http://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/.../95860110/

P.S. It used to be "MAC-related" before they changed the name and conferences (and ditched the MAC).

That's great, love it.

And that was in a week of decent weather. I wonder what the "crowd" would've been like in a snowstorm.

Detroit done messed up dropping the MAC

(12-26-2016 09:55 PM)T4C8 Wrote:  Detroit done messed up dropping the MAC

For reasons I do not understand, the Lions took over the bowl (they have the stadium so they 'froze out' the Ken Hoffman group)...

And look what they did...

Boston College: 6-6 team, private school with a non-large alumni base, 12 hour car drive away from Detroit.

Maryland: 6-6 team, basketball school as opposed to a football school, 8.5 hour car drive away from Detroit.

Ticket prices: The cheapest ticket to the game was $45. That isn't exactly "let's take the kids to the game" friendly.

Time: 2:30 PM on the day after Christmas.

That's a recipe for 15K-20K attendance.

I understand the B1G tie-in, but I absolutely don't understand the ACC tie-in. B1G vs. MAC is an absolute no-brainer, with C-USA as the alternate if the B1G doesn't fill. A C-USA back-up brings the possibility of a WKU, MTSU, Marshall, or even a "new" FBS school like ODU or Charlotte that would bring fans: sort of like what happened when those schools listed above were new to FBS and were invited to the Motor City Bowl.

Today's game should have been Eastern Michigan vs. Maryland. That would have drawn more fans, no doubt.

Ford Field and the Big Whatever seriously deserve that, for kicking the MAC out. What a joke.

By far the lowest attendance ever for the bowl game in Detroit (Motor City, LCPB, now the Quicklane Bowl).

They really need to bring back regional tie-ins. Can you imagine WMU vs. MSU or something like that? The place would be sold out.

Some of the comments on that article gave me cancer.

The goal of the game was never about attendance. It is to provide TV programming in a slot that ESPN desires between two teams from P5 conferences. Mission accomplished.The powers that be (especially ESPN) don't give one crap about attendance. It's just not relevant to their goals. They care about ratings and ad revenue. That is their "attendance." Poor attendance is not going to drive change here.

(12-27-2016 01:46 PM)axeme Wrote:  The goal of the game was never about attendance. It is to provide TV programming in a slot that ESPN desires between two teams from P5 conferences. Mission accomplished.The powers that be (especially ESPN) don't give one crap about attendance. It's just not relevant to their goals. They care about ratings and ad revenue. That is their "attendance." Poor attendance is not going to drive change here.

I wonder what the ratings for the game were.

(12-27-2016 01:46 PM)axeme Wrote:  The goal of the game was never about attendance. It is to provide TV programming in a slot that ESPN desires between two teams from P5 conferences. Mission accomplished.The powers that be (especially ESPN) don't give one crap about attendance. It's just not relevant to their goals. They care about ratings and ad revenue. That is their "attendance." Poor attendance is not going to drive change here.

Although bad press maybe be a problem.

I too believe it is about filing a time slot, but it was a turkey game.

I also wonder what the ratings were? I watched about 10 minutes of the game.

I'm watching a fun Heart of Dallas game.

(12-27-2016 01:46 PM)axeme Wrote:  The goal of the game was never about attendance. It is to provide TV programming in a slot that ESPN desires between two teams from P5 conferences. Mission accomplished.The powers that be (especially ESPN) don't give one crap about attendance. It's just not relevant to their goals. They care about ratings and ad revenue. That is their "attendance." Poor attendance is not going to drive change here.

What does Ford Field get out of TV ratings?

(12-26-2016 11:02 PM)Nittany_Bearcat Wrote:  Boston College: 6-6 team, private school with a non-large alumni base, 12 hour car drive away from Detroit.

Maryland: 6-6 team, basketball school as opposed to a football school, 8.5 hour car drive away from Detroit.

Ticket prices: The cheapest ticket to the game was $45. That isn't exactly "let's take the kids to the game" friendly.

Time: 2:30 PM on the day after Christmas.

That's a recipe for 15K-20K attendance.

I understand the B1G tie-in, but I absolutely don't understand the ACC tie-in. B1G vs. MAC is an absolute no-brainer, with C-USA as the alternate if the B1G doesn't fill. A C-USA back-up brings the possibility of a WKU, MTSU, Marshall, or even a "new" FBS school like ODU or Charlotte that would bring fans: sort of like what happened when those schools listed above were new to FBS and were invited to the Motor City Bowl.

Today's game should have been Eastern Michigan vs. Maryland. That would have drawn more fans, no doubt.

The announced attendance was over 19k, but the article states that the actual attendance was less than 10k.

Let's see:

The Lions decided not to renew the lease with the Hoffman group for the Little Caesars Bowl.

They then entered into a new agreement themselves with the B1G and ACC, hoping for two big name P5 teams.

They, however, must have forgotten the pecking order and how low it would be. This year there were 7 or 8 desirable B1G teams (9 including nearby Indiana). Maryland is NOT a desirable football opponent.

EMU vs. Maryland would have at least drawn locals. EMU vs. Indiana/Northwestern would have been fine.

(12-27-2016 02:43 PM)emu steve Wrote:  

(12-27-2016 01:46 PM)axeme Wrote:  The goal of the game was never about attendance. It is to provide TV programming in a slot that ESPN desires between two teams from P5 conferences. Mission accomplished.The powers that be (especially ESPN) don't give one crap about attendance. It's just not relevant to their goals. They care about ratings and ad revenue. That is their "attendance." Poor attendance is not going to drive change here.

Although bad press maybe be a problem.

I too believe it is about filing a time slot, but it was a turkey game.

I also wonder what the ratings were? I watched about 10 minutes of the game.

I'm watching a fun Heart of Dallas game.

I was at the fun Heart of Dallas game!

(12-29-2016 08:36 AM)HarmonOliphantOberlanderDevine Wrote:  

(12-27-2016 02:43 PM)emu steve Wrote:  

(12-27-2016 01:46 PM)axeme Wrote:  The goal of the game was never about attendance. It is to provide TV programming in a slot that ESPN desires between two teams from P5 conferences. Mission accomplished.The powers that be (especially ESPN) don't give one crap about attendance. It's just not relevant to their goals. They care about ratings and ad revenue. That is their "attendance." Poor attendance is not going to drive change here.

Although bad press maybe be a problem.

I too believe it is about filing a time slot, but it was a turkey game.

I also wonder what the ratings were? I watched about 10 minutes of the game.

I'm watching a fun Heart of Dallas game.

I was at the fun Heart of Dallas game!

Heart of Dallas was surprising interesting.