KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The University of Tennessee announced Tuesday it would add a talent fee on all tickets for the 2025 football season. It said the fee would help fund a proposed revenue share for its student-athletes.
The talent fee will be an additional 10% fee on all ticket invoices, according to an email sent out to football season ticket holders.
Specific revenue-sharing details aren't known yet. They depend on how a federal antitrust lawsuit is settled, with the NCAA. It's still in negotiations. Revenue sharing could be seen as early as July 2025.
According to the Tennessee Fund website, this plan could allocate about $22 million annually to pay student-athletes for their names, images and likenesses.
A Tennessee Athletics spokesperson said there are about 650 student-athletes at the school. If the revenue was equally split among each student-athlete, they would get nearly $33,900 each.
The spokesperson said the fee would not go to every student-athlete, but the school is working out which sports would receive it. He said the school's football program would be one of them.
The University of Tennessee football roster has 123 players listed. If $22 million was split among them, they would get around $178,900 each.
For the 2025 football season, fans will also see a "moderate," per-seat price increase averaging 4.5% across Neyland Stadium, according to UT.
Ticket renewal begins on Thursday, Sept. 19 and the renewal deadline will be Thursday, Feb. 27. UT said season ticket fans will have the option of a 10-month payment plan to help spread out the impact of the increased costs.