They definitely have to pay for the catering, beverages and staffing (aside from student athlete volunteers who pour soda). I'm sure there is some sort of a deal, or at least there was with Brion's, but it is not comped.
To your point that many people pay more than just the seat donation, you may or may not know that the green room no longer allows your mandatory seat donation to count towards your green room status. So everyone downstairs is contributing above what they have to for their seats to access that room. Good chance that becomes the future of the gold room which is probably just reflective of the times.
I agree that other teams coaches don't add a lot. Candidly I'd prefer each of those coach talks has a sponsor where some local banker, realtor, financial advisor, etc. gets to introduce themselves before the coach talks. Again, anything that brings more money into the program.
