(05-05-2017 05:15 PM)YNot Wrote:  

(05-05-2017 04:51 PM)miko33 Wrote:  

(05-03-2017 09:25 PM)10thMountain Wrote:  If they want to aim high then good for them.

What it really means is that they want to become attractive enough that

1) ESPN is willing to pay them +20mil/team for their TV rights

2) A major NY6 Bowl wants their champ for an auto bid

I would say to do that their goal needs to be a conference avg attendance of 50k or better and just continue to improve attendance facilities and support.

Also note: The current P conferences have NOTHING to do with achieving those goals. It's entirely on the AAC schools to achieve these goals (as they should be)

That is becoming less and less meaningful. Don't get me wrong, better attendance plus higher ticket prices makes for a better athletic department for an individual school; however, it doesn't matter a hill of beans for TV rights payouts. Now access to the lesser bowls is attendance driven, but the biggest bowls and the TV rights fees are based on eyeballs on the screen.

If I was the AAC, I'd be most concerned with marketing themselves to improve their attractiveness to people to want to watch them on TV or streaming it to a device. That's your big bang for your buck. WGAF about whether you have access to the crappy Dick Toucher's bowl or the more coveted Slap Ass bowl. If you're not playing in the NY6 bowls, it's meaningless.

Home attendance makes more money for the athletic department than the media deals, even in the power conferences. Well, it's probably relatively close for the likes of Washington St., Wake Forest, Kansas, and Duke who have sub-30K attendance, but most Power schools, and especially the big dogs, make beaucoup bucks from the season ticket sales, donations, and gate revenue that are directly related to attendance.

No doubt. It's best for the school on an individual basis. However, having all the schools in the AAC try to procure 50K+ FB stadiums with jacked up season ticket sales and hefty seat licenses is a long term goal. The shorter term goal that is more attainable is to generate more interest in the programs. Chicken or the egg thing right? Do you invest in huge facilities and state of the art training complexes and hope that the recruits, wins and fans all come? Or do you have to find ways to win those games to generate fan interest and then invest with the improved revenue streams? Realistically, it's the latter. Telling at least half the AAC to improve your attendance to average 50K/game is impossible due to stadium sizes alone. I highly doubt major capital campaign to expand and/or purchase new stadiums happens.