02-18-2011, 04:33 PM
Despite the fact that all of you deserve to see me, I may not be able to meet up with the guys to grab a beer and hear Steve's info. Would have brought this stuff there if I knew for sure I could attend.
Just spent a couple hours with the good folks who run Varsity Villiage. Half hour of work-related stuff and 1 1/2 hours of me plying info over ice cold Diet Mt. Dew and burritos. Lots of good info. Even caught a minute of lunch with a couple BB players before they left at 3:00 for the trip to Rhode Island. Keep all of this here please - membership has to have some privileges, right?
This is going to be long, but hopefully interesting enough to be worth it.
Yancey
Young man has some significant crap going on in his life outside of basketball. Not really my business so I won't make it yours. However, the time off for the Pitt game was as much as a go be with your family, clear your head, and get your house in order as it was a come to Jesus from Mick. His reactions on the bench during the St. John's game was a guy who was trying to keep from breaking down in the public eye. I feel like dung for getting on the guy. UC had 75 (not a typo) football recruits in the house and some high level basketball recruits who gave some pretty critical feedback of the UC fans' treatment of him to both sets of coaches on Sunday. Is what it is.
Finances
You know this is one of my favorite subjects to sink my teeth into. Since we just played UL...in 2010 UC set an all-time record for private giving (UCATS, etc). Millions more than in years past. This number does not get reflected in the individual team budgets. UC brought in $6 million in private gifts for athletics. Pretty good, huh? UL brought in $44 million.
While on the topic of UL...related to where our football ticket pricing and UCAT levels of giving are for football when compared to what UL's pricing and required donation levels are, UL could sell only 5% of its tickets and still match what UC brought in the entire year of 2010 when they actually averaged above capacity in Nippert last year due to the Oklahoma game.
Speaking of Oklahoma...
Bengals
Yes, I said Bengals. Lots of juicy tidbits here. First, some background. This time last year the Bengals were such ####suckers in working with UC to set up the Oklahoma game that UC was forced to negotiate an agreement with the Colts to play the game in Indy. It was that bad. Mike Brown finally relented on some crazy demands at literally the 11th hour before UC was about to sign with the Colts since they were required by contract to tell Oklahoma where they were to tell their fans where the game was to be played.
The deal with the game at PBS was that the Bengals basically got 10% of all ticket sales revenue up to 1 million. 12% of the next million, etc. Bengals kept the concessions and parking (which was not as big of a deal as I originally thought....UC athletics gets nothing from campus parking on game days...that goes straight into the general fund). UC only gets a portion of the concessions on campus since a foodservice runs it.
UC made almost exactly double at PBS what it would for a sold out Nippert. The numbers they gave me were the internal numbers. I'll keep those close to the vest for now - if they leaked out on here I might get a call. Sorry.
Fast forward one year exactly. Bengals are calling UC and are begging them to listen. Bengals are acting like long lost pals. Slashing their percentages. Offering UC a healthy cut of concessions. Offering UC a cut of parking revenue. Offering to spend Bengal marketing dollars to aggressivly push any game UC will play at PBS (let that sink in....spending their own $$). Offering to market to Bengals season ticket holders, their mailing lists and put together Bengal/UC packages that benefit UC. Offering up PBS and Bengal facilities for UC fundraising events. Long term agreement. The whole enchilada.
I was told the Bengals know they had a terrible PR year and additionally seem to think there is a very real chance that the only game revenue they might see in 2011 is UC. Added piece here is what this says about the prospects of a potential NFL lockout. Added, added juicy piece is that Mike Brown handled all of this last year personally. Its all being handled at a lower level now with limited family involvement.
I think I got more than they wanted to give. That's all I could get on the topic other than there is an announcement forthcoming in the very near future and that this is pretty exciting stuff. My feeling is that UC is going to be moving the UL and WVU games downtown this year for the financial windfall and it might be an ongoing thing. Finalized schedule comes out soon. So that is when we will hear something. Whether you have a strong opinion on this or not, KEEP THIS QUIET PLEASE.
I got a bunch of other stuff, but I'll save for later.
Just spent a couple hours with the good folks who run Varsity Villiage. Half hour of work-related stuff and 1 1/2 hours of me plying info over ice cold Diet Mt. Dew and burritos. Lots of good info. Even caught a minute of lunch with a couple BB players before they left at 3:00 for the trip to Rhode Island. Keep all of this here please - membership has to have some privileges, right?
This is going to be long, but hopefully interesting enough to be worth it.
Yancey
Young man has some significant crap going on in his life outside of basketball. Not really my business so I won't make it yours. However, the time off for the Pitt game was as much as a go be with your family, clear your head, and get your house in order as it was a come to Jesus from Mick. His reactions on the bench during the St. John's game was a guy who was trying to keep from breaking down in the public eye. I feel like dung for getting on the guy. UC had 75 (not a typo) football recruits in the house and some high level basketball recruits who gave some pretty critical feedback of the UC fans' treatment of him to both sets of coaches on Sunday. Is what it is.
Finances
You know this is one of my favorite subjects to sink my teeth into. Since we just played UL...in 2010 UC set an all-time record for private giving (UCATS, etc). Millions more than in years past. This number does not get reflected in the individual team budgets. UC brought in $6 million in private gifts for athletics. Pretty good, huh? UL brought in $44 million.
While on the topic of UL...related to where our football ticket pricing and UCAT levels of giving are for football when compared to what UL's pricing and required donation levels are, UL could sell only 5% of its tickets and still match what UC brought in the entire year of 2010 when they actually averaged above capacity in Nippert last year due to the Oklahoma game.
Speaking of Oklahoma...
Bengals
Yes, I said Bengals. Lots of juicy tidbits here. First, some background. This time last year the Bengals were such ####suckers in working with UC to set up the Oklahoma game that UC was forced to negotiate an agreement with the Colts to play the game in Indy. It was that bad. Mike Brown finally relented on some crazy demands at literally the 11th hour before UC was about to sign with the Colts since they were required by contract to tell Oklahoma where they were to tell their fans where the game was to be played.
The deal with the game at PBS was that the Bengals basically got 10% of all ticket sales revenue up to 1 million. 12% of the next million, etc. Bengals kept the concessions and parking (which was not as big of a deal as I originally thought....UC athletics gets nothing from campus parking on game days...that goes straight into the general fund). UC only gets a portion of the concessions on campus since a foodservice runs it.
UC made almost exactly double at PBS what it would for a sold out Nippert. The numbers they gave me were the internal numbers. I'll keep those close to the vest for now - if they leaked out on here I might get a call. Sorry.
Fast forward one year exactly. Bengals are calling UC and are begging them to listen. Bengals are acting like long lost pals. Slashing their percentages. Offering UC a healthy cut of concessions. Offering UC a cut of parking revenue. Offering to spend Bengal marketing dollars to aggressivly push any game UC will play at PBS (let that sink in....spending their own $$). Offering to market to Bengals season ticket holders, their mailing lists and put together Bengal/UC packages that benefit UC. Offering up PBS and Bengal facilities for UC fundraising events. Long term agreement. The whole enchilada.
I was told the Bengals know they had a terrible PR year and additionally seem to think there is a very real chance that the only game revenue they might see in 2011 is UC. Added piece here is what this says about the prospects of a potential NFL lockout. Added, added juicy piece is that Mike Brown handled all of this last year personally. Its all being handled at a lower level now with limited family involvement.
I think I got more than they wanted to give. That's all I could get on the topic other than there is an announcement forthcoming in the very near future and that this is pretty exciting stuff. My feeling is that UC is going to be moving the UL and WVU games downtown this year for the financial windfall and it might be an ongoing thing. Finalized schedule comes out soon. So that is when we will hear something. Whether you have a strong opinion on this or not, KEEP THIS QUIET PLEASE.
I got a bunch of other stuff, but I'll save for later.
