Capitalizing on a star, or just meeting the demands?

Either way, the St. Vincent-St. Mary basketball team is taking in huge revenues thanks to its star LeBron James.

Just how much? The Akron Beacon Journal reported Saturday that the school has earned nearly $500,000 in revenues the past two seasons after moving 18 of its home games to Rhodes Arena.

Citing figures researched and released by the University of Akron athletic department, the newspaper reported Saturday that the Irish made $268,735 last season, and $222,116 this season.

St. Vincent-St. Mary executive board of trustees chairman James Burdon told the newspaper that the games were moved to the 5,942-seat arena to meet the tickets demand and not as a way to capitalize on the senior star James. Burdon added that the school switched venues two seasons ago as a result of the Irish's first of two consecutive state titles.

"LeBron was only a sophomore; it was before he began receiving national exposure,'' Burdon told the Akron Beacon Journal. "We were returning all but one starter from a state title team, and the interest was very high.''

St. Vincent-St. Mary played eight games at Rhodes Arena this season and two games in its own gymnasium, which holds 2,400 people. The squad drew 34,176 fans this season at the arena, selling out half the dates.

According to the report, this season's revenues do not include appearance fees, some as high as $10,000, for games played at out-of-state invitational tournaments. The Irish traveled to Pittsburgh; Philadelphia; Los Angeles; Trenton, N.J.; and Greensboro, N.C.

"Those games were not selected by the school with profit in mind,'' Burdon told the newspaper. "They were requested by the coaches as a way to play top-caliber competition.''

The Irish are ranked atop the USA Today prep basketball poll and face Central-Hower at 2 p.m. on Saturday in a Division II district final game at Canton Memorial Fieldhouse.