As Big East Money Dries Up, UConn Must Create Fresh Revenue Streams (M. Anthony)

[huskymedic]

Good article by Mike A:



>>All of that makes for a big job for UConn athletic director David Benedict, one reason UConn has a deal to play a football game at defending national champion Clemson in 2021 that will bring in $1.2 million. "I don't think that there's this huge gap with what we can provide in experience, what we have in facilities, what we offer academically," Benedict said. "The difference is right now we average under 20,000 people a [football] game and [Power Five schools] average 90,000 or 100,000. There's a difference in perception, a difference in what you're generating in money, those things. And those are real differences. But when you're just talking about the financial [spending] aspect, a lot of it is in very focused areas."

In 2015-16, UConn received $10,523,469 from the AAC, followed by Cincinnati ($9.485 million) and South Florida ($9.144 million). The three schools compensated the least were Navy ($2.757 million), Central Florida ($3.514 million) and SMU ($3.57 million).<<

>>The Huskies have a lucrative TV deal with SNY (about $1 million a year) and a media rights deal with IMG (bringing in about $9 million a year, and set to expire after 2017-18) that is one of the best in the nation. The SNY money had gone directly to the AAC and then split among all member schools, but UConn argued during recent conference meetings that it should keep that money. Athletic directors voted in favor of that proposal, and UConn will retain about $3.1 million over the next three years because of it.<<

 

[Drew]

I thought the ticket portion of this article was also worth noting:

The major moneymaking opportunity right now is football ticket sales. The season ticket base was about 16,000 each of the past two seasons, down from an all-time high of 32,500 in 2005. Season ticket renewals and new sales are up from last year at this time, though only slightly.

In 2016, UConn averaged 26,796 for home games, about 16,000 less than the average among FBS schools. Michigan averaged more than 110,000 fans. Each year since 2010, when the Huskies averaged 38,248, there has been a dropoff. The last time UConn averaged at least 30,000 fans for home games was 2013.

Men's basketball also has taken a hit. Last season the Huskies averaged 10,413 for home games, 40th in the country, but still far below the more than 13,000 fans it averaged from 2004-2007.

Ticket revenues were $10,362,040 in fiscal year 2016.

"We've got to sell more tickets, we've got to raise more money, and we've got to be really good with how we manage our budget," Benedict said. "We have a big upside with tickets. If we can start to fill up our venues again, that will eliminate [some deficit]. There is a lot of work to be done there. It's not going to happen just because we hired Randy. He's going to have to show that he's making progress, which he will."


If you can afford them and don't have them, and are encouraged by what you've seen and heard since UConn hired HCRE in December, it is incredibly important to hop back on the bandwagon and get season tickets. Getting UConn back to 20k+ season tickets (and eventually 25k+) would be absolutely enormous, first from a perception standpoint but second from a revenue standpoint. Time to start rallying the troops.

 

[CTHUSKY74]

I thought the ticket portion of this article was also worth noting:

The major moneymaking opportunity right now is football ticket sales. The season ticket base was about 16,000 each of the past two seasons, down from an all-time high of 32,500 in 2005. Season ticket renewals and new sales are up from last year at this time, though only slightly.

In 2016, UConn averaged 26,796 for home games, about 16,000 less than the average among FBS schools. Michigan averaged more than 110,000 fans. Each year since 2010, when the Huskies averaged 38,248, there has been a dropoff. The last time UConn averaged at least 30,000 fans for home games was 2013.

Men's basketball also has taken a hit. Last season the Huskies averaged 10,413 for home games, 40th in the country, but still far below the more than 13,000 fans it averaged from 2004-2007.

Ticket revenues were $10,362,040 in fiscal year 2016.

"We've got to sell more tickets, we've got to raise more money, and we've got to be really good with how we manage our budget," Benedict said. "We have a big upside with tickets. If we can start to fill up our venues again, that will eliminate [some deficit]. There is a lot of work to be done there. It's not going to happen just because we hired Randy. He's going to have to show that he's making progress, which he will."


If you can afford them and don't have them, and are encouraged by what you've seen and heard since UConn hired HCRE in December, it is incredibly important to hop back on the bandwagon and get season tickets. Getting UConn back to 20k+ season tickets (and eventually 25k+) would be absolutely enormous, first from a perception standpoint but second from a revenue standpoint. Time to start rallying the troops.

It's fine as a fan to criticize what your team's admin or coaches are doing- but when they step up and make the necessary corrections fans need to step up also. I am very encouraged by the changes being made even without seeing results, but are others really going to wait for a great product to be developed and put on the field before supporting the team again? It's certainly your right to do but it is extremely short-sighted and injures the fortunes of the team we all profess to care about. I was extremely torn at the end of last season and basically blew off steam by emailing Benedict that some change was necessary for me to return as a season ticket holder. I wasn't expecting him to fire the coach, but maybe get a good Offensive coordinator. Turns out he tried to do that but crazy Bob wouldn't go for it. So he went with the wholesale replacement approach and I have liked every move so far. So irrespective of whether we are a better team this year, the staff has done everything possible to make positive changes happen AND has tried to establish a system and scheme that will be successful and fun to watch. I believe that we have all wanted this even though we can't agree on what would cause this to happen. I believe that the changes are going to result in more wins this year but please if you have any love for the huskies and have the bucks your presence is required most urgently!! Go Huskies.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Good article by Mike A:



>>All of that makes for a big job for UConn athletic director David Benedict, one reason UConn has a deal to play a football game at defending national champion Clemson in 2021 that will bring in $1.2 million. "I don't think that there's this huge gap with what we can provide in experience, what we have in facilities, what we offer academically," Benedict said. "The difference is right now we average under 20,000 people a [football] game and [Power Five schools] average 90,000 or 100,000. There's a difference in perception, a difference in what you're generating in money, those things. And those are real differences. But when you're just talking about the financial [spending] aspect, a lot of it is in very focused areas."

In 2015-16, UConn received $10,523,469 from the AAC, followed by Cincinnati ($9.485 million) and South Florida ($9.144 million). The three schools compensated the least were Navy ($2.757 million), Central Florida ($3.514 million) and SMU ($3.57 million).<<

>>The Huskies have a lucrative TV deal with SNY (about $1 million a year) and a media rights deal with IMG (bringing in about $9 million a year, and set to expire after 2017-18) that is one of the best in the nation. The SNY money had gone directly to the AAC and then split among all member schools, but UConn argued during recent conference meetings that it should keep that money. Athletic directors voted in favor of that proposal, and UConn will retain about $3.1 million over the next three years because of it.<<

My spider senses say UConn negotiating to get back it's SNY money is significant.

I don't know why yet. It seems like one of those bits of information that when things happen in the future and you look back trying to piece together a timeline, it stands out as a key point.

 

[Exit 4]

My spider senses say UConn negotiating to get back it's SNY money is significant.

I don't know why yet. It seems like one of those bits of information that when things happen in the future and you look back trying to piece together a timeline, it stands out as a key point.

What do you think we did to get that back, threaten to put our golf in a difference conf?

 

[gwhuskyfan]

Eliminate donations -- or make them less -- and you'll see season tickets go back up

 

[huskymedic]

Eliminate donations -- or make them less -- and you'll see season tickets go back up

That's not the problem. There were seat donations since day 1... I could be wrong but I don't even think they have changed in price (per category) since the Rent opened. Win and season tickets #'s will go back up w/ no loss in revenue.

 

[Marty Jackson]

it's not rocket science. win games and fans will come.
Football is coming off it's worst stretch of 6 seasons since bumping up to 1A. Basketball has been underperforming the past few season as well.
just win baby!

 

[CL82]

The SNY money had gone directly to the AAC and then split among all member schools, but UConn argued during recent conference meetings that it should keep that money. Athletic directors voted in favor of that proposal, and UConn will retain about $3.1 million over the next three years because of it.<<

Way to go AD Dave!

 

[UConnDan97]

My spider senses say UConn negotiating to get back it's SNY money is significant.

I don't know why yet. It seems like one of those bits of information that when things happen in the future and you look back trying to piece together a timeline, it stands out as a key point.

It's funny but I had the exact same feeling. Schools don't just freely give up revenue to someone unless there is a pressing reason to do so.

I wonder what that pressing reason was? Did we actually threaten to go to the Big East / Indy? Maybe some of that smoke was to get our SNY money back. And why not? It's ours anyways...

 

[SubZero]

Looks like another clear sign of our issues with selling tickets. I knew football was in trouble but this is the first I heard of basketball attendance dying too.

 

[Chin Diesel]

It's funny but I had the exact same feeling. Schools don't just freely give up revenue to someone unless there is a pressing reason to do so.

I wonder what that pressing reason was? Did we actually threaten to go to the Big East / Indy? Maybe some of that smoke was to get our SNY money back. And why not? It's ours anyways...

Also surprised the article says decision was made by the AD's not the presidents.

 

[UConnDan97]

Also surprised the article says decision was made by the AD's not the presidents.

In certain circles, the move of threatening to join the Big East in order to get extra money from your conference mates is known as the Nelson Muntz Gambit...

 

[CL82]

In certain circles, the move of threatening to join the Big East in order to get extra money from your conference mates is known as the Nelson Muntz Gambit...

Are you suggesting they went Full Nelson?

 

[shizzle787]

It's funny but I had the exact same feeling. Schools don't just freely give up revenue to someone unless there is a pressing reason to do so.

I wonder what that pressing reason was? Did we actually threaten to go to the Big East / Indy? Maybe some of that smoke was to get our SNY money back. And why not? It's ours anyways...

Good ole capitalism.

 

[whaler11]

Looks like another clear sign of our issues with selling tickets. I knew football was in trouble but this is the first I heard of basketball attendance dying too.

The half empty buildings weren't a clue?

 

[uconnflyer88]

The argument most likely was thrown back in their face, if a school like USF or Cincy starts carrying the conference and wants to make a TV deal with a regional station, would they want to split the revenues with the entire conference?

 

[bmayuc]

This is not rocket science. Here's the problems:

Problems:

1. Our conference situation is a god-awful mess, has destroyed our historical and regional rivals. This severs many of the emotional ties of fans to our history. It also totally screws our revenue situation. All of this depresses fan engagement and turnout
2. Our basketball team has been bad for 3 years. This depresses turnout
3. Our football team has been... lets just be nice and saw bad... since 2011. This depresses turnout
4. Basketball is forced to play in 2-3 home venues per year, each with major problems - Gampel is in a terrible, no good, awful location. XL center is located in probably one of the worst cities in terms of atmosphere and "stuff to do" in the country. Oh and no one lives there. People who buy season tickets do it for the routine, the constancy, the fun of it. This depresses turnout, and connectivity.

Here's the solutions;

1. We cant really fix this. 10 years of mismanagement and constantly not undersatnding the problem and the sand shifting under our feet has left us high and dry. Although I am actually starting to think moving to the Big East is a feasible solution to at least shore up MBB as Football figures its way forward, restore some of those rivalries, etc.

2. The basketball team needs to be better. Winning solves a lot.

3. The football team needs to be better. Winning solves a lot.

4. Hartford is dying. Period. This is not going to get political, but with the departures of GE(fairfield) and freaking Aetna(Hartford), we are really feeling the unforgivable 50 year lack of investment and proper policy to build up our metro areas. This filters down and is related to why we have massive problems in XL. I think, honestly, we need to have all our games in Gampel. Maybe the University sponsors pre-game party buses from hartford/New London/Middletown/Waterbury/Fairfield to figure out the driving situation to storrs or something, but we need to have all our games in Gampel unless they are big-time, no brainer sellouts. Period.

 

[B1GEast]

$80 million to operate sports at UConn, ouch.

We better find another conference soon.

 

[gtcam]

we need to have all our games in Gampel. Maybe the University sponsors pre-game party buses from hartford/New London/Middletown/Waterbury/Fairfield to figure out the driving situation to storrs or something, but we need to have all our games in Gampel unless they are big-time, no brainer sellouts. Period.

If this is the case, the facility at Gampel needs to be expanded to seat at least 17.5K Can't have the only facility being a seating capacity under 15K

 

[Marty Jackson]

This is not rocket science. Here's the problems:

Problems:

1. Our conference situation is a god-awful mess, has destroyed our historical and regional rivals. This severs many of the emotional ties of fans to our history. It also totally screws our revenue situation. All of this depresses fan engagement and turnout
2. Our basketball team has been bad for 3 years. This depresses turnout
3. Our football team has been... lets just be nice and saw bad... since 2011. This depresses turnout
4. Basketball is forced to play in 2-3 home venues per year, each with major problems - Gampel is in a terrible, no good, awful location. XL center is located in probably one of the worst cities in terms of atmosphere and "stuff to do" in the country. Oh and no one lives there. People who buy season tickets do it for the routine, the constancy, the fun of it. This depresses turnout, and connectivity.

Here's the solutions;

1. We cant really fix this. 10 years of mismanagement and constantly not undersatnding the problem and the sand shifting under our feet has left us high and dry. Although I am actually starting to think moving to the Big East is a feasible solution to at least shore up MBB as Football figures its way forward, restore some of those rivalries, etc.

2. The basketball team needs to be better. Winning solves a lot.

3. The football team needs to be better. Winning solves a lot.

4. Hartford is dying. Period. This is not going to get political, but with the departures of GE(fairfield) and freaking Aetna(Hartford), we are really feeling the unforgivable 50 year lack of investment and proper policy to build up our metro areas. This filters down and is related to why we have massive problems in XL. I think, honestly, we need to have all our games in Gampel. Maybe the University sponsors pre-game party buses from hartford/New London/Middletown/Waterbury/Fairfield to figure out the driving situation to storrs or something, but we need to have all our games in Gampel unless they are big-time, no brainer sellouts. Period.

Winning created Patriot Nation... Winning created the Golden State Warriors.... Winning created the Lady Huskies....
Winning also created Boise State Football.

The culture and opportunities afforded the above scenarios all came from winning. People want to root for winners. They want to follow winners. It's easy to just point your finger at Uconn's conference affiliation or game location but we all know that is pure bunk. Uconn has failed to compete in men's FB and has hardly dominated a league of nobody's in BB. If Uconn moved to the Big tomorrow, it might produce a short term bump for fan attendance; maybe 2-3 years tops. But if you honestly believe fans are going to show up in droves to watch Uconn play doormat year after year you are kidding yourself.

If Uconn goes 10-2 or 11-1 in the AAC, they would get noticed. Fans would certainly take note. It would mean Uconn is beating teams like BC, Missouri, and Virginia. It would likely get Uconn in the national polls. It would make for more story lines, more attention, and more meaningful games down the road. Players/students would want to be part of that. All things that draw fans to the progam. If Uconn Football had a stretch of 9-3, 10-2 and 10-2, plus winning or even competing in a NY6 bowl, I guarantee fans would be interested and come to games. As it is, there is a lively debate whether tailgating or the actual football is the draw right now. Given that most leave at halftime and don't come back is telling.

I could not wait to see a game against BC. Had tickets lined up, was ready to go. In the end, you knew the outcome before kickoff. Didn't bother going. I consider myself a serious fan. but I have zero interest in going to a game in which I know Uconn won't even be competitive let alone win a game. I don't think I'm alone.

So go ahead, blame everyone else, blame the conference, blame the governor, blame the Boneyard, blame the fans, blame Hartford and blame the venue. Hell, maybe it's the uniforms!!!! Reality is, Uconn needs to win. I don't know if RE is the guy. I hope he is. But here's the thing. RE left at the very pinnacle of his success here. And I don't think he ever won 10 games in a season, even in his best season. That's the type of winning that needs to happen here. 8-4, 7-5, just won't cut it. Beat Houston, beat SMU, beat Cincy, beat ECU. Get back to beating UCF and USF. Beat Navy. When that happens and the seats are still empty, let's talk about joining the BE or cutting FB altogether. Until then, winning should be the focus. everything else is just noise.

 

[Guapo]

We need to win. Period. In all sports. Nothing else matters.

 

[noeynox]

$80 million to operate sports at UConn, ouch.

We better find another conference soon.

Need to consider cutting some non revenue sports and put that money into the FB coaching staff.

 

[noeynox]

Winning created Patriot Nation... Winning created the Golden State Warriors.... Winning created the Lady Huskies....
Winning also created Boise State Football.

The culture and opportunities afforded the above scenarios all came from winning. People want to root for winners. They want to follow winners. It's easy to just point your finger at UConn's conference affiliation or game location but we all know that is pure bunk. UConn has failed to compete in men's FB and has hardly dominated a league of nobody's in BB. If UConn moved to the Big tomorrow, it might produce a short term bump for fan attendance; maybe 2-3 years tops. But if you honestly believe fans are going to show up in droves to watch UConn play doormat year after year you are kidding yourself.

If UConn goes 10-2 or 11-1 in the AAC, they would get noticed. Fans would certainly take note. It would mean UConn is beating teams like BC, Missouri, and Virginia. It would likely get UConn in the national polls. It would make for more story lines, more attention, and more meaningful games down the road. Players/students would want to be part of that. All things that draw fans to the progam. If UConn Football had a stretch of 9-3, 10-2 and 10-2, plus winning or even competing in a NY6 bowl, I guarantee fans would be interested and come to games. As it is, there is a lively debate whether tailgating or the actual football is the draw right now. Given that most leave at halftime and don't come back is telling.

I could not wait to see a game against BC. Had tickets lined up, was ready to go. In the end, you knew the outcome before kickoff. Didn't bother going. I consider myself a serious fan. but I have zero interest in going to a game in which I know UConn won't even be competitive let alone win a game. I don't think I'm alone.

So go ahead, blame everyone else, blame the conference, blame the governor, blame the Boneyard, blame the fans, blame Hartford and blame the venue. Hell, maybe it's the uniforms!!!! Reality is, UConn needs to win. I don't know if RE is the guy. I hope he is. But here's the thing. RE left at the very pinnacle of his success here. And I don't think he ever won 10 games in a season, even in his best season. That's the type of winning that needs to happen here. 8-4, 7-5, just won't cut it. Beat Houston, beat SMU, beat Cincy, beat ECU. Get back to beating UCF and USF. Beat Navy. When that happens and the seats are still empty, let's talk about joining the BE or cutting FB altogether. Until then, winning should be the focus. everything else is just noise.

Edsall for now brings a steady hand to the program. I think he might do better in this league than the Big East, time will tell.

I agree with your overall point, this is the 1st year haven't bought fb season tickets. As of this writing, I will buy single game tickets to HC and go from there. Not only have we been bad, playing Tulane when we are Terrible to watch doesn't get the juices flowing, like when we were playing Pitt, WVU, RU, SU, etc. It is what it is. You can't fake feelings. Apathy is dangerous emotion for a fan base. The season ticket base dwindling down tells the story. We need to win to bring fans back.

 

[B1GEast]

Edsall for now brings a steady hand to the program. I think he might do better in this league than the Big East, time will tell.

I agree with your overall point, this is the 1st year haven't bought fb season tickets. As of this writing, I will buy single game tickets to HC and go from there. Not only have we been bad, playing Tulane when we are Terrible to watch doesn't get the juices flowing, like when we were playing Pitt, WVU, RU, SU, etc. It is what it is. You can't fake feelings. Apathy is dangerous emotion for a fan base. The season ticket base dwindling down tells the story. We need to win to bring fans back.

Edsall better because had he not left, we'd probably be in the ACC.