Paul Doyle on UConn vs. the Ville...

[coachcap]

Overall a balanced accounting of the situation. The one glaring exception: Writes about UConn selling only 4,000 of its 17,500 allotment for the Fiesta Bowl, then goes directly to Louisville selling out its allotment of 17,000 for its last BCS bowl & bringing a total of 30,000 fans to the game. Nowhere mentioned is that UConn brought a total of 15,000 to the Fiesta Bowl due to fans purchasing aftermarket tickets & the distance from Hartford to Phoenix.http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-football/hc-uconn-football-1209-20121208,0,2250019.story

 

[upstater]

We went through this article extensively on the basketball board, and many of us thought the account was "un"balanced.

 

[Dann]

Its fun having such pro uconn ppl at the courant isnt it? When they like things to write about its always bad news or stupid and when things are going well they attack looking for noise. If i was uconn and really went balls to the wall in the ad with what i have been talking about i would cut them off answering q's wise.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

Never mind that one bowl was pre-recession, and the other was during/post-recession.

 

[Marty Jackson]

has anyone validated the 15,000 Uconn fans at the Fiesta Bowl.
I keep seeing people suggest that Uconn had more than 4,000 fans. Has anyone proven that?

not questioning the fact, just curious as to how it was proven.

 

[huskymedic]

has anyone validated the 15,000 Uconn fans at the Fiesta Bowl.
I keep seeing people suggest that Uconn had more than 4,000 fans. Has anyone proven that?

not questioning the fact, just curious as to how it was proven.

I don't know how you prove it - but from my vantage point in the club level and counting the seats in a section and the number of peeps in National Flag Blue in the seats, we had well more than 4k there. 10k very reasonable, 15k might be a stretch.

 

[06029]

Overall a balanced accounting of the situation. The one glaring exception: Writes about UConn selling only 4,000 of its 17,500 allotment for the Fiesta Bowl, then goes directly to Louisville selling out its allotment of 17,000 for its last BCS bowl & bringing a total of 30,000 fans to the game. Nowhere mentioned is that UConn brought a total of 15,000 to the Fiesta Bowl due to fans purchasing aftermarket tickets & the distance from Hartford to Phoenix.http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-football/hc-uconn-football-1209-20121208,0,2250019.story

No one cares about the aftermarket. They care did you sell and how many did the conference have to eat. That is the only true measurable. Not a random guess that we had "at least xx,000 in the building." The most telling stat in that article are the season ticket bases.

 

[IMind]

has anyone validated the 15,000 Uconn fans at the Fiesta Bowl.
I keep seeing people suggest that Uconn had more than 4,000 fans. Has anyone proven that?

not questioning the fact, just curious as to how it was proven.

I'm guessing Stub hub might have a good idea how many went to UConn fans but beyond that?

 

[IMind]

No one cares about the aftermarket. They care did you sell and how many did the conference have to eat. That is the only true measurable. Not a random guess that we had "at least xx,000 in the building." The most telling stat in that article are the season ticket bases.

Umm the conference didn't eat any. UConn did.

 

[Chuck]

Many schools have to eat tickets at bowl games. It's one of the reasons that I hate the FBS system. Why should fans be expected to go to a game in a mediocre city between schools that had mediocre years for a meaningless trophy. Put together a 16 team playoff.

That being said, UConn does seem to travel worse than most BCS-level schools. Call it the economy, call it being spoiled, but whatever it is our Fiesta Bowl attendance was perceived as poor (other school's fans also purchase tix from StubHub). Our attendance at the Houston Championship appeared to be small compared to other schools (seemed to be as many VCU fans as UConn fans) and we got caught paying for local-school students to attend and wear UConn gear. We were outnumbered by (or at least even with) NC State fans in the Garden last week. Finally, there are plenty of empty seats visible on TV when watching a UConn game at Gampel or HCC. I don't doubt that there are many BCS-level schools that have similar attendance issues. I don't think Pitt or Syracuse draw better than us and Rutgers certainly doesn't draw like other B1G programs so I don't think an article implying that it's the reason we haven't gotten into a conference holds water. But I don't think we can deny that it's an issue in reality if not perception.

 

[Vuce]

The fairer question is whether these other schools are just selling tickets or if they are selling ticket "packages" like Uconn did. If they are all selling packages and still moving the product then we have nothing to complain about. If other schools just sell tickets then the comparison is not a fair one. If I was a reporter I would call around to some of these other schools and see how they do it. It would not take much effort and would make for a good article or three.

 

[huskymedic]

The fairer question is whether these other schools are just selling tickets or if they are selling ticket "packages" like Uconn did. If they are all selling packages and still moving the product then we have nothing to complain about. If other schools just sell tickets then the comparison is not a fair one. If I was a reporter I would call around to some of these other schools and see how they do it. It would not take much effort and would make for a good article or three.

?? You were able to buy individual tickets through the school...

 

[SubbaBub]

The fairer question is whether these other schools are just selling tickets or if they are selling ticket "packages" like Uconn did. If they are all selling packages and still moving the product then we have nothing to complain about. If other schools just sell tickets then the comparison is not a fair one. If I was a reporter I would call around to some of these other schools and see how they do it. It would not take much effort and would make for a good article or three.

Most "big" schools sell both packages and tickets in at a variety of pricing levels. Most use a service for this. This is one of the biggest. https://www.sportstravel.com/college-football.php Check them out for yourselves.

Most alumni associations also run charter groups. Add in local alumni in the southern bowl cities and you get good attendance numbers. In the case of the B1G, most of the games are played Jan 1, in warm cities against decent competition, making it easier to plan and commit to a game months in advance, even if they don't buy the tickets until December.

 

[Vuce]

My bad then. I thought one of the biggest excuses used was the tickets had to be bought in conjunction with a travel package. I bought tickets and donated them so I was not sure how that went.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Bottom line is that the tickets through the school are absolute BS.

If, as I did, spend $400 on an airplane ticket to Phoenix, I'm not spending $75 more than I have to, to get a worse seat at the game.

UConn got slammed for a variety of reasons, but this happens every single season, we just found ourselves at the wrong place at the wrong time, which seems to be a common theme for UConn athletics the past few seasons.

 

[upstater]

No one cares about the aftermarket. They care did you sell and how many did the conference have to eat. That is the only true measurable. Not a random guess that we had "at least xx,000 in the building." The most telling stat in that article are the season ticket bases.

If that's true then why did the writer Doyle mention how much Ville sold total and not just through Louisville? I mean, that's the whole point of the discussion.

 

[06029]

Umm the conference didn't eat any. UConn did.

In the ACC the conference eats the unsold bowl tickets.

 

[06029]

If that's true then why did the writer Doyle mention how much Ville sold total and not just through Louisville? I mean, that's the whole point of the discussion.

the only apples to apples measurable is how many of the allotted tickets were sold thru the school. That is the number the school/conference and bowls care about. Aftermarket is a factor if you consistently sell out your allotment.

Uconn and Uconn fans screwed the pooch for the Fiesta Bowl. Uconn could have subsidized the tickets or given anyone that boiught tickets a discount on tickets for the following season. The fans were too damn cheap to even buy the cheapest of seats when they could buy after market tickets for less. It is hard to paint it any other way. That number will be haunting Uconn for a long time especially if in an almost similar scenario Northern IL sells more this year than Uconn did.

 

[whaler11]

One of the hidden factors in why UConn doesn't travel that great is our airport blows in terms of direct flights.

 

[06029]

One of the hidden factors in why UConn doesn't travel that great is our airport blows in terms of direct flights.

I travel out of Bradley weekly to all parts of the country and you can 1 stop to almost any city in the lower 48. That is just another BS excuse. The reason is that a BCS bowl game is not as important to Uconn fans as a Final 4 (men or women) is. They saved their fan $$ for that potential.

 

[whaler11]

I travel out of Bradley weekly to all parts of the country and you can 1 stop to almost any city in the lower 48. That is just another BS excuse. The reason is that a BCS bowl game is not as important to Uconn fans as a Final 4 (men or women) is. They saved their fan $$ for that potential.

I guess you skipped the word 'direct'. It's a very convenient airport for parking and security and scale - it's terrible for getting somewhere quickly.

Flights to Phoenix got to $700 pretty quickly. That a real investment if you fly 10-12 hours each way going to a game you know UConn is going to lose.

There is almost no overlap between the football fan base and the women's basketball fan base anyway.

 

[HuskyV]

It is amazing how poorly some details are reported. 1st article that popped up with a google search of the Fiesta Bowl ticket situation from a Dec 16 OU blog:


Anyone looking for tickets to the Fiesta Bowl?
Well, Oklahoma and Connecticut still have plenty to sell. The Fiesta Bowl distributed 17,500 tickets to OU and UConn each, and both schools are on the hook to sell them all.
Problem is, UConn had sold only 4,000 tickets as of Monday night. OU doesn’t release ticket sales, but a UConn official told our Berry Tramel the Sooners were only doing a little better with 8,000 tickets sold at the beginning of the week. And that’s including the Ticket for Troops promotion where fans are encouraged to buy bowl tickets and that can be donated to military personnel stationed in the area of the bowl game.
The good news for the Sooners is that any of their unsold tickets are picked up by the Big 12 Conference.
But the Huskies won’t be so lucky. The Big East does not carry the same policy. Meaning UConn would have to fit the bill for what is now roughly $2.5 million in unsold tickets. And because the Fiesta Bowl payout of $17 million will be distributed among the Big East members, UConn stands to lose a boatload of money for playing in a BCS bowl.

 

[SubbaBub]

I am tired of hearing about the Fiesta Bowl. Doubly so from people who weren't there.

There were at least 15k Uconn fans at the game. There was about 2k at the street festival in Tempe and about 50 watching the MBB game at the brew pub I was hanging out it. And almost all of them flew for 8-9 hours to get there at the said $700 pp.

We did fine for a game that was impossible to get to by car from CT. The lot was full of OU RV's. If they want to dig on us for not.being RV fanatics, we'll have to accept that.

There are some schools that really travel, filling hotel rooms and spending in the local economy. That is what Bowls want. The tickets are already sold to the schools.

Us buying 4,000 overpriced tickets makes a good story to poke fun at the Big East, but I was at the Orange Bowl when FSU was out gunned by Penn State in attendance by over 2:1 in there home.state. FSU is notorious for not traveling outside there home state.



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[upstater]

the only apples to apples measurable is how many of the allotted tickets were sold thru the school. That is the number the school/conference and bowls care about. Aftermarket is a factor if you consistently sell out your allotment.

Uconn and Uconn fans screwed the pooch for the Fiesta Bowl. Uconn could have subsidized the tickets or given anyone that boiught tickets a discount on tickets for the following season. The fans were too damn cheap to even buy the cheapest of seats when they could buy after market tickets for less. It is hard to paint it any other way. That number will be haunting Uconn for a long time especially if in an almost similar scenario Northern IL sells more this year than Uconn did.

I don't think you're comprehending things here. This thread is about Paul Doyle's article. In that article, he is comparing Louisville's aftermarket ticket sales to UConn's sales through the school.

 

[06029]

I don't think you're comprehending things here. This thread is about Paul Doyle's article. In that article, he is comparing Louisville's aftermarket ticket sales to UConn's sales through the school.

Far be it for me to question the all knowing lawyer, but this is in the article:
UConn's football program garnered some negative national publicity when the school sold only about 4,000 of its allotted 17,500 tickets for the 2011 Fiesta Bowl. The last time that Louisville earned a BCS bowl bid, the program sold all 17,000 allotted tickets and reportedly brought about 30,000 fans to the game.

Now, I am not a lawyer but I think it says they sold 100% of their allotment of 17,000 tickets. I can highlight that for you if you do not see it. So if you compare 22.86% to 100% sold it looks bad. And maybe he did not want to pile on by showing a 2:1 total attendance advantage when you add after market. I think my comprehension is fine. I am starting to question yours.