Fans checker the Neyland Stadium before the game against Florida on Saturday, Oct. 4, 2014 in Knoxville, Tenn. (ADAM LAU/NEWS SENTINEL)

SHARE The Power T flag makes an appearance during the Orange and White game at Neyland Stadium, Saturday, April 12, 2014. (Amy Smotherman Burgess/News Sentinel)

By Dustin Dopirak of the Knoxville News Sentinel

Tennessee's athletic department generates $618 million per year in economic impact on Knox County and $464 million of economic impact on the state of Tennessee, according to a study commissioned by UT.

The study, conducted by the Pittsburgh-based consulting firm Tripp Umbach, also found that the athletic department has an employment impact of 6,500 jobs in Knox County and 4,456 jobs in the state of Tennessee.

The study, which cost the athletic department $72,000, was a nine-month project that began in September of 2015. Tripp Umbach collected data that included financial expenditures, employment numbers from the athletic department and visitor and fan spending connected to UT athletics events to determine economic and employment impact.

The figures for impact on Knox County are higher than the numbers on the impact on the state of Tennessee because economic impact is defined as dollars that come from outside the territory surveyed. Tennessee athletics brings more money outside the county into the county than it brings money from outside the state into the state. The job figures are also calculated using similar principles.

"You look at the impact on the state," Brett Huebner, the athletic department's chief financial officer, said in a media briefing on Tuesday. "Both our department operational spending that stays in the state and then you look at the impact of visitors spending money in the state. That's primarily what the overall impact is for the state of Tennessee. That will generate a jobs number."

Huebner said the Knox County jobs number is calculated using the same principles.

Huebner pushed for the study and said he was pleased with the findings. He said it was the first time in about 3 1/2 years that UT had conducted such a report, but this one was the most extensive done.

"This is not just a football study," Huebner said. "That does get a lot of the attention, but this is the whole department. Unlike some previous studies, we looked at the holistic approach of the spending for our whole department. It includes all of our sports, all of the attendance for all of our sports ... It takes into consideration that our budget's grown. It takes into consideration that our attendance is up. ... We had first-hand data surveys collected at football, men's and women's basketball games unlike some previous reports, and what we found is that our visitor and fan spending on a daily average is much higher than the previous assumptions we made."

The report showed a $448 million impact in visitor and fan spending in Knox County and $319 million impact in visitor and fan spending in the state. It showed $74 million of impact on the hotel industry in Knox County, $52 million in retail food and beverage and $30 million in limited service restaurants. In the state of Tennessee, there was a $64 million impact on hotels and motels, $46 million on retail food and beverage and $23 million on limited service restaurants.

Broken down by sport, the study found that Tennessee football creates $355.7 million of impact on Knox County and $347 million of impact on the state of Tennessee and that the sport has an employment impact of 3,821 jobs in Knox County and 2,867 in the state. The economic impact of one football weekend is $42.0 million to the state of Tennessee and $41.7 million to Knox County.

Men's basketball has an economic impact of $89.3 million on the state and $108.4 million on the county. Women's basketball has a $42.6 million impact on the county and a $23.7 million impact on the state. The rest of Tennessee's sports have a combined $61.8 million impact on the county and $20.4 million impact on the state.

The study shows that athletics creates $27.6 million in annual tax revenues, including $18.3 million in direct taxes. According to the report, that figure does not include the $1.8 million in amusement taxes remitted by UT athletics to the city of Knoxville and Knox County or the $3.5 million in sales tax on ticket sales.

"These are good times," Huebner said. "These are positive findings. ... A big part of why we thought it was important to take a hard look at our report from the past and get something that was updated is because times have changed and we wanted to update to current realities."