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USA Swimming CFO Eric Scufka told the organization’s House of Delegates on Saturday that the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials turned a profit of “over $5 million,” the first public indication of the financial results of the blockbuster events that boasted both record audiences and record ticket prices.
While the prices combined with audience sizes gave reason to believe that the event was a financial success, the scale of renting out such a large venue for such a large period of time left uncertainty among stakeholders about what the costs might be for the event.
USA Swimming had $8.2 million in revenue budgeted from the event, with just under $2 million in obvious budget line items (most substantially $1.3 million for the Aqua Zone) for the Trials, though it’s not clear if that tells the full picture of the anticipated profits.
Scufka was also not specific about whether the “over $5 million” number was USA Swimming’s portion of the profits or the profits of the joint venture with the USOPC and Indy Sports Corp, or just USA Swimming’s budgeted portion.
Scufka also says that the overall quad budget came out balanced after a $10 million operating loss (and $17 million in net lost assets) in 2022, with a much better financial performance in 2023. Members of the House of Delegates have not been provided with a full accounting record that would allow for an apples-to-apples comparison to prior years.
Other Positive Highlights from Scufka
- USA Swimming currently has a net increase of 43 clubs year-over-year, among about 2,500 clubs nationally.
- USA Swimming has seen a year-over-year net increase of 4,000 athlete members to 319,000, still well down from the 346,000 athletes members at its peak in 2018.
These numbers indicate that USA Swimming is getting the typical post-Olympic bump in registrations.