(The Center Square) – Wisconsin football’s struggles to win in the five years since name, image and likeness rules allow athletes to receive compensation have been in effect has led to between $29 million and $68 million less in gameday spending, according to a new analysis from UW-Madison’s Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy.
The report used employment data from Dane County hotels and attendance at Badger home game to extrapolate information on less visitor spending while showing the overall Madison economy did not exhibit an economic downturn independent of the home football games.
Home football attendance dropped from a pre-COVID average of 66,530 fans per game (2006–2019 average) to 56,343 (2021–2025).
The report noted that peer-reviewed research has shown that there are small or null economic effects of sports at the metropolitan level and that gameday losses are partially offset by other local spending.
The report comes as Gov. Tony Evers signed an NIL bill from the Wisconsin Legislature that will send $14.6 million from the state’s general fund annually to UW-Madison athletics for facility debt, a move that the report points out is unprecedented in the Big Ten Conference or in the country.
North Carolina is also an outlier by sending $300,000 to each of 13 state public school collegiate athletic departments.
“The case for the appropriation rests on optimistic assumptions about its effectiveness and on the implicit judgment that general-fund dollars are better spent on athletics than on their next-best alternative use,” the report concludes. “The case against rests on the opportunity cost of those dollars, the availability of private channels (donor collectives) that most Big Ten peers rely on, and the broader question of whether subsidizing a commercial entertainment enterprise is an appropriate use of state resources.
“The effectiveness of AB 1034 should be evaluated in the years ahead against the trajectory of on-field performance, attendance, and hotel occupancy in Dane County—and against the returns that the same dollars might have produced elsewhere.”
The report stated that, while 2025 numbers are not complete, it estimates that a 17,467 attendance shortfall led to more of a gameday spending shortfall.
While Badgers football had long outperformed athletics spending, the start of the NIL era and Chris McIntosh’s time as athletics director at the school saw the team’s results recede back to what would be expected for its athletics spending.
Private donations and NIL funds to athletes are not included in the spending. Even with that not included, conference median athletics spending rose from $31.6 million to $43.5 million in the first three NIL years, with Ohio State and Michigan spending $64–$73 million and Wisconsin spending $43 million, similar to Indiana and below Nebraska, Michigan State, Iowa, Rutgers and Penn State.
“Wisconsin moved from a large positive residual to near or below the spending–wins relationship once compensation restrictions on athletes were lifted,” the report said. “In a labor market where talent can be priced and traded freely, the rents that previously accrued to well-managed but moderately funded programs are now flowing to athletes themselves. Operational efficiency still matters, but it no longer substitutes for compensation.”
