Just wow. Empty building. | Page 4 | The Boneyard

Just wow. Empty building.

Waquoit said:
Nope. Not even close. There were thousands of people sitting in the 200's level. Fans that people that don't go to games will ever see on TV. Fans that never heard of the Boneyard and bought a single game ticket. Those tickets sold are all straight cash to UConn. I judge by how high the critical mass goes up in the second deck. It was pretty high. Not high enough to see from Florida maybe.
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Well, not exactly straight cash, right? It cost us 40,000 just to have them open the doors and turn on the lights plus an additional three dollars per ticket. Unless you’re selling out, or very close to it playing in the XL is a money loser.

Gampel on the other hand we don’t have to shell out 40 grand for the privilege of playing plus we get parking in concessions revenue on top of ticket revenue.

I’ve posted the math previously, but even if you have a sold out XL Center with 15,000 fans, you are not making significantly more than you would make at a sold out gamble.
 
Platt81 said:
I’m not sure where you’re going with this but 65% capacity on a Tuesday night for Buffalo is what is expected at this game. And also there is no definition of what “well north” means but they exceeded the 10,000 seat threshold quoted
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10,000 wasn’t the threshold, “well north of 10,000” was the threshold. I’m pretty confident he meant more than 112 people over 10,000
 
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Waquoit said:
Nobody goes to weekday games in Storrs. Even against good teams.
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Nobody? Are you sure about that?

In any event, looking at Chin’s excellent post above
Lease flat rate: $40,500
Facility fee: $30,000
Surcharge: $30,336
Money to XL $100,336

That’s the amount that the university starts out in the hole, based upon last night’s attendance.
 
Rocktheworld said:
Yup. Besides all the out-of-staters going home, you are effectively temporarily evicted from your dorm the weekend leading into a break; at least that’s what I remember from my time at UConn ‘08-12

I think XL games would indeed be better when campus is quieter but there may be some contractual issues that force certain amounts of games in each location that led to the games falling where they do
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What contractual issues are those?
 
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dvegas said:
correct, I think it was my freshman year, winter break 81/82.
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I remember because Michael Adams was telling my buddy he was going to kick his ass while he swished 2 free throws.
 
zls44 said:
Hey, its not like they played a weeknight game last week at Gampel that was 90% full oh wait damn!
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I know that technically correct is the best kind of correct but framed another way: It was a Friday, no work the next day. It was a national holiday, no school that day. An the XL Center on a Tuesday still outdraws Gampel by a thousand.
 
Waquoit said:
I know that technically correct is the best kind of correct but framed another way: It was a Friday, no work the next day. It was a national holiday, no school that day. An the XL Center on a Tuesday still outdraws Gampel by a thousand.
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Definitionally, then the XL Center is a weekday money loser because 11,000 people there isn’t enough for UConn to make more money than they could make at Gampel given the fact that they start out over $100,000 in the hole at the XL center.
 
CL82 said:
What contractual issues are those?
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No idea, total spitball

XL may have something in the contract that requires a certain frequency/percentage of UConn games there, and the AD has to work with that
 
Fan support isn't what it use to be for UConn. I know people will come back at me and say it's across the country but UConn's has been dropping/struggling for awhile.
 
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Rocktheworld said:
No idea, total spitball

XL may have something in the contract that requires a certain frequency/percentage of UConn games there, and the AD has to work with that
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So you’re saying they’ve got a play the number of games that they’ve agreed to in any contract? Fully agree with that, but the next contract could easily reflect less games.
 
zls44 said:
Hey, its not like they played a weeknight game last week at Gampel that was 90% full oh wait damn!
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But here’s the thing, It doesn’t even need to be 90% full to make money at Gampel when you consider all the revenue sources.
Parking, concessions, the $3 facilities fee on tickets ( which shocks me goes to the CRDA. When it was added it was supposed to be to cover costs of UConn facilities upgrades and so forth. I assumed it funded the new baseball stadium, hockey arena, basketball training center etc. Not the total cost but a portion of those and other costs.).

I get why they play there. But my plan would be to reduce the # of games there. Don’t eliminate all. Play maybe 4 per year. 2 big East games that will draw people (Villanova, and 1 other). Then 1 national home game (of corse Hurley would need to agree to replace one of the Little Sisters of the Poor games with a real game but one can dream, and 1 local mid-major. A UMass, URI, BC, Seton Hall type team, not Central or Fairfield level. Buffalo is sort of a borderline.
 
CL82 said:
10,000 wasn’t the threshold, “well north of 10,000” was the threshold. I’m pretty confident he meant more than 112 people over 10,000
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A) I literally stated it says “well north of 10,000” but doesn’t quantify it, why not just say “we need 11,473 tickets sold as a break even”? Me stating the threshold of 10,000 is meaning that’s the only number quoted, “well north” is arbitrary, it could be 30 or it could be 3000 depending on what you think it is without an actual number stated.

B)With all your logic and knowledge of all this, they really should enlist you in the next round of contract negotiations with the XL. You’re CLEARLY more knowledgeable of the situation than the people actually involved….at least in your own head.
 
gampelcrazies said:
Fan support isn't what it use to be for UConn. I know people will come back at me and say it's across the country but UConn's has been dropping/struggling for awhile.
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UConn attendance peaked in 2007. Been declining since except for a smallish bump in 2012 and a bump in 2021-22 over 2019. But But just fwiw, in 2007 UConn averaged over13000/game. Last year it was 10,345. Up from the 8645 in 2019 but not even close to the heights of the early 2000-2007 period. In part it is a function of the quality of the team of course and in part the schedule but assuming we ever approach 13000/game again is crazy.
 
CL82 said:
So you’re saying they’ve got a play the number of games that they’ve agreed to in any contract? Fully agree with that, but the next contract could easily reflect less games.
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I just figure XL has to look out for its best interests and not allow the University to be exploitative somehow such as withholding “best” opponents or time slots. Who knows; I could be totally wrong
 
Platt81 said:
A) I literally stated it says “well north of 10,000” but doesn’t quantify it, why not just say “we need 11,473 tickets sold as a break even”? Me stating the threshold of 10,000 is meaning that’s the only number quoted, “well north” is arbitrary, it could be 30 or it could be 3000 depending on what you think it is without an actual number stated.

B)With all your logic and knowledge of all this, they really should enlist you in the next round of contract negotiations with the XL. You’re CLEARLY more knowledgeable of the situation than the people actually involved….at least in your own head.
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Several reasons including
A. He doesn’t want to embarrass the CRDA
B. He doesn’t know the exact break even point. If he said 11427, somebody would demand he show them.
C. It might vary by game. Per the article they pay 20-30,000 in facilities fees. I assume that is related to attendance at least somewhat. Higher for Villanova and lower for Maryland Eastern Shore, but I don’t know that.
D. If I see guessing I would guess the 12000 number where UConn starts collecting the fee per ticket.
 
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gampelcrazies said:
Fan support isn't what it use to be for UConn. I know people will come back at me and say it's across the country but UConn's has been dropping/struggling for awhile.
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UConn just drew 10,000+ for Buffalo after raising ticket prices. Attendance has been going up ever since we left the AAC. In the AAC years, the biggest game in the XL was when the Big East team came. Now we have 5 Big East games.
 
dvegas said:
correct, I think it was my freshman year, winter break 81/82.
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The Civic Center collapsed on 1/18/78 and reopened on 1/17/80. UConn had a 19-8 record in 27 (8-0 as the away team) games in New Haven between the 77-78 and 86-87 seasons.
 
I'm pretty sure they were the away team several times against Fairfield
 
Waquoit said:
UConn just drew 10,000+ for Buffalo after raising ticket prices. Attendance has been going up ever since we left the AAC. In the AAC years, the biggest game in the XL was when the Big East team came. Now we have 5 Big East games.
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No shot there was 10k. I don’t care what UConn publishes when it comes to that. I will admit it was a nice crowd for a buy game.
 
Deadrody said:
Indeed. You can all downvote this all you want, but when there's one guy on the floor that you recognize from a prior season, and most of them aren't freshman recruits, its hard for the average fan to make a connection with the team. Add to that the fact that a bunch of guys you were rooting for just up and left and you have a recipe for an empty building.
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You mean the casual fan doesn't understand upgrading a roster? So we just keep being mediocre to keep the average fan happy,so they can cheer on the 5th year scrub....got ya
 
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Rocktheworld said:
I just figure XL has to look out for its best interests and not allow the University to be exploitative somehow such as withholding “best” opponents or time slots. Who knows; I could be totally wrong
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I don’t know, but it would be in the universities best interest to maximize potential attendance at the XL center given that anything less than a sellout is a money loser for it
 
Platt81 said:
well north” is arbitrary, it could be 30
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Lol, well not under any standard interpretation of language.
Platt81 said:
With all your logic and knowledge of all this, they really should enlist you in the next round of contract negotiations with the XL
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Probably, I’m not inexpensive, though.
 
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CL82 said:
I don’t know, but it would be in the universities best interest to maximize potential attendance at the XL center given that anything less than a sellout is a money loser for it
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I thought Georgetown and Creighton would have been Hartford given they fall over winter break for the students. Especially Georgetown on a Tuesday at 6:30. Gonna be a stretch to make it up there for tip from Fairfield County.. but we'll see what 84 has in store.
 
Since UC men's and women's BB is the closest thing to major league sports in CT I would think they have to have some games at XL. This is on the fans who need to step up. For the team to be a major player they need to stop making excuses. Not sure the Buffalo game should have been at XL, but all the excuses are gone. No longer in AAC, no longer on a downward spiral, so we can't talk about the state of the program 5 years ago any longer.
 
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