FOOTBALL A look at the pressures of rising costs, falling revenue & what, if anything, universities can do

[SpaceRaider]

A Series:

A look at the pressures of rising costs, falling revenue & what, if anything, universities can do

The Unravelling of College Football Starts With All These Empty Stadiums, Low attendance threatens today’s ticket revenue and tomorrow’s alumni donations.


College Football’s Top Teams Are Built on Crippling Debt, critics often point to multimillion-dollar coaching salaries. They should be more worried about debt, which costs more and lasts longer

 

[SpaceRaider]

"...Western Michigan University never came close to filling its 30,200-seat stadium in 2016, in spite of the most successful season in Broncos history....."

 

[SpaceRaider]

"...To combat low attendance, Chun and his staffers have surveyed FAU students and season ticket holders and worked with the school’s Greek system and student government to help make the games more appealing. The Owls now let students use their meal cards at games and give input on what’s offered. FAU is in the minority of programs that sell beer in the stadium.

Similar experiments are underway elsewhere around the country. The University of Central Florida installed a beach club in Bright House Networks Stadium. New Mexico State University is taking what Athletic Director Mario Moccia called a “minor league baseball approach,” employing family-friendly entertainments like a horse that runs on the field pregame and a dog that grabs the tee after kickoffs. Groups of four can get often Aggies tickets, plus hot dogs and sodas, for $40...."

 

[SpaceRaider]

"...No school has seen students and fans turn their backs on football quite like Kansas. The Jayhawks averaged more than 50,000 people per game in 2009. Since then, attendance has dropped every year, to 25,828 this season, the worst among the so-called “Power Five” schools. Kansas once earned $9.2 million selling football tickets. In 2014, the most recent data available, the school made less $4 million.

Kansas has been able to offset those losses with Big 12 TV revenue, which pays schools about $23 million per year. And so far, the football team’s struggles—it hasn’t had a winning season since 2008—haven’t hurt alumni giving. The school just completed a $1.66 billion fundraising campaign, the biggest in state history. “The donation question is a good one,” said associate athletic director Jim Marchiony. “Fortunately we have a good answer.....”

 

[FranklinRaider315]

"...No school has seen students and fans turn their backs on football quite like Kansas. The Jayhawks averaged more than 50,000 people per game in 2009. Since then, attendance has dropped every year, to 25,828 this season, the worst among the so-called “Power Five” schools. Kansas once earned $9.2 million selling football tickets. In 2014, the most recent data available, the school made less $4 million.

Kansas has been able to offset those losses with Big 12 TV revenue, which pays schools about $23 million per year. And so far, the football team’s struggles—it hasn’t had a winning season since 2008—haven’t hurt alumni giving. The school just completed a $1.66 billion fundraising campaign, the biggest in state history. “The donation question is a good one,” said associate athletic director Jim Marchiony. “Fortunately we have a good answer.....”

Their stadium is ancient and looks it. Was there in 2015. The visiting team Will Call ticket windows were in a portable building. No shit.

 

[JohnDavidBlue]

I would be at every game if this were pitched instead of the 1 or 2 I can attend.

Groups of four can get often Aggies tickets, plus hot dogs and sodas, for $40....

 

[blueraiderJT]

I totally agree. It has to be a value play now. The days of the 25.00 per game ticket to watch us play a conference game need to be over. It doesn't work. WKU sells beer and has a full Sonic in their facility and yet they don't fill up their stadium either. However, with a value pack and some other things, you could still get people there.

 

[MTTim]

I think our season ticket prices are good. The kids thing helps bring in families. I would like to see more value packs to keep fans coming back. If we are doing any promotional stuff like Rutherford schools day free then I hope those are defined before the spring game. Announce them and keep up the marketing all summer. In the past its been wait until 2 weeks before the season to start marketing. I exaggerated some but point is start early.

 

[SpaceRaider]

Third piece in the series:

Why TV Riches Aren’t Enough to Keep College Football Alive Anymore, Programs and conferences have sacrificed ticket sales for media money. What happens when that dries up?

 

[SpaceRaider]

Third piece in the series:

Why TV Riches Aren’t Enough to Keep College Football Alive Anymore, Programs and conferences have sacrificed ticket sales for media money. What happens when that dries up?

"...smaller conferences may have seen revenue peak. Around the same time the Big Ten was negotiating with Fox and ESPN, Conference USA—now home to UTEP, Marshall and Southern Miss—was shopping its rights. The league earned nearly $10 million from TV in 2015-16; this year, it will receive $2.8 million from four networks, according to the Virginian-Pilot.

In that environment, Moccia decided NMSU would experiment. He cut the number of Aggies home football games on local TV from five to three. Attendance didn’t spike, but a 2-7 record and a cold snap may have discouraged fans. He plans to broadcast six of 17 men’s home basketball games this season, down from 14 last year.

In any event, Moccia says he’ll need to evaluate trends over a few years. He recently met with 100 NMSU alums in Phoenix who’ve followed the team on Fox Sports Arizona, one of the channels Moccia’s trying to limit. There is also the delicate relationship with Learfield Sports, a middleman in the market for media rights, which pays the school $1,000,000 a year. "We have to provide them content," Moccia said. "We can’t really say we don’t want any of our games on TV."

While NMSU is one of the smallest programs in the top-tier of college football—no school at their level pays its coach less—bigger programs and conferences may soon face their own reckoning. Most of the current slate of TV deals expire in the next seven to nine years. When renegotiations begin, how much media money will be available?

Cable companies are not thriving. At the same time, tech behemoths such as Facebook, Twitter, and Amazon are showing interest in live sports programming. Leagues have started experimenting with 3D and virtual reality rights; cell carriers like Verizon may also turn into buyers....."

 

[SpaceRaider]

another part of the series:

Football Is Forever: The Money-Losing Drug These Schools Can’t Quit, Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t let go.


...On December 2, 2014, UAB president Ray Watts told Blazers football players and coaches that football no longer made financial sense for the school. The program was ending. The meeting started off tense and went downhill. Players cried, pleaded and insulted Watts, telling him this would be the worst decision of his life. Some walked out, and eventually Watts did the same. After he made a public statement, Watts faced an angry mob outside the stadium. A police escort accompanied him to his car.

The alumni reaction was stronger yet. Watts got hate mail and threats. But he also got money. In the six months after the school announced the decision to cut football, alumni gave $17.2 million earmarked for the revival of the team. It was enough to cover five years of operating expenses, plus the reinstatement of the bowling and rifle teams. Since that initial influx, donors have contributed another $25 million, largely to cover the cost of a new football program. The $42 million raised in the past two years is more than the total in the entire history of UAB athletics, according to Athletic Director Mark Ingram.

Jim Livengood, who spent 28 years as a Division I athletic director, was part of the consulting group that advised UAB on its finances. The school made the right decision, he says, and the response from the community and alumni proves it. “Football is part of the culture in that state and that city,” Livengood said. “It was in the fiber of Birmingham, and you saw that in the initial response.” .....

 

[SpaceRaider]

College Football Teams Are Risky and Expensive—and Schools Keep Adding Them, Universities still think the sport’s benefits outweigh the costs.


...In the past decade, annual football expenses at a typical FCS school have increased from less than $2 million to $3.5 million. In the same period, revenue has expanded from $430,000 to $1 million. Middle-of-the-road FCS programs—a division that includes University of Maine, Colgate, Portland State—are losing millions on football altogether.

In spite of all this, East Tennessee State University still decided to add football in 2015. The team costs about $4 million to field, one-quarter of the overall department budget. Encouraged by the school’s president, students approved a $125 fee that would cover $2.8 million of the football team’s costs. “That was the only way we could do it,” said Richard Sander, originally a consultant on the football revival and later hired as the school’s athletic director.

ETSU, like most schools, sees advantages to football that may not show up on the balance sheet. Football is thought to drive alumni donations and raise a school’s profile beyond its immediate regional footprint, creating a better pool of prospective students. University officials also say it’s a point of community pride and juices local businesses through such events as pep rallies and homecoming.....

 

[JohnDavidBlue]

This series is really intriguing. In the first article, the statements from the FAU AD regarding millennials and the college football experience got me thinking.

First off, I consider myself a Xillennial. End of Gen X and not quite Millinnial. Being born in the late 70s, I got the best of both worlds. My father was a huge technologist and in 1980s, my father had our house networked where I had every Atari game via a commodore vic20 to a old healthkit computer. It was crazy. I was one of the early adopters of the internet ... I was in my teens.

There seems to be a huge shift on what expectations from newer generations are on the in game experience. Even my nephew mentioned that if you close your eyes in Murphy center, it still sounds the same as it did when he was young. He is right. Same songs. Same announcer. Same band music. Same for football.

If the current model doesn't change, it will die. It is that simple. Adapt or die should be the motto of our AD. And the thing is...I don't think this requires a multi-million dollar contract with an advertising firm. I also don't think that interviewing current students or fans will give the answer either unless they provide solutions. Not existing problems. Give people something that they didn't know they NEEDED.

What if the game experience changed? What if instead of a kiss cam, they delayed a stream from fan's phones and put it up on the bluetube. What if they delivered food to seats rather than the old wait in line model. What if they served beer? What if they opened up an area for socializing and didn't move everyone else immediately after a game....

change or die. give people something they didn't think they needed.

 

[SpaceRaider]

This series is really intriguing. In the first article, the statements from the FAU AD regarding millennials and the college football experience got me thinking.

First off, I consider myself a Xillennial. End of Gen X and not quite Millinnial. Being born in the late 70s, I got the best of both worlds. My father was a huge technologist and in 1980s, my father had our house networked where I had every Atari game via a commodore vic20 to a old healthkit computer. It was crazy. I was one of the early adopters of the internet ... I was in my teens.

There seems to be a huge shift on what expectations from newer generations are on the in game experience. Even my nephew mentioned that if you close your eyes in Murphy center, it still sounds the same as it did when he was young. He is right. Same songs. Same announcer. Same band music. Same for football.

If the current model doesn't change, it will die. It is that simple. Adapt or die should be the motto of our AD. And the thing is...I don't think this requires a multi-million dollar contract with an advertising firm. I also don't think that interviewing current students or fans will give the answer either unless they provide solutions. Not existing problems. Give people something that they didn't know they NEEDED.

What if the game experience changed? What if instead of a kiss cam, they delayed a stream from fan's phones and put it up on the bluetube. What if they delivered food to seats rather than the old wait in line model. What if they served beer? What if they opened up an area for socializing and didn't move everyone else immediately after a game....

change or die. give people something they didn't think they needed.

some excellent comments