Ripped from another thread, for this different conversation...

Quote:But now, indulge me... I'm thinking about a way to build on your idea.

On this neutral site idea... what if we began conducting the CUSA Championship Game in the same city (not the same venue) as the SEC Championship on the Friday night before their game?... essentially, promote it as a value-added event, and perhaps even sell deep discounted tickets at the gate with fans' SEC championship game tickets used as a kind of coupon?

Start with using Georgia State's stadium which holds about 25K... the old Turner Field. If the thing catches on as we'd hope, there's always the option to graduate to using Georgia Tech's stadium which is about double that size.

Yes, no, or maybe?

I dont think it would make a huge difference in attendance personally. Most people want to watch their team and premium level football. We dont offer that.

We simply aren't enough of a draw to justify a neutral site championship game. Most fans of P5 teams go to their champ games as part of a plan to make a mini-vacation out of it. A second game where you have no "skin" in it won't beat out a fancy dinner and drinks with the wife.

What might improve championship game attendance is if every team in the conference required their season ticket holders to buy a ticket for the champ game. The 12 fanbases that don't get to the champ game then have the champ game ticket value pushed towards the cost of the next year's season ticket. The visiting team fans can either then choose to use their champ game tickets as part of the visiting team ticket allotment, or forward to the next year's season tickets.

This definitely deserved its own thread...

(12-08-2018 01:28 PM)49RFootballNow Wrote:  What might improve championship game attendance is if every team in the conference required their season ticket holders to buy a ticket for the champ game. The 12 fanbases that don't get to the champ game then have the champ game ticket value pushed towards the cost of the next year's season ticket. The visiting team fans can either then choose to use their champ game tickets as part of the visiting team ticket allotment, or forward to the next year's season tickets.

And from the ashes comes this mostly sensible idea.

I expect there would be some pushback to the idea of essentially perpetually paying a down payment on the following season as part of your current season ticket plan.

The only other issue would be how you handle people who don't renew the following season.

(12-08-2018 02:16 PM)MTPiKapp Wrote:  This definitely deserved its own thread...

and a quick and painful death

I get it that the typical reply is going to be simple gut reactions, and almost inherently those gut reactions are going to go something like... "Nah. Another lame idea. Next."

And to be sure, being a whole new angle on the neutral site concept, there's really not much more than gut reaction to go on.

But then, given the alternative which is to keep doing what we're doing as-if that's working (not)... a deeper dig might think through what numbers might merit consideration...

For instance...

Wonder what the attendance was for the SEC Championship Game... what, maybe 30K?

What percentage of those fans do you figure might normally arrive in ATL earlier than Saturday... maybe 5% or so?

What percentage of those folks do you figure might really enjoy football so much they might make a weekend of it, and see two games for not much more than the price of one... maybe 5% or so again?

How far do you think the typical fan in town on Friday night might travel to see another FBS conference's championship if it were marketed right and s/he knew about it... what, a couple of miles at most from Mercedes Benz Stadium?

(12-08-2018 02:56 PM)_sturt_ Wrote:  I get it that the typical reply is going to be simple gut reactions, and almost inherently those gut reactions are going to go something like... "Nah. Another lame idea. Next."

And to be sure, being a whole new angle on the neutral site concept, there's really not much more than gut reaction to go on.

But then, given the alternative which is to keep doing what we're doing as-if that's working (not)... a deeper dig might think through what numbers might merit consideration...

For instance...

Wonder what the attendance was for the SEC Championship Game... what, maybe 30K?

What percentage of those fans do you figure might normally arrive in ATL earlier than Saturday... maybe 5% or so?

What percentage of those folks do you figure might really enjoy football so much they might make a weekend of it, and see two games for not much more than the price of one... maybe 5% or so again?

How far do you think the typical fan in town on Friday night might travel to see another FBS conference's championship if it were marketed right and s/he knew about it... what, a couple of miles at most from Mercedes Benz Stadium?

The attendance was 77k this year for Bama vs Georgia.

(12-08-2018 10:34 PM)Ole Blue Wrote:  

(12-08-2018 02:56 PM)_sturt_ Wrote:  I get it that the typical reply is going to be simple gut reactions, and almost inherently those gut reactions are going to go something like... "Nah. Another lame idea. Next."

And to be sure, being a whole new angle on the neutral site concept, there's really not much more than gut reaction to go on.

But then, given the alternative which is to keep doing what we're doing as-if that's working (not)... a deeper dig might think through what numbers might merit consideration...

For instance...

Wonder what the attendance was for the SEC Championship Game... what, maybe 30K?

What percentage of those fans do you figure might normally arrive in ATL earlier than Saturday... maybe 5% or so?

What percentage of those folks do you figure might really enjoy football so much they might make a weekend of it, and see two games for not much more than the price of one... maybe 5% or so again?

How far do you think the typical fan in town on Friday night might travel to see another FBS conference's championship if it were marketed right and s/he knew about it... what, a couple of miles at most from Mercedes Benz Stadium?

The attendance was 77k this year for Bama vs Georgia.

No way 5% of those fans are going to go to a CUSA championship game just because its being played in the same city as Sturt thinks. They sure as hell aren't going to walk 2 miles or pay the $30 to $40 to see it. Hell that's money that can be spent on drinks while on Bourbon St or at the casino.

sturt if you really believe half the **** you post on this topic....you're dumber than a rock. Most fans of our schools are limited in money and will not travel to New Orleans and then another 10 to 15 hour drive or money for a plane ticket to a bowl game...

all with in a 2 or 3 weeks from Christmas

As for the average fan living in the city that host the championship game...if you gave away 10,000 tickets, 8,500 would have something better to do with their time. If the 1500 had to walk the 2 miles or pay $15 to $20 for parking that takes care of another 1250 of the 1500. Stupid ideal any way you look at it and 14 freaking threads about the same subject is not changing how stupid it is

Put it in the Bahamas.

Alamodome j/k. How about UT?

Good job, sturt. Don't listen to the Negative Nancy Naysayers, they just live to cast aspersions on everything they didn't think of. It's a "plan." Of course, General Custer had a "plan" too and we see how that worked out for him.

But, the Naysayers have some valid points, in this case. If a neutral site CUSA championship game were part of a double-header, with say, the SEC championship game....well. Problem is the SEC CG is 99% certain to sell out on its own. If there was some premium price bumping a $75 ticket to say, $82, but said ticket was now good to see the CUSA CG at 2pm and the SEC CG at 7pm, SEC fans would still gobble up the available tickets, complaining mildly about the small increase in price, but still buying them anyway, and what...? Would maybe 500 CUSA fans pay $82 just to get access to both games? So, the 2pm CUSA game is on TV with 500+ fans in attendance.

If the two games are marketed separately, and tickets sold separately, but somehow tied together...come to Atlanta and watch two CGs that day...Well, what possible motivation would the SEC have to cooperate in such a marketing endeavor?

I'm not knocking the thought process, even though it might appear that way. I like the notion of thinking outside of the box! In theory, IF it worked, big IF!, I guarantee the other G5 leagues would immediately express envy and seek to lock up something similar with the ACC, and maybe the Big 12 and/or Big 10 (the MAC). Problem is the practical aspects of the idea.

Backing up....

the issue facing CUSA today is the lack of a history between most of its members, and thus, no rivalries. If the current alignment remains intact for some years (decades) then yeah, some rivalries will develop. Fans/supporters are more likely to flock to games, including the CUSA CG, to see their team play a rival. And! just as importantly, winning the CUSA championship has to mean something more than it does now.

Right now our conference champ goes to Boca Raton, nice destination, but we get a MAC opponent. UAB gets to play NIU (MAC champion, but not the best team in the MAC). No disrespect intended, but...."come on, man!" Middle Tennessee lost in the CG and gets a conference champ, Appy State, in New Orleans! Many CFB fans, who don't give a hoot about CUSA, say, MT got a better bowl game than the CUSA Champ got. Whether you agree with that or not, that's the perception.

Other CUSA fans have rightfully pointed out, we, ALL OF US, need to take care of business in our own house first. CUSA programs have to get better both on the field, and off of it. YES! no need to cast stones, I agree we at Louisiana Tech are GUILTY of this too. More so than others.

In summary....the whole CUSA CG, with the attendance issues, is a symptom of a bigger problem, not the problem itself.

The answer to this one is easy.

1. If CUSA had our Championship game in Nashville on a Saturday
would you go and watch the Ohio Valley Conference football
championship game (if they had one) in Nashville on Friday.

The answer is no..... The SEC folks perceive the G5 a level below just like we think of FCS.

Also in Atlanta you would have 75,000 fans bumping hotel prices up during the same weekend.

If you can't draw the home fans to their own stadium less will travel to another destination

Interesting idea. Worth consideration. Rotating to a cool locale might be a better way to place our championship game. We're spread out a bit with a lot of attractive locations/venues in our geographic footprint. Treat it like a bowl game if you want. Getting there should be an honor. I also like neutral site games to generate interest in existing series, and maybe cut travel costs? Piggy-backing a P5 conference's championship game to increase attendance/interest by leaching their fans? Not liking it. How about putting the MAC, Sunbelt, AAC, and C-USA championship games all, or some combination, in one location and discount it? I somehow like that a little better.

I was thinking a similar thought. Get with the SunBelt (MAC wouldn’t really work geographically) and have the CCG one after another like they were this year and include both games for 1.5X regular admission along with a food voucher for a four-ticket purchase.

The reason why this won’t happen is because of our TV arrangements. Belt is with ESPN and we are not. Won’t fly.

If you sold 16,000 tickets at $30 for a game played on a home field that's $480,000 with the cost of one teams travel expense out of it. So if this game is played in Atlanta or New Orleans or Dallas and now the conference has to pay for both teams travel expense....

how many more tickets must they sell just to break even from the 16,000 sold? My guess is around 7,000 more just to break even. Anyone know the cost of a charter plane round trip from BG or Huntington or Boca, or Miami or Norfolk? Probably between 80 to 100 people. Lets not for get hotel cost for 2 to 3 days and food and the cost to transport team gear for a 2nd team.

How about rental on the stadium and the people it takes. How many more tickets must be sold, to cover that cost, another 2000 to 3000?

So now you are up to needing to sell 25,000 tickets just to get back to the 16,000 sold on a home teams field. Sturt you would be fired if as you say... this was a business. If you cant get that many people on a home field you are not getting close to 25k at $30 a ticket for a road game for both teams

No. If your fans won’t fill up your own stadium, why would they suddenly go to Atlanta?

I have a novel idea. How about if you’re hosting the championship, your fans step up and buy tickets. Isn’t that what so many of you claimed would happen if you joined CUSA and that you’d done it in the Belt for years?

(12-10-2018 08:00 AM)EagNBran Wrote:  No. If your fans won’t fill up your own stadium, why would they suddenly go to Atlanta?

I have a novel idea. How about if you’re hosting the championship, your fans step up and buy tickets. Isn’t that what so many of you claimed would happen if you joined CUSA and that you’d done it in the Belt for years?

Agreed. And nobody, not a hardcore fan of a CUSA team in the game, is going to the game in a neutral city just for the fun of it.

Really Not Going To Happen. Gotta crawl before you walk, walk before you run, and run before you fly. CUSA 2.0 is still crawling. When we can draw 30,000+consistently in our home venues for a CCG; then we can start thinking about a neutral site.

I think the schools should bid on it like they do in the FCS playoff first round.