It’s not every day that you get a $15 million donation.  In fact, it has never happened to the Virginia Tech athletic department before.  Monday’s announcement of a $15.2 million anonymous gift to fund a new 17,000-square foot student-athlete performance center was the first of that size for the Hokies.

Per the latest fiscal data, the Virginia Tech athletic department brought in $83.7 million during the 2015-16 fiscal year, the most recent figures available.  In other words, today’s donation is worth a whopping 18.2 percent of overall athletic department revenue from just two years ago.  Combined with the new Hokie Scholarship Fund, and the new per seat minimum that is required for football and men’s basketball tickets, the athletic department is likely going to bring in over $100 million in revenue for the first time during the 2017-18 fiscal year.

That’s a big deal, and it’s huge for the athletic department.  However, it’s only a start, and more is needed.  Virginia Tech ranked No. 41 nationally in revenue in 2015-16.  They were nearly $20 million behind Virginia, $21 million behind Clemson, $22 million behind West Virginia, and about $30 million behind Florida State.  They were also around $12 million behind North Carolina.  They’ve got some catching up to do, and remember that the $15.2 million pledge is only a one-time gift.  There is still a lot of space between the Hokies and their chief rivals, such as the ‘Hoos, Tigers, Mountaineers and Seminoles.

To be sure, this donation isn’t as big as some of the major donations we’ve seen around the country in recent years.  As we’ve mentioned before, when Penn State wanted to start an ice hockey program, they got a $102 million donation from one person.  To put that in perspective — they got a donation from one person that was larger than Virginia Tech’s entire athletic department revenue for a whole year. 

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