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Schools Lose Money In Bowls

M

Mike

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By Matt Hinton
UConn! You've just finished the best football season in school history to earn an improbable berth in the Fiesta Bowl! What are you going to do next?
According to the New Haven Register, the university's going to take a financial bath.

BCS games are supposed to be a big payday, and on paper, they are: The Fiesta Bowl is doling out $17 million to both the Big East and the Big 12. Based on the Big East's revenue-sharing plan, the Huskies are guaranteed somewhere in the neighborhood of $2.5 million of that, with other revenue streams bringing their cut of the conference pie up to about $3 million. Not bad, until you start to add up the expense of traveling to a major bowl game, beginning with ticket obligations:
The Fiesta Bowl distributed 17,500 tickets to UConn, and the school is responsible to sell them all. The cheapest of those tickets cost $111 (in the lower end zone) and can cost as much as $268 for club level.
… and hotel obligations:
[…] a total of 550 rooms at three different hotels ranging in price from $125-225 a night, not including tax, with blocks reserved for either three or seven nights. Additional expenses include a chartered flight and meals for the team, staff and 300-member band, as well as a $100,000 bonus to coach Randy Edsall, and smaller bonuses for assistants, per their contracts, for getting the team to a BCS bowl.
… and obligations to move all that inventory, or eat the cost (emphasis added):
Cost of any tickets or hotel rooms that go unfilled are absorbed by the university, with the exception of the 150 rooms at the Westin Kierland Resort and Spa, where UConn is on the hook for only half of money owed on unsold rooms at the $225-a-night hotel.
Whether UConn maximizes its revenue opportunity will depend on the amount of tickets it can sell. The school will almost certainly take a bath. As of Monday night, only 4,000 tickets had been sold, meaning UConn was still holding roughly $2.5 million in unsold tickets.
Meanwhile, on StubHub.com, Terrace Level tickets are starting at $25 – barely a fifth of the cost of the cheapest tickets allocated to the university. Which is how coach Randy Edsall has found himself in the position of acting as a pitchman for the greater Phoenix area just to get his own fans to come to the biggest game in school history:
"If you have the opportunity and the wherewithal to make it happen, (you) should make it happen, because this is a once in a lifetime experience for the most part," Edsall said. [… ]
"t's a lot warmer in Phoenix than anyplace in Connecticut from December 26 to January 2. I'm glad I'll be in Phoenix. I might be shoveling, but it will be sand, not snow, and I'll be sitting by a pool."

That's par for the course, by the way, whether or not the coach goes out of his way to stump for the destination. When Florida won the BCS championship in 2008, the university's profit from the advertised $17 million payday amounted to $47,000 – and that was with in-state travel, to Miami. The Gators took a loss on their 2006 BCS title trip to Glendale, as did their opponent, Ohio State.
[Rewind: Pro team faces $120 million debt]
Further down the chain, Nebraska is almost certainly going to lose money on its return trip to the Holiday Bowl, because it's footing the bill for the band this time. (The 'Huskers broke even on their trip to San Diego last year, in part by making the band pay its own way to the game.) Those scrubby bowl games that have popped up over the last decade to fill afternoon airtime on ESPN over the holidays – many of which are subsidized or owned outright by ESPN – regularly take back a significant chunk of the payout in the form of ticket guarantees.
Just about everybody loses money on bowl games, or comes close – except television and the bowl games themselves, which is why they continue to exist. No one has ever turned down a bowl for financial reasons ("Hey, highly touted recruit, you won't even go to a bowl game at Rival U because they're too cheap!"), and won't anytime soon. But remember that they're usually paying for the privilege.
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Is this how Nebraska paid for KSU's stadium? :lol: :lol:
 
Sooner ego, too, Jiggsy, don't forget your other parent school.

I'd be curious to know how many times Nebraska and Oklahoma had regular season games televised, since 1970, and how many K State had televised during the same time frame. Don't forget Nebraska's streak of consecutive sellouts for home games since 1962......longest in the nation. Things like that is what got you your welfare check, Jiggsy......right off the back of the average fan. If you are really, really lucky, you won't have to be one of Bevo's Buttheads in 5 years or so. It might not even take Bevo that long to destroy what's left of the Big 12.
 
Don't forget Nebraska's streak of consecutive sellouts for home games since 1962......longest in the nation. Things like that is what got you your welfare check, Jiggsy
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There is/was no "Conference Settlement" of any regular season gate revenue in Big 12 football from what I can tell.

Do you really think that Nebraska donated money to KSU from it's home gate money? :roll:

In other words, I presume each school gets to keep it's home game revenue and the neutral sight games are split between the participants.

From what I can gather, of the TV revenue for regular season games, the participants get to keep half and the rest is equally divided amongst the rest of the schools, depending on the broadcast network. Even Texas.

The rules were/are sort of ambiguous and screwed up if you ask me.

They should have looked at the SEC split percentages and learned. The $BILLION$ ESPN contract signed last year made friends of enemies.

I also have a sneaking suspicion that basketball allows more net profit than football given the travel expenses and the ability to play more than once per week.
Probably why so many smaller schools don't have football.
 
Nebraskas sell out record is nice, but what else do they have in Nebraska???corn?

funny thing is, KSU fans know and accept the history. NU likes to talk about how they dominated us. beat us by an average of 40 points, then we win by 39 ONE time, and Bozo calls Snyder an asshole! Husker ego is pathetic. the self proclaimed greatest fans are great when the huskers win, but start beating NU, and that title is lost FAST.

lets wait 3 years...NU will be mid pack in the Big 10 , and will be even less relevant to the national title than they are now. going to be funny to see the big bully who got tired of stinking in the big 12, bolt, only to stink it up more in the big 10.
 
I'm hearing Oklahoma is having a hard time selling tickets to it's bowl game. They have only sold 8,000 of the alloted 17,500 so far.
 
jigs said:
Nebraskas sell out record is nice, but what else do they have in Nebraska???corn?

funny thing is, KSU fans know and accept the history. NU likes to talk about how they dominated us. beat us by an average of 40 points, then we win by 39 ONE time, and Bozo calls Snyder an asshole! Husker ego is pathetic. the self proclaimed greatest fans are great when the huskers win, but start beating NU, and that title is lost FAST.

lets wait 3 years...NU will be mid pack in the Big 10 , and will be even less relevant to the national title than they are now. going to be funny to see the big bully who got tired of stinking in the big 12, bolt, only to stink it up more in the big 10.
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You're a funny, funny, guy, Jiggsy. Yeah, we beat you by 40 points or more for a couple hundred years and Alum-ash beat us once by that. The rest of the story is that our starters never made it past the first series of the second half before T.O. mercifully pulled them, but Coach My-ash-Is-So-Tight-That-I-Can't-Fart kept his starters in the whole game (as he did with everybody else).

We can't stand Texas, but when Ricky tore us up in Lincoln, at the end of the game the Nebraska crowd was chanting "Heisman, Heisman". When was that kind of sportsmanship displayed in Manhattan - or anywhere else, for that matter?

We'll knock heads in the Big 10. Ohio St will always be a challenge. We'll trade wins with Wisconsin and maybe Iowa. The rest of the conference will be our warmups, as Kansas St. was for years and years.
 
National Titles didn't stop Texas from butt phuckin' ya and chasing ya off with your tails between your legs.............
:lol:
 
The former is true, it happened; but the latter is only your opinion. Better deal for us all the way around, and Jiggsy is still drinking that Haterade. K State won't have Nebraska around any more to thoroughly give the Mildcats an ash kicking.

The best part is not having to look or listen to Dan Beebe. That alone is worth the cost of getting out.
 
if it was really so easy for NU, they would not be leaving the Big 12... spread the lies if you want, but the truth is, NU is leaving bcause they can not compete any more....over ten years since your last conference title....
husker football = irrelevant
 
jigs said:
if it was really so easy for NU, they would not be leaving the Big 12... spread the lies if you want, but the truth is, NU is leaving bcause they can not compete any more....over ten years since your last conference title....
husker football = irrelevant
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:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: We come one second and one high pass away from being back-to-back Big 12 Champions and we can't compete? :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

:lol: Jeeeeeeeeze, Jiggsy
 
Mike said:
National Titles didn't stop Texas from butt phuckin' ya and chasing ya off with your tails between your legs.............
:lol:
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Texas wanted us in their fold badly. They stomped and snorted, threatened and tried to bully us, and Osborne calmly and politely called their bluff and then told them we had a better deal. I think T.O. playing Texas and Beebe as fools is why so much juvinile hatred has been tossed our way.
 
the ignorant rants come FROM the big red, Matt davidson is the ring leader. I always liked to see NU get beat, now I hope to see them annialated in the big 10...... arrogance and ignorance got together one night in a drunken frenzy...one had its way with the other, and big red was born.
 
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln has about 3,900 unsold tickets to the Dec. 30 Holiday Bowl in San Diego, which is rare for the Huskers, who are known for packing fans into home and away stadiums.

The university usually doesn't sell its allotted bowl tickets directly to the public because donors, season ticket holders and students usually snatch up all the tickets when they're offered for sale.

But this year fewer fans appear to be justifying an expensive trip to San Diego to watch a rematch of the Huskers and the Washington Huskies, said Randy York, spokesman for the athletic department.

At least 20,000 Husker fans went to Seattle in September to watch the Huskers cream the Huskies by 35 points. And the Huskers will play Washington in Lincoln again next fall.

"I don't think ticket sales have to do with a lack of interest or support," York said. "Some of the people who went to Seattle may have been inclined to go to the Phoenix bowl game (Fiesta Bowl, had Nebraska beaten Oklahoma), but people don't want to spend a lot of money to see the same team we beat the first time."

This year's shortage is leaving the university in a tight spot because it will have to make up for the ticket price losses.

So the university, whose Holiday Bowl allotment is 11,000 tickets, is offering a few extra incentives to go to the game.

Anyone who purchases tickets between 8 a.m. Monday and 9 p.m. Tuesday:
* will not be charged handling fees;
* will receive a pair of tickets to the Nebraska men's basketball conference opener game against Iowa State at 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 8.
Anyone who orders tickets on Monday from 6-9 p.m. will be entered in a drawing for 10 autographed memorabilia prizes from former coaches and players.
And for the fans who still can't make it to the bowl game, the university is asking them to purchase a ticket for $60 to be donated to sailors and Marines who are stationed in San Diego.

There are plenty of Husker service men and women based in the San Diego area, including Nebraska offensive coordinator Shawn Watson's son-in-law, Marcus Capone, who is a Navy SEAL.

"For those people who don't want to go to see the rematch, let's put tickets into the hands of people who would love to be there, like our military men and women," York said.

Although fans may have been surprised by the bowl matchup, York still thinks there will be a strong Husker fan base for the Dec. 30 game.

He also thinks the Huskies, who won their last three games, will offer better competition.

York speculated that another reason the university is left with an abundance of tickets is because the public isn't used to the university having them available to sell.

At least 18,000 fans bought tickets from other sources for the 2009 Holiday Bowl when the university sold all of its tickets. Many fans purchase tickets from third-party ticket sellers, and York said he's sure that's how many fans are getting tickets to this year's bowl game.

The last time the university fell short of its sales goal was in 2008 for the Gator Bowl in Florida, but not to the extent of this year's shortage, he said.

Posted in Football on Sunday, December 19, 2010 6:30 pm Updated: 6:01 pm. | Tags: Holiday Bowl, Huskers For Heroes, Marines, Nebraska Athletic Department, Tickets,
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