Paul Doyle on UConn vs. the Ville...

[upstater]

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.

And it makes no difference to you that one game is at the Orange Bowl, the other game as the national championship stadium all the way across the country where you have to buy tix for 2 different games. The point is, he counted aftermarket tix for Louisville. Didn't count them for UConn. Sounds like you have an agenda here.

 

[uconnfan68]

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

I never expect fairness from the Courant.

 

[uconnfan68]

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.

So get a really bad seat through UConn for 3-4x the price of the good seat from StubHub? That's the problem... we're smarter than those other schools.

 

[Rumrunner]

where to begin...where to begin.

if paul doyle actually did a modicum of research for his article, he would have informed his readers that:

the BCS has a contract with the bowls and the bowl that's double dipping by hosting the nat'l championship game. this contract has the terms and amount of tickets to be sold/distributed.

univ of phoenix holds 73,000. the allocation for fiesta is 17,000 tix for each school. the schools dole out the tickets, usually high level alums, donors, season ticket holders.

that accounts for 34,000 of the tickets.

10,000 tickets are reserved for corp sponsors

the remaining 28,000 tickets are sold as a package for the host bowl game and the national championship ahead of time. you have to buy the host bowl game tickets, including parking tickets and meal tickets.

in 2011, it was auburn v. oregon in the nat'l chmpship.

oregon could have sent 50,000 fans to the game at face value. but they were limited by the 17k allocation. everyone at oregon knew if oregon made it, that chances were slim of getting tickets thru the school. so tons of oregon fans bought the double dipping tickets- ticket to the fiesta bowl and the nat'l championship. so they did what anyone would do, they dumped (to them) the useless fiesta bowl tickets on stubhub. again, the only tickets-28,000- of them available for purchase not thru the schools or corp sponsor required both fiesta bowl tickets and nat'l chmpship game tickets, parking and meals to be purchased as one unit.

uconn-and oklahoma fans- bought thru stubhub. oklahoma sold fewer than 10k of their allotment. and if you disbelieve that uconn brought 15k, then get out a magnifier glass and start counting:

 

[Dann]

i count 18, 369 on the right side

 

[Jarhead_1775]

I am sick of our hometown writers not beating out drum. Really, Doyle? . If we could get off the press' self deprecating carousel, I'll be thrilled. Like blaming the DJ, it's not their fault and I'm not asking you to be a homer but fudge man... Might as well say, well no UConn isn't as good as Ville... Here's proof of how bad we suck. Aren't we subscribers, the audience, and solicitors of advertisers?

 

[ZooCougar]

I think some of you are being too sensitive. I read a scalding criticism of the athletic department. It also stated something that everyone here knows is true.

We don't win enough. We started on the upward curve at the same time, at some point we took a wrong turn, or declared "Mission Accomplished" not so quite.

We won under Edsall, but we made the Fiesta Bowl getting shut out but Louisville, losing to Temple, recovering 18 fumbles against WVU. The way we win games gives people gray hair.

Not only is Louisville more pre programmed for a more enthusiastic football fanbase, but when they are winning they look good doing it. The tough games are closer, they still lose to the likes of us, but they play good convincing offensive football. It's perception.

And it's not like anyone is all that fooled. When they were undefeated this season, they were criticized for beating cupcakes and because the games were too close.

When you win games like we do, with defense and punt returns, it's just not entertaining.

When we get back to winning games, scoring 4,5,6 touchdowns a game, the attendance will climb back up.

 

[upstater]

i count 18, 369 on the right side

That's good enough for me.

 

[huskyjawz]

It's not just the game tickets, hotel rooms can also be gotten much more cheaply than they are being sold as part of the packages sold through the school, and an even bigger reason to go on your own and not through the school.

 

[Waquoit]

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.

Oklahoma took a beating on that game as well.

 

[Waquoit]

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.

I did because I'm a good fan.

 

[Jarhead_1775]

I did because I'm a good fan.

Yup, the extra money was worth it to me because I knew perception was everything.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

In all the talk about how few tickets that UConn sold to the Fiesta Bowl, people forget about this.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/football/ncaa/03/29/fiesta-bowl-junker/index.html
At least we now know what the ticket packages were so high and many of the UConn fans who did go, did not buy the school package.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

I did because I'm a good fan.

Lmao. If I recall correctlly you're such a great fan that you wonuld refuse to go the 2 hours to Giants Stadium to see UConn play Michigan or Notre Dame out of some misguided small time CT principle you hold dearly.

 

[IthacaMatt]

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.

The problem with this is that the Universities may overcharge for packages to bowls, in hopes of making more money. Many fans are too cost conscious (maybe moreso here in Syracuse than down in CT, where there is generally a much higher standard of living), but the university's pricing decision weigh on the number of ticket "officially" sold.

 

[Waquoit]

Lmao. If I recall correctlly you're such a great fan that you wonuld refuse to go the 2 hours to Giants Stadium to see UConn play Michigan or Notre Dame out of some misguided small time CT principle you hold dearly.

You are half right. I oppose moving the Michigan game. A deal is a deal. I supported the original Notre Dame deal. Self-respect is never small time.

 

[Jimdish255]

This is an old argument but the moment we drew AZ instead of FL there was a disadvantage for us. Imagine us and them traveling to Miami instead of Tempe? AZ costs them under $200 rt/ns vs us at $4-5-6-700 1+ stops. Still we had over 10k conservatively and got killed for it. The pictures and TV made it seem closer to 15k. The lazy media just follows each other around and picks the first (usually negative) narrative that comes up. Then it becomes subjective fact.

 

[SubbaBub]

As a general rule, I recommend the official travel packages. They are fun, no fuss, usually not that expensive vs. a self funded trip of the same specs, and come with enough perks to make it a memorable experience. I could not abide nor recommend the Fiesta Bowl package as it was presented.