because it is possible that the sports-related expenses is more than the revenue generated from that specific sport. The only thing you can say is that a "revenue sport" generates money for the school and "non-revenue sport" generates very minimal or no money for the school. From the school's perspective it doesn't matter whether a sport generates enough money maintainence of the facility, new equipment, a coach's salary, or so the team can compete in Europe/Asia during the preseason. It is one less expense the school has to worry about because it is already paid for by the revenue generated from the sport.

As far as "just a few tickets sold," you are assuming that the other schools have similar attendance as what VT has with its non-revenue sports. Again you have to remember that each school is unique. North Dakota charges $420 per ticket for season tickets and anywhere from $25-$50 (adult) for 1 single game for men's ice hockey. The ice hockey teams plays in the Ralph Engelstad Arena (capacity 11,634). The basketball teams play in the Betty Engelstad Sioux Arena (capacity 3,300). FWIW North Dakota either sells out or comes very close to selling out all the home ice hockey games. Baseball might have the largest consistent attendance of all the non-revenue sports at VT. Although the men's club ice hockey team might have even larger attendance even though it doesn't receive any support from the athletic department.

My point is as much as you want to make the non-revenue sports a black-n-white issue, you can't because each school is different and you must factor that in when making decisions that will affect every school in a division level.