UNC's national title boosts profits for businesses, schools

The Atlantic Coast Conference and the town of Chapel Hill are sharing in the success of UNC's men's basketball national title win April 3, with money pouring in as a result of the victory. 

UNC will bring in money from the win due to advertising and the projected increase in brand strength — and the entire ACC will receive money for the win from the NCAA.

“If a bunch of big ACC teams play and Wake Forest doesn’t, Wake Forest will still get a portion of the money coming into the ACC,” said sports economist Andy Schwarz. “UNC and Wake Forest will get the same amount of money for UNC winning the conference, but they won’t get the advertising money or anything like that.”

Schwarz said the NCAA distributes money to all of the schools that participate in their March Madness tournament, portioning out the dollars based on success.

“Effectively, every game you play in increases the amount of money you receive,” he said. “If you play in five games, you get five times as much money as if you play in only one.”

Schwarz said the NCAA breaks the money down into units worth roughly around $1.6 million, paid out to conferences in six-year installments. Teams receive units as they progress through the tournament. 

“You get a unit for every game you appear in,” he said. “So it’s not based on winning in theory, but every time you win, you get to be in another game. Everyone who loses in the first round gets one unit, and everyone who loses in the second unit gets two units and so forth and so on.”

Schwarz said that money is usually sent to the conference, and those conferences divide it up based on prior agreements between schools.

It is not a requirement to divide the money equally, but many of the conferences such as the ACC do, Schwarz said.

Though the ACC schools will receive the same amount of NCAA money, the town of Chapel Hill saw its own financial boost following the team’s win.

Betsy O’Donovan, executive director of The Daily Tar Heel, said Tuesday was the busiest she has seen the office since she joined in August. 

O’Donovan said The Daily Tar Heel is not typically published in print on Tuesdays, but she knew that if UNC won the championship, the newspaper would have to make an exception. Instead of the 10,000 copies printed for a typical edition, O’Donovan said The Daily Tar Heel printed 40,000. Still, that number proved too small — as of Monday, the paper had printed 70,000 copies.

In the first two-and-a-half days alone the paper made $86,000.

O’Donovan said that the money coming in from this edition is enormous for The Daily Tar Heel because it will help the organization work its way back from a budget deficit that would otherwise be more difficult to control.

“It’s an incredible gift,” she said.

O’Donovan said that because The Daily Tar Heel is a nonprofit organization, it views newspaper distribution as a service to the community. She encouraged anyone who has not yet received a copy of the championship edition to reach out to the DTH office.

“We’re very excited to make sure everyone has a copy,” she said.

Patrick Dewberry, general manager of Hampton Inn & Suites Chapel Hill-Carrboro, said business exploded at the hotel after the Final Four win, with people streaming into town for the championship game.

“We were sold out by Monday so people could see and feel the Tar Heel experience,” he said.

While some people took advantage of the watch parties put on by the hotel, Dewberry said most visitors opted to watch the game on Franklin Street, eager to get a taste of the legendary energy surrounding the historic venue.

Megan Fitzgerald, an employee at The Franklin Hotel, said the hotel was packed, with fans eager to get closer to the action.

“Typically anytime UNC has something sports related, we are sold out,” she said.

Fitzgerald said The Franklin's viewing party was crowded, especially in the hotel's bar.

Once Franklin Street reopened after the championship rush, it was quickly filled again by people looking to get their hands on apparel. Drew Chellani, owner of Classic Carolina, said he could not sell shirts fast enough.

“This was my first championship as a Carolina store,” he said. “I wish I had known how many people would’ve been coming so that I could have ordered more stock.”

Chellani said he sold out of many of the more popular shirts, and saw more business than ever before.

“It was incredible," he said.

city@dailytarheel.com