For Michigan State University students, Sparty can feel somewhat omnipresent. From his regular appearances at sporting events to his seemingly endless golf cart rides across campus, the beloved Spartan warrior is a quintessential part of the MSU experience.
He’s also quite the high-earner.
Last fiscal year, Sparty brought in just shy of $100,000 for the university across 222 appearances at weddings and other paid events, according to FOIAball. That’s good enough to best all but two other mascots in revenue-generating prowess, Ohio State’s Brutus and Minnesota’s Goldy.
The MSU Alumni Office allows groups to request that Sparty appear for 45 minutes at a variety of events, including graduation parties, birthdays and charity events.
The prices of such appearances vary, though travel must also be covered by the requester. A visit from the 9-foot-7-inch warrior at a Quinceañera runs a base fee of $300, while an appearance at a corporate event will run north of $1,000.
It's weddings that cost the most, at $1,500 per 45-minute appearance, during which Sparty dons a tuxedo. In the last fiscal year, Sparty attended 18 weddings where he netted $27,000.
While the cost for a Sparty appearance differs across venues due to combination of factors, “the compensation for the student who appears as Sparty is set and does not change,” MSU spokesperson Amber McCann said.
Avery Tilley, a recent MSU graduate who served as Sparty, said that being the mascot was an unpaid gig up until 2022, when student workers started earning $20 an hour.
“We didn't receive any sort of compensation for going to any special events. We didn't get any money at all, so it was strictly a volunteer position,” said Tilley, who graduated in the spring of 2023. “We were just donating our time for the benefit of that.”
Despite that, Tilley said the weddings were some of his favorite events to attend as Sparty.
