Athletics & Physical Education Ticket Office Revenue Recognition & Tracking of Receivables

Date Created:    April 24, 2024     Last Updated:   April 24, 2024

Overview: 

The general responsibility of the Athletic Ticketing Office is to sell individual and season tickets

for all home athletic ticketed sports, event parking (when applicable) and special events. The

office will also have select away venue tickets for sale. Generally, tickets can be purchased either through vivenu on the web at BigRedTix.com, in person at the ticketing window, or via phone orders. Ticket types include group rates, General Public, Cornell Faculty/Staff, Cornell Students, Seniors (age 62+) and Children (12 and under). Only certain sports and events are ticketed, including:

• Men’s Basketball
• Women’s Basketball
• Football
• Men’s Hockey
• Women’s Hockey
• Men’s Lacrosse
• Wrestling

In addition, most home-hosted post-season competitions, regardless of the sport, are ticketed. This includes, but is not limited to conference championships, NCAA tournament rounds, etc.  All tickets are subject to availability and are non-refundable except in the case of event cancellation.  Refunds and exchanges are only available for a limited time and require ticket or sales receipt to receive refund/exchange.  Ticket prices include all applicable sales taxes.

Key Parties / Contacts: 

Customer: Pay for tickets with a valid form of payment.

Event Manager:  Runs settlement reports and compares to Daily Sales Summary and End of Day reports to look for discrepancies. 

Unit Staff/Cashiers:  Accept payments in the form of cash, checks and credit cards at a point of sale device. 

Office Manager (if not event manager): Verifies final daily settlement report.

Assoc Athletics Director (if not event manager): Verifies final settlement report.

Shared Services Center (SSC):  Responsible for the financial aspects of the transaction, including recording revenue billed in the General Ledger and tracking receivables and collections for external customers.

Key Documents / Sources of Information:

• Ticket Office Cash, Check and CC Handling Process Narrative
• vivenu transactions by sport/event
• Kuali Financial System AD edocs
• Deposits and payments received
• Revenue Classification | Cornell University Division of Financial Services

System Access Needed:

• vivenu
• Kuali Financial System (KFS)
• OAS Reporting Dashboard (KDW)

Common Problems or Issues Encountered: 

1. Low event attendance
2. Competition from alternative events
3. Limited resources to encourage in-person attendance (i.e. giveaways and promotions that enhance fan engagement experience vs. watching the game from home)

Step by Step Procedures:

Ticket Sales Process:

The process begins when a customer purchases a ticket for an athletic event, either online, over the phone, or in person at the ticket office.

All ticket sales income will be processed through the vivenu system. Income will be recognized when sales are made, or individual tickets are distributed, regardless of when the event happens, as sales are non-refundable except in the case of an event cancelation.  Large events will be recognized at the time of the event and held in deferred revenue until then (example: MSG Hockey).

Tickets are sold on-line via vivenu at BigRedTix.com.  In addition, tickets are sold at the ticket office window and logged in vivenu as sold.

Consignment Tickets:

Athletics Ticketing facilitates the sale of consignment tickets for various away/neutral site competitions – including, but not limited to the annual hockey game at MSG and post-season competition. Sales and payment are executed through vivenu, and ticket distribution channels are dependent on the host site’s ticketing software system.

Complimentary Tickets:

Complimentary tickets are allowed for student athletes (4), their guests at their own sporting events, A&PE staff (2 per event except Ice Hockey), recruits (3), high school, prep or junior college coaches (2), and other groups (churches, charities, youth groups).

In order for Cornell Athletics to issue complimentary admissions to any contest for student athletes they must:

1. Identify the names of each guest he/she wishes to receive complimentary admission. Each guest is only eligible for one (1) ticket.
2. The student-athlete designates his/her guests by placing Individual names (first and last) via the online comp submission process.
3. Comp requests must be submitted through the online submission up to 48 hours prior to a ticketed event. Any requests within 48 hours must be requested via email or in-person and approved by Office Manager or Assoc Athletics Director.

• A pass list for each ticketed event will be generated from the athletes’ comp requests by the ticket office staff.
• Complimentary ticket are digitally distributed to the guests utilizing the contact information provided by the student-athlete.

Complimentary tickets are also processed as a part of Sport Marketing contracts with corporate partners and frequently offered to Cornell Students and A&PE staff for a variety of events. All comp ticket requests direct by the customer (Cornell affiliate) are processed based on eligibility via vivenu authentication integration with PeopleSoft. All other requests are manually processed upon request from Athletics Senior Team members (Assoc, Senior Assoc, Deputy, Senior Deputy and/or Athletics Director)

Reconciliation Process:

Ticket sales income will be reconciled according to the following procedures:

1. Office Manager (daily) – review Daily Sales Report
   1. Close of each day - confirm batch totals equal cash, check, and credit card receipts for point-of-sale transactions. Provide internal billing information to SSC for interdepartmental orders.
   2. Start of each day - Review the settlement report in CardPointe to reconcile previous day’s online sales with vivenu system
   3. Research and correct any discrepancies
2. Assoc Athletics Director (monthly) – review Reconciliation report
   1. Provide Bursar billing revenue information to SSC
   2. Research and correct any discrepancies
   3. Upload all documentation for the month to Box folder that is shared with SSC
3. Assoc Athletics Director & A&PE Finance Specialist (quarterly)
   1. Confirm ticket sales income has been credited to the correct object/sub-object codes
   2. Research and correct any discrepancies
4. SSC (monthly) – review ticket sales documentation submitted by A&PE
5. SSC (monthly) – reconcile Bursar revenue to KFS general ledger
6. SSC (monthly) – reconcile internal sales revenue to KFS general ledger
7. SSC (monthly) – reconcile CardPointe credit card sales income (POS) to vivenu system
8. SSC (monthly) – process edoc to record ticket sales income in KFS general ledger
9. SSC (monthly) – review and reconcile balance sheet income
10. SSC (monthly) – review and reconcile clearing account
    1. Assoc Athletics Director

Metrics:

• Actual vs budget ticket income
• Average ticket price
• Ticket sales by sport/event
• Season ticket sales
• Ticket revenue growth rate

Glossary of Key Terms/Acronyms:

• vivenu – Athletics ticketing system
• KFS – Kuali Financial System
• OAS – Oracle Analytics Server, financial reporting tool (formerly known as OBIEE)
• GL – General Ledger
• SSC – Shared Services Center that processes financial transactions for Athletics sponsorships

Ticket Office Revenue Process Flow Chart