(05-20-2020 05:51 PM)Kit-Cat Wrote:  

(05-20-2020 05:42 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(05-20-2020 05:29 PM)Kit-Cat Wrote:  

(05-20-2020 04:54 PM)Bronco14 Wrote:  In regards to the WMU Cotton Bowl season posts: There is a market for good MAC football teams. Usually that's considered 9 wins but we've seen there's an even bigger market for 10+ wins. Hence, why teams stay FBS.

People aren't gonna line up for 1-11 Akron: They will for a 9-3 Akron.

It's all about winning, and that's especially true in the MAC.

(05-20-2020 04:08 PM)Wedge Wrote:  The data says otherwise.

The CMU stadium capacity is listed at 30,255. Even if the average ticket price was only $20/ticket, that would mean ticket sales of more than $600,000 just for that one football game. We know they didn't make that much money on one football game because their total ticket sales, total amount for all sporting events at the entire university, has been well below $800,000 a year for each of the last several years.

The 2019 game at WMU had reported attendance, which is always inflated, of 20,476 in a stadium that seats 30,200. The 2018 game at CMU had reported attendance of 10,097 in a stadium that seats 30,255.

I was at the 2019 & 2018 games. The 2019 attendance seemed about right, maybe even a little under-counted. The 2018 in-person attendance was definitely lower than 10K, but I suspect many no-shows during the pouring rain/snow/sleet (MAC attendance is heavily correlated w/ weather) & a home team that would end up 1-11. Also, one poster was saying the game's an excuse for UM/MSU fans to visit their WMU/CMU friends: the 2018 WMU/CMU game was the exact same time as the MSU/UM game. We're still trying to figure out why the MAC scheduled it when they did, but otherwise that's usually a factor too.

Ohio had its night games early in the season taken away by ESPN+ and had to play its rivalry game against Miami U. on Black Friday. This has hurt the conference efforts to build fan support.

Inevitably the crowds will not come for a bad team. Donors won't show up to make a statement the coach has to go.

The realistic upside on crowds for the MAC is to have a really good team that can pack it in at Detroit or Cleveland. SRO capacity atmospheres in a 25,000 to 30,000 seat stadium for a big game.

20,000 is a solid crowd in a MAC stadium. Its a solid crowd for any sport but P5 and NFL football.

The problem is, not everybody can be a winner. The conference games, the bulk of the schedule, have to sum to .500. As for OOC, with MAC teams playing body-bag games for cash against P5 teams, most of those will be losses. And no donor will be fooled by a 8-4 record achieved by beating two FCS teams.

MAC teams don't play multiple FCS teams at home. I think its happened out of necessity a couple of times but that is about it.

The nice thing about the MAC is the parity. Because the schools all operate with similar athletic budgets, they can't hold on to good coaches. So that brings them back down to par & another team takes it's place. Not everyone can be a winner the same season, but you will be at some point in this Conference.

Most MAC fans won't hype up last year's Champion team. We're talking the usual MAC champ who gets 9 or more wins or so.