🏈 Far From Full Stadium

[planomateo]

They keep throwing $5M at us to play there, I imagine we'll keep showing up. I would be curious to know what the department's cost for this game is though, can't be cheap.

 

[UAgrad93]

I think I read where we are taking 80-85 guys on the trip, all schollies. It will be 6 figures but won't compare to the trip to NOLA last year.

 

[OldPlayer]

Also, screw these type games giving 50% or more of the tickets to corporate interests. Same goes for bowl games, title games. They should get 20% at most, then 40% to each school.

Not the school's call. Similar to a bowl game, it's the community/venue that is creating the matchup. Bowl games were created as a money-maker for the cities. Bring two teams to town and their fans will follow and spend money for hotels, meals and entertainment. This generates sizable tax revenue. Add to that the sponsorship element (Advocare is the title sponsor but there are other companies providing sponsorship money as well) and there is $millions at stake.

 

[OldPlayer]

I think I read where we are taking 80-85 guys on the trip, all schollies. It will be 6 figures but won't compare to the trip to NOLA last year.

I think it will be more. There's no dress limit, so CNS may bring several walkons who have no hope in playing.

 

[bamachine]

Not the school's call. Similar to a bowl game, it's the community/venue that is creating the matchup. Bowl games were created as a money-maker for the cities. Bring two teams to town and their fans will follow and spend money for hotels, meals and entertainment. This generates sizable tax revenue. Add to that the sponsorship element (Advocare is the title sponsor but there are other companies providing sponsorship money as well) and there is $millions at stake.

I know it isn't the schools call, it is the venues call. I just hate that in games like this and bowl games, the sponsors get half or more of the tickets, which they turn around and try to sell on Stubhub for vastly inflated prices. The sponsors get the tickets, then hand them out to employees as perks or to clients of theirs. None of them care about the game, so they just try to sell them for 2X or more face value when they paid nothing for them.

What I want to see is them cut down the tickets that go to sponsors to 20-30% and then the schools participating get the rest, if any are sent back, give the other school first dibs, if turned down, then the sponsors can get those tix.

 

[OldPlayer]

I know it isn't the schools call, it is the venues call. I just hate that in games like this and bowl games, the sponsors get half or more of the tickets, which they turn around and try to sell on Stubhub for vastly inflated prices. The sponsors get the tickets, then hand them out to employees as perks or to clients of theirs. None of them care about the game, so they just try to sell them for 2X or more face value when they paid nothing for them.

What I want to see is them cut down the tickets that go to sponsors to 20-30% and then the schools participating get the rest, if any are sent back, give the other school first dibs, if turned down, then the sponsors can get those tix.

The sponsors don't get half but they do get a bunch. If they got half, all their sponsor money would be repaid in tickets. The economics don't work.

 

[bamachine]

Turns out, each school got 9K, for a total of 18K out of 80K. So where did those 62K go then?

 

[OldPlayer]

Turns out, each school got 9K, for a total of 18K out of 80K. So where did those 62K go then?

They sell those tickets as part of the revenue needed to pay each school $4-$5 million. Add in the TV revenue, sponsorships, parking and concessions and everybody makes money.

The tickets they "give" to each school are really part of the contract. The schools are obligated to sell those and the money goes to the organizers of the game. If the school doesn't sell their allotment, they pay for them.

 

[bamachine]

Yeah, I get all that but I was just pointing out that the sponsors/corporate end up with at least 50% of the tix.

 

[Destiny's Child]

I'm about to buy a new 70" TV for $1,300.

Compare that to the cost of going to Dallas and seeing what may very well be a boring game.

In your honor

 

[Killer Instinct]

They sell those tickets as part of the revenue needed to pay each school $4-$5 million. Add in the TV revenue, sponsorships, parking and concessions and everybody makes money.

The tickets they "give" to each school are really part of the contract. The schools are obligated to sell those and the money goes to the organizers of the game. If the school doesn't sell their allotment, they pay for them.

Yep. It's greed and the almighty $ killing college football. Old Player, you made the comment about folks not being able to stay in Tuscaloosa or Madison. That may be true, but I can do what I always do for home games and stay in Birmingham or Bessemer, make the short drive to the campus on Saturday morning and soak in the atmosphere all day. A lot of college towns are like that but it doesn't detract from the experience of visiting another school. It's 75 miles from Madison to Milwaukee. There are quite a few smaller towns around Madison that I'm sure contain a hotel or two. You are supporting the dark side. College football fans have traveled to opposing stadia since the game began. It's part of the fun. We are losing that. I love BDS to death and think it's a grand place for a football game, but I've seen it. I don't want to play all 4 OOC games there or 3 there and 1 in ______ (insert neutral site here). I want to return to the days where we traveled to Happy Valley, Lincoln, South Bend, Norman, Austin, Los Angeles, etc. to see the foundation pillars of the game we love. I want to meet their fans and tailgate with them, both at their place and at ours.

Every day I see the sport I grew up watching and loving turning more and more into a business, a semi-pro feeder system for the NFL and I hate it. It's losing some of it's charm and beauty. I find myself drawn more and more to FCS level ball and the service academies and DII and DIII. It's still what college football was supposed to be and they haven't forgotten who it's supposed to be for: the fans and the student-athletes. Screw ESPN and Nike and all the rest of them that just want to squeeze every dime out of us and turn the game into an accounting ledger. Sure, there has to be a certain amount of money to pay the bills, I get that and accept it. But when did it become ALL about the money and to hell with the fans that support the team and the school? Are we nothing more than a revenue stream? And now we are going to pay these kids to play ball! Don't even get me started on that! Coach Bryant, Pop Warner, A.A. Stagg and the rest are probably spinning in their graves like a top at what the game is becoming.

We change the rules to favor the offense. Why? To increase scoring to make the game more exciting for the casual fan so they will all watch and more can be charged for advertising. Encourage systems like the HUNH by allowing linemen downfield and allow illegal pick plays just so it looks more like X-box and to hell with the fabric of the game. Nobody likes those gut-wrenching wars like Bama and LSU played where the final was 9-6. We want games that resemble basketball on grass where the final is 55-44. It's all bullshit. And all that had to happen was for a strong voice like Coach Bryant's to stand up and say "No! I'm not moving the game to 11 AM to accommodate TV. We play at 1:30. If you want to be there to broadcast it, you are welcome and we'll be glad to have you. If not, oh well. Maybe next time." Or "You are upsetting the balance of the game with all these pro-offensive rule changes like allowing holding and downfield blocking on passes. You are messing with the integrity of the sport and we won't allow it." Don't you think at least a very vocal minority would have joined the chorus? And where would ESPN/ABC/Disney be now? Yep, CNS tried, but he's not exactly revered among his colleagues. They might respect him and his work, but I doubt many love him. We don't have that voice in college football anymore now that the Bryant's and the Bowden's and the Neyland's and the Vaught's all are gone. We have businessmen coaches. They have lost sight of the fact that they are, in essence, the guardians of the game and we see the results. We are probably too far down that path to turn back and too much has been lost. But there is much more to lose.

I always thought a playoff would be a good thing. I see now that it and the BCS were actually a slippery, treacherous slope to travel down and we are sliding toward ruin. There's already a clamor for 8 teams in. Then the cry will be to expand to 16. Pretty soon, the regular season will be all but irrelevant just like basketball. Just get a little above .500 and get in the ever expanding playoff field. Conference records and championship games will be for bragging rights only. All in the name of entertainment and money and everybody gets a participation ribbon. How's that working out for basketball? Yeah, not so good. The product is shoddy, watered-down and all but meaningless until March. That's where we're headed, folks. Enjoy your Labor Day weekend of college football. It won't last forever.

 

[UAgrad93]

I think it will be more. There's no dress limit, so CNS may bring several walkons who have no hope in playing.

I know there is no limit, but Saban doesn't normally go like that for an opener. He treats it as business and rewards those walk ons come bowl game. Now the scholarship guys that are definitely headed for a redshirt will make the trip, plus any walk ons that may be on special teams. We all know that Saban likes to fill those with a lot of first team guys and young scholly guys though.

 

[OldPlayer]

Yeah, I get all that but I was just pointing out that the sponsors/corporate end up with at least 50% of the tix.

They don't. If you take $100 per ticket (low for Jerryworld) times 40,000, that's $4 million. Jerry isn't giving up $4 million+. Jerry is in this to make as much money as possible. The schools wouldn't do it if they didn't make money.

 

[bamachine]

Those 62K tickets are being given or sold wholesale to somebody, as you never see them for sale by the venue, you only see them on Stubhub. If you are a season ticket holder, you only have two chances to get tickets, have enough points to qualify for one of those 9K tickets or buy them off Stubhub, Craigslist, etc for an inflated price(or like this one game, wait until they go way down in price due to lack of demand). Never from the venue.

 

[BamaFan334]

Just to clarify, I think Golden Flake actually subsidized the prices of those games for sell to allow them to be sold so cheaply. That ain't face value, brothers and sisters!

I know Nick likes the neutral site openers for the recruiting, the revenue, the motivation, etc. but we are losing a great thing that is part of the fabric of college football. And that is visiting opposing stadia, college towns, and experiencing other traditions. I love seeing meccas of college football like the Big House, the Horseshoe, Happy Valley, Death Valley (Clemson), the Coliseum...these are the places that made college football what it is, not Jerry World and the Georgia Dome! I want to see dotting the "I" in Ohio State, Howard's Rock, and other college legends. I want them to come to BDS and see our palace and tailgate on the Quad. That's college football, people, not these NFL mausoleums. And don't give me that shit about the lost revenue. If we were Vandy I might buy it, but we are the second most profitable athletic department in the land. I think we can afford to skip a home game or a neutral site opener every other year. And if you played the schedule right, instead of one big bad ass game every year, how about 2 OOC middle of the road teams every year and alternate sites. One home and one away each year. Schedule Virginia and Kansas State and the like. Maybe throw in a Notre Dame or a UCLA every so often. But make them home and homes so the fans get to enjoy what college football is all about.

Hopefully this doesn't offend anyone in here, but the mention of Howard's Rock forced me to post this that I got from a South Carolina buddy of mine. Cracks me up.

 

[charlestontide]

OK ... But the Million $ Band will be there and RammaJamma will echo nicely in Jerry World. When I was young going to games RJ was played at the beginning "we are going to" in the middle "we are" and at the end "we just" I guess that would not fly these days?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[planomateo]

They are actually going to perform at a local HS game prior to the game.

Alabama marching band to perform before high school football game in Flower Mound

 

[planomateo]

How many Alabama-Wisconsin tickets have the Tide sold?

Alabama's athletic department has sold 21,100 tickets for Saturday's showdown against No. 20 Wisconsin in Arlington, Texas, according to a university spokesman. That's not counting the fans that bought their tickets through secondary ticket-sellers like StubHub. The school's contract for the out-of-conference game dictated Alabama received 25,000 tickets to resell to its fans, according to documents obtained by AL.com.

 

[We All Bleed Crimson]

I seriously doubt you will be able to tell a thing. Jones' PR folks and ESPN/ABC PR folks are busy making it rain with extra tickets to the Dallas elite and other groups right now

I bet it will appear to be close to a sell out crowd

Well it appeared to be pretty full after all.

 

[BamaWins15]

i heard just over 39,000 in attendance, is that right?