help drive attendance at the soccer stadium.
UK is also standardizing its child ticket policies across non-revenue sports.
Children 2 years old and younger will not be required to purchase a ticket for volleyball, women’s basketball, gymnastics, baseball or softball games as long as they sit on the lap of a ticketed adult. Youth between the ages of 3 and 18 and seniors aged 65 or older can purchase specially-priced tickets to those games in the general admission area of each venue, based on availability.
Everyone, regardless of age, must purchase a full-priced ticket for football and men’s basketball games.
Student ticket pricing has also been updated for the 2025 season “to better align with national peers,” according to UK’s release, but the school has yet to announce specific details about those pricing levels. No student fees paid as part of tuition rates will be directed toward the athletic department.
While UK is eliminating the staff and faculty ticket discounts, it has thus far declined to raise ticket prices for the general public to help account for the estimated additional $20-30 million needed for its budget after the approval of the NCAA’s House legal settlement as some other schools have. For instance, Tennessee announced a new 10% talent fee on all 2025 football season tickets to help fund its revenue sharing pool. UK football season ticket prices did increase between $5.36 and $12.50 per game for 2025 with one fewer home game on the schedule.
In June, UK’s Board of Trustees approved two internal loans to the athletic department worth up to $141 million total to account for a forecasted financial shortfall the next two fiscal years as well as five facility projects. Included in those projects are the construction of new luxury seating areas at Kroger Field as part of the plan to increase revenue to cover the additional cost of revenue sharing in the future. The athletic department will begin repaying those loans, with interest, in fiscal year 2028.
“Our fans, best of the best,” UK athletics director Mitch Barnhart said after the Board’s athletics committee approved those projects. “Our fan base responds, and I’m unbelievably thankful for them. They’ve been tremendous.
“And so we’re getting close to the end line at this time. We’ll start (revenue sharing) July 1. It’ll be a new deal. And I just need them just to fight with us.”