Interesting SI article - here is an excerpt:

Florida State sold less than a third of its 17,500-seat allotment to the Orange Bowl, and Nebraska sold only roughly 4,000 Capital One Bowl seats. Even LSU and Clemson failed to sell nearly 13,000 combined tickets for their intriguing, geographically convenient matchup. On the bottom end of the spectrum, the San Jose State-Bowling Green Military Bowl in Washington D.C. had an announced attendance of just 17,835 -- and in many cases, actual attendance is even lower than the announced figure.

Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college...z2Hd4XzsBv

Credit goes to the NIU fans that shelled out the dollars to and represent Huskie Nation.

There are a 1,001 reasons why a bowl does well or doesn't do well.

One thing to keep in mind is with 35 match-ups some are going to be great and some are going to be bad. Simply probabilities. Like have a portfolio of stocks. Some will do very well. Others...

BG vs. SJSU in WASHINGTON, D.C. was a disaster the minute it was announced. It was destined to be attended by 'family and friends'. Outdoor, old stadium too boot. Weather in the 40s, windy. Temple's game two years ago was much colder and much more wind.

Orange Bowl - NIU fans really turned out but a 75 - 80K stadium? If the stadium held 60K tickets might have been tight. When Miami replaces their stadium how about 65K seats?

LCPB - CMU was happy to be there and showed up but WKU had a long, long drive. Six inches of snow killed attendance.

GoDaddy.com - Was it 45 degrees for this January night (8 p.m. CST) game. Time for this bowl to move forward two weeks or so.

So it can be a bad match-up of teams too far from the game site, cold weather, too large stadia, etc.

(01-11-2013 05:53 AM)emu steve Wrote:  There are a 1,001 reasons why a bowl does well or doesn't do well.

One thing to keep in mind is with 35 match-ups some are going to be great and some are going to be bad. Simply probabilities. Like have a portfolio of stocks. Some will do very well. Others...

BG vs. SJSU in WASHINGTON, D.C. was a disaster the minute it was announced. It was destined to be attended by 'family and friends'. Outdoor, old stadium too boot. Weather in the 40s, windy. Temple's game two years ago was much colder and much more wind.

Orange Bowl - NIU fans really turned out but a 75 - 80K stadium? If the stadium held 60K tickets might have been tight. When Miami replaces their stadium how about 65K seats?

LCPB - CMU was happy to be there and showed up but WKU had a long, long drive. Six inches of snow killed attendance.

GoDaddy.com - Was it 45 degrees for this January night (8 p.m. CST) game. Time for this bowl to move forward two weeks or so.

So it can be a bad match-up of teams too far from the game site, cold weather, too large stadia, etc.

Gosh, what I wouldn't give for the GoDaddy to be played between Christmas and New Year's. I know playing it when they do gives them a certain amount of exclusivity, but after watching the New Year's Day games and all of the BCS games, it makes what is a really nice bowl game look rinky-dink in comparison.

We got really lucky down there a year ago with the weather, but there have been a few really awful weather games on that January 6,7,8 night game slot.

It was warmer than normal last year when we were at the GoDaddy Bowl. This year, it was colder than normal.

Average high temperature in Mobile in early January is 60 degrees.

How about COST?! These games are all played right after everybody has dropped tons of $$$ on Christmas Gifts and possibly traveling to visit family for the holidays. Shelling out for $1,000+ for airline tickets, hotel cost, and various other expenses is tough to do right after the holidays. Of course this pertains mostly to the example of attending the Orange bowl for NIU.....but why would anybody travel all the way across the country for some exhibition game against a crappy team in the case of the lesser bowls.

P.S. Giddy up, it's Friday...

(01-11-2013 11:01 AM)NIU8484 Wrote:  How about COST?! These games are all played right after everybody has dropped tons of $$$ on Christmas Gifts and possibly traveling to visit family for the holidays. Shelling out for $1,000+ for airline tickets, hotel cost, and various other expenses is tough to do right after the holidays. Of course this pertains mostly to the example of attending the Orange bowl for NIU.....but why would anybody travel all the way across the country for some exhibition game against a crappy team in the case of the lesser bowls.

P.S. Giddy up, it's Friday...

Knowing we were going to the Orange Bowl...our family gave up Christmas. We had a tree but no presents under it. Was fine with all of us...we all have way too much stuff anyeay and it was WAY more fun to go to Miami & cheer on NIU!
If we were going to any other bowl game we'd probably do the same. Either Christmas OR Bowl game ...but not both.

Still wish we knew real numbers of NIU fans at the Orange Bowl.

(01-11-2013 11:01 AM)NIU8484 Wrote:  How about COST?! These games are all played right after everybody has dropped tons of $$$ on Christmas Gifts and possibly traveling to visit family for the holidays. Shelling out for $1,000+ for airline tickets, hotel cost, and various other expenses is tough to do right after the holidays. Of course this pertains mostly to the example of attending the Orange bowl for NIU.....but why would anybody travel all the way across the country for some exhibition game against a crappy team in the case of the lesser bowls.

P.S. Giddy up, it's Friday...

So I take it you're not going to Moscow in the fall? I'm not even kidding though, HMM and I went to the Kibbie Dome in 2009 just for fun. That was part of our 4-year every game, home and away streak. As far as I'm concerned, the more obscure, the more ridiculous, the more fun

(01-10-2013 09:17 PM)niu51 Wrote:  Interesting SI article - here is an excerpt:

Florida State sold less than a third of its 17,500-seat allotment to the Orange Bowl, and Nebraska sold only roughly 4,000 Capital One Bowl seats. Even LSU and Clemson failed to sell nearly 13,000 combined tickets for their intriguing, geographically convenient matchup. On the bottom end of the spectrum, the San Jose State-Bowling Green Military Bowl in Washington D.C. had an announced attendance of just 17,835 -- and in many cases, actual attendance is even lower than the announced figure.

Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college...z2Hd4XzsBv

Credit goes to the NIU fans that shelled out the dollars to and represent Huskie Nation.

Has poster 7 read this yet? He think NIU fans failed miserably in ticket sales