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The Eck effect, and the athletic department鈥檚 all-out blitz promoting Lobo football's first-year coach, paid off at the gate.

And while a much less-aggressive promotion of first-year coach Eric Olen's men's basketball team, and scaled back media access to the unknown roster, led to ticket sales falling modestly short of projections in the Pit, it was still by far the leading economic driving force behind what UNM is projecting as roughly $5.7 million in ticket revenue for the 2025-26 academic and fiscal year.

"The success we experienced on the (football) field this season is a testament to the leadership of Coach Eck and the hard work and dedication of our student-athletes," said new Athletic Director Ryan Berryman, who was part of UNM's all-out push last fall, along with former Athletic Director Fernando Lovo and several other senior administrators in the department who made increasing football attendance a priority.

The result: the 2025 Lobo football team led the country in year-over-year attendance increase 鈥� a 57.8% jump over the Bronco Mendenhall-coached team's numbers of 2024 鈥� and collected $1.7 million in ticket revenue. That's nearly $600,000 more than the projection of $1.15 million, which was based on many years of dismal revenue numbers for the program.

Still that $1,726,000 in football ticket revenue was less than half that of the Lobos men's basketball team's reported $3,720,000.

That number was about $400,000 less than a season ago when the familiar Donovan Dent, Nelly Junior Joseph and Richard Pitino Lobos, who won the Mountain West regular season championship and played in its second-consecutive NCAA Tournament, brought in $4,138,633.

"Men鈥檚 basketball continues to be a significant revenue driver for Lobo Athletics," Berryman said. "The slight variance from the budget is largely attributable to tip times and dates, as well as a 'wait and see' approach early in the season."

Though they were worked into preseason revenue projections, UNM's home schedule did lack the typically strong crowds that come for the NM State rivalry (was only played in Las Cruces this past season), and UNLV (the Mountain West's unbalanced schedule randomly led to UNLV not traveling to sa国际传媒官网网页入口).

Berryman said the department is optimistic the late-season momentum for men's basketball, plus the return of Olen and three starters, will drive strong sales next season.

There is also a chance of around $80,000 coming in from NIT ticket sales for UNM that aren't reflected in the $130,000 shortfall UNM has on the books thus far.

All NIT ticket sales belong to the NCAA, but host schools "may" receive up to a 15% payment from the sales 鈥� a decision that is at the NIT organizer's discretion and has not yet been determined.

Here's a closer look at the preliminary ticket revenue numbers for the year:

UNM Athletics ticket revenue

(as of late April)

Men's basketball

• Budget: $3,850,000

• Actual: $3,720,000

Football

• Budget: $1,150,000

• Actuals: $1,726,000

Women's basketball

• Budget: $360,000

• Actuals: $260,000

Other sa国际传媒官网网页入口*:

• Budget: $42,000

• Actuals: $11,500

*Volleyball only after in-season move to not charge for Olympic sports.

The 鈥�0ther sports鈥� section above includes volleyball revenue, only. All other Olympic sports at UNM were changed to free admission this past year, but after UNM had already budgeted for them to still be charged tickets.

"This decision was driven by a clear priority 鈥� to continue to make Lobo Athletics accessible to every member of our community as we work to develop lifelong Lobos," Berryman said.

Volleyball move?

Well, that free tickets thing didn't apply to volleyball.

"Volleyball remains a ticketed event, and we are optimistic about its revenue growth potential based on key initiatives currently underway," Berryman said. "We look forward to sharing more details soon."

While not finalized, the Journal has learned the volleyball team will play the majority of its games in the Pit moving forward.

This will help cut back on rental charges UNM Athletics must give to the UNM main campus for the use of Johnson Center, which is primarily intended for the entire student body. Other issues with Johnson Center being the home of Lobo volleyball are a lack of in-arena video boards, no concessions and a scarse parking, especially when there is seemingly never-ending construction on main campus in the area.

Lobo volleyball will still play some games in Johnson Gym under first-year coach Brian Hosfeld when scheduling conflicts with men's and women's basketball, and the UNM spirit teams become an issue.

For now, most pre-November games will move to the Pit, though it seems likely all games will move to the south campus arena in the future.

It is unclear if the volleyball striping will remain on Bob King Court once basketball season starts.

Hell of a yard sale

UNM brought in $117,000 from Saturday's "surplus sale" of excess jerseys, helmets, shirts and other gear from around the athletics department held in the Lobo football indoor practice facility ahead of the Spring Game.

Reach Geoff Grammer at ggrammer@abqjournal.com or follow him on Twitter (X) .