Business of Sports September 3, 2009, 1:30PM EST

Having a Ball at the U.S. Open

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Tax-exempt corporate sponsorship revenue alone totaled $275 million in 2004-2005, according to the report, and such payments, currently categorized as nontaxable income for the universities receiving them, could be reclassified as advertising revenue and become subject to federal taxes.

Do college athletics programs—where football provides the primary source of income, in most cases—deserve to keep their tax-exempt status? Have they "crossed the line from educational to commercial endeavors," as the report states? Anyone who has watched a college bowl game or March Madness coverage can answer this question.

As many NFL teams have experienced, college football fans might not be spending as much for tickets as last year. But a survey by secondary broker TicketCity shows that for the right match-up, they're still willing to open their wallets. The Sept. 12 Ohio State-University of Southern California game is the most sought-after ticket of the college football season and one of the most expensive in college football history, the survey revealed. The hottest tickets this season, according to TicketCity data, are:

1. USC at OSU $842

2. Arkansas at Texas A&M $620

3. USC at Notre Dame $526

4. Georgia at Florida $427

5. Oklahoma at Texas $430

4. UEFA Champions League: A Success Despite Recession

The world's most lucrative club football competition, the European Champions League, will earn a record $1.55 billion in marketing and television revenues this season for clubs and organizers. The recession-defying figure is a rise of 33% from last season. The payouts will be matched for two more seasons after the European governing body signed global television and sponsorship deals through 2012, including top-tier partners Ford (F), Heineken (HEIN.AS), MasterCard, (MA) Sony (SNE), and UniCredit (CRDI.MI).

The elite 32 teams featured in the group stage draw next week will share more than two-thirds of total commercial revenues. Their payouts do not include money earned from ticket and merchandise sales. This season, a tightly controlled distribution formula has created a pool of broadcast money totaling $481 million, a $90 million increase.

Each club is guaranteed a $10.1 million participation fee before play begins in September and will get bonuses based on results. A group stage victory pays $1.14 million, while the final next May is worth an extra $12.8 million to the winner and $7.4 million to the runner-up. A club that won all six of its group matches and advanced through the knockout rounds to lift the trophy would be guaranteed $44.4 million, plus a share of television rights.

5. The $100,000 Question for Women

The Wall Street Journal recently released a list of certain athletes and how long it took them to earn $100,000. Unfortunately, that list included no women. To even the playing field, we've taken the top five female seeds from the U.S. Open to see how many games it took them to hit the $100,000 milestone (tiebreaker games included):*

Elena Dementieva (4)
# of Games: 49
2009 Earnings: $1,920,679
Games Won: 940
Earnings/Game: $2,043.28

Dinara Safina (1)
# of Games: 38
2009 Earnings: $2,515,020
Games Won: 948
Earnings/Game: $2,652.97

Jelena Jankovic (5)
# of Games: 36
2009 Earnings: $3,064,465
Games Won: 1107
Earnings/Game: $2,768.26

Venus Williams (3)
# of Games: 19
2009 Earnings: $3,747,565
Games Won: 709
Earnings/Game: $5,285.71

Serena Williams (2)
# of Games: 18
2009 Earnings: $3,852,173
Games Won: 696
Earnings/Game: $5,534.73

*On the mens' side, the Journal noted that it took top seed Roger Federer 28 games to earn $100,000 in 2009.

Rick Horrow is a leading expert in the business of sports. As CEO of Horrow Sports Ventures, he has been the architect of 103 deals worth more than $13 billion in sports and other urban infrastructure projects. He is also the sports business analyst for CNN, Fox Sports, and the Fox Business Channel.