Wedge
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RE: ACC Has #1 and 3 of Top 4 in BB Attendance Last Season
(07-06-2015 08:06 PM)lumberpack4 Wrote: (07-06-2015 04:27 PM)adcorbett Wrote: (07-06-2015 12:51 PM)Wedge Wrote: It's striking how much this attendance list is dominated by teams that don't have direct local competition from NBA teams. There are 41 teams with reported average attendance over 10,000, and only 5 of them are within 30 miles of an NBA team.
While true, it's a tad more than that in terms of competition. While the ones at the top are not directly in NBA markets, it is not as though there is no competition for attention/money. Admittedly having no NBA team there does help, but you need more than that. Otherwise the schools in and around Kansas City, St. Louis, and Seattle, the largest markets (off the top of my head) with NBA teams should be killing it. True there are only 6 who are within 30 miles of an NBA home court (Memphis, Marquette, Maryland, Minnesota, Utah, and Oklahoma, plus Nova and G'Town who just missed the cut), but another 4 who are within 30 miles of an NHL team which competes for dollars at the same time (UNC, NC State, Ohio St, Pittsburgh, plus Wake and Duke who just missed the cut), and several more who are not quite within 30 miles, but are within an hour or so of one or the other (BYU, Wisconsin, Dayton, Michigan, Michigan State, Texas, West Virginia, as well as Utah St who just missed the cut).
While some had no NBA competition like the three at the top, I do find the trio of UNC, Duke, and NC State fascinating, as they have to compete not only with each other, but the Hurricanes NHL team, all in one combined market. for UNC and NC State to pull out those numbers is mighty impressive. Wisconsin has to compete with Marquette and the Bucks (I know, I know, but they are finally getting good). Cincinnati, Dayton, and Xavier are all in the same general TV market, and Maryland and Georgetown get to compete with the Wizards and Capitals. Even Louisville and Kentucky compete for many of the same fans, and both are within an hour of Cincinnati and Xavier.
BTW, the same can be said about football, and how few teams in the top share a market with an NFL team.
Competition is also indirect - the total number of pro teams in your market and other top college teams all represent tickets for sale not just basketball.
The Washington Nationals was the final straw for Maryland as they had to compete with two NFL, NBA, and MLB teams for fans.
BC, Pitt, GT, Miami, Vandy, Tulane, Purdue, Indiana, NW, Minnesota, etc,., all have professional competition in their market that hurt.
Conversely, USC and UCLA are boosted by not having an NFL team in LA. A given population can only digest so many tickets.
Many of your SEC schools, and schools like Ohio State, Louisville, and others have a nearly clear base market without significant competition.
When you look at the situation that is UNC-Ch, NC State, and Duke, you are selling over 1,000,000 college football tickets and nearly 1,000,000 college basketball tickets into the same market.
To put that in perspective - if those three were a single entity it would take a football stadium of 140K and a basketball arena of 45K to accommodate the crowd.
It depends on the market and what appeals to the market.
I would be extremely surprised if there were a significant number of UNC/Duke/NCSU basketball season ticket holders who gave up their season tickets because they decided they'd rather spend their money on NHL hockey tickets.
On the other hand, the lack of NFL football in LA probably benefitted UCLA (USC was already selling really well), but the rise of the Lakers starting in about 1980 absolutely hurt UCLA basketball ticket sales, probably permanently.
Also, are UNC, Duke, and NCSU really in competition with each other for ticket sales? Can't imagine that any diehard Tar Heel fans would give up their tickets to buy season tix at Duke or NCSU, or vice versa. The base of season ticket holders, especially at large public schools, is alums, boosters, and other people with a real connection to the school. They're not likely to switch from season tix at one school to a rival school; if they make any switch away from their college team, it's likely to be a switch to buying pro team tickets.
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