Been a long time coming, and there'd been a lot of smoke indicating it was coming, but Drexel officially joined the Big 5 today. We all know the Big 5 isn't what it used to be, and I have certain issues with the format, but I still think there's something symbolic about this finally happening. I look forward to all our future wins against Villanova.

https://drexeldragons.com/news/2023/4/11...ormat.aspx

The purists will tell us how horrible it is, but this seems like the right move at the right time. I'm excited about it.

Wonder if the pods will stay the same over time. And if we'll ever get Temple or Villanova at the DAC.

We knew this tournament was coming, and it was long overdue. But it didn't really hit me until now what it means for Drexel to be an official member of the Big 5 after sort of being the evil stepchild of the group for over 50 years as a Division 1 member. It will be interesting to see if this helps Drexel out from a recruiting standpoint. We all know that Coach Spiker will try his best to use it to his advantage.

i love it.

much better to come up with a way to revitalize philly basketball than beat it down. i'm sure somebody will come up with a reason to complain about the wells fargo center as a venue. i've gotten a lot better at ignoring those people.

purists are annoying. especially baseball purists. they're not any more of a fan than the rest of us just because they know how things used to be. the pitch clock has made baseball great again...but i'm sure those types of people are whining about it. all i know is my son who loves baseball was watching the 5th inning of the phillies game last night. they're usually only hitting that point around 9 when he's going to bed.

according to mel greenberg's blog...something is in the works for women's basketball too...but not until 2024-2025.

My only downside is that they kept the same name, which to many will always imply the original 5 and not us. Yes I know conferences have more than the originally numbers names, but this is a niche group as it is, so renaming would have seemingly benefited Drexel more. Overall it helps Philly teams play each other. It is no surprise that Villanova really killed it to begin with, that now that Wright is gone, something like this is of interest once again now that Nova isnt a top echelon program. But with the state of Philadelphia, these games are not going to help any fantasy of a future at large bid and as long as the others are in the A10 together, its hard to imagine this new format gaining a tremendous amount of traction around the city, since many of these teams have to play each other anyhow to the allure of those games is and has been gone for some time. But it is something and we are included, so thats something positive for Drexel

I love that they kept it the Big 5, meaning that they're revitalizing a dying tradition, while keeping the tradition alive and fresh. If they call it the City Six, then some might think that it's not the Big 5 anymore and it's something completely new. Sort of on the point you made though, I don't think it's any different than when Penn State was added as the 11th school in the Big Ten and they kept the Big Ten name and brand.

Looking at this down the road, I'm really hoping that the Sixers do get their wish and do build a basketball only arena in Center City. I'd love to see this tournament tripleheader continue for years and years down the road and eventually move to the new Sixers arena.

I've given my opinions of the Palestra before and won't rehash that. The New Wells Fargo Center is a really nice arena (even if it's not a basketball arena) and will generate a ton of revenue from the luxury boxes, overpriced food and overpriced parking that they won't be able to get from the Palestra. I'm looking forward to this as an annual event, and I hope that they include this as part of our season ticket package and keep all of the Drexel STH's sitting together.

No way it will be included. They wont make as much money as they desire if its included in any of the schools packages. Also isnt the idea to revitalize, so isnt keeping the same old against that where a new name being "new" would actually do what is desired and generate new interest?

Also, I dont expect these games to have very large crowds, even the finals. Hope I am wrong.

I bet the tripleheader does OK. Maybe not a sellout, but a good draw.

Mike Jensen has some nice details about Spiker calling Flint and Herrion, thanking them for making this possible. Also notes the games will not automatically be part of season-ticket packages.

Also, Dan Baker voiced the hype video.

They would actually make more money by including tickets into season ticket packages as a way to force STH's to buy tickets to this event. I'm not saying that Drexel will include a free ticket in their $200 season ticket. I'm saying that Drexel will probably increase the price of their ST from $200 to $300 and include the $100 Big 5 final ticket in the package. I would figure that they'll probably be charging about $99 for a lower level seat to the final, and that would be a tough sell unless they force the STH's for all schools to buy them.

I do think this final sells out. I mean, Villanova already draws large 5 digit crowds for their WFC home games, when it's just one game and they're not playing a local team. Six local teams playing, including Villanova for one admission should be a a big attendance draw.

One other note, I do wish our pod would have had Penn in it, so we would be guaranteed to paly them each year. But I am sure that was a cluster trying to get all of the teams to any type of agreement on which pod to be in. I am sure it started and ended with Temple and Nova on opposite sides with a lot of disagreement after that.

(04-11-2023 01:39 PM)JonP Wrote:  I bet the tripleheader does OK. Maybe not a sellout, but a good draw.

Mike Jensen has some nice details about Spiker calling Flint and Herrion, thanking them for making this possible. Also notes the games will not automatically be part of season-ticket packages.

Also, Dan Baker voiced the hype video.

Thanks for posting the Inquirer link, Jon. This does provide some great insight. I'm sad that it won't be part of season ticket packages. I really do hope though that blocks of tickets are sold by school and that there are 6 equal sections of fans in the lower bowl. I'd hate to see every fan get the same link to buy tickets so that fans of each school are scattered. They'll have time to work that out.

(04-11-2023 01:49 PM)J.B. Wrote:  I really do hope though that blocks of tickets are sold by school and that there are 6 equal sections of fans in the lower bowl. I'd hate to see every fan get the same link to buy tickets so that fans of each school are scattered. They'll have time to work that out.

I got an email from Wells Fargo Center that made it seem more like the latter. You can sign up to get presale access to tripleheader tickets. I suppose they could still try to designate areas for schools, but I suspect they won't.

(04-11-2023 01:57 PM)JonP Wrote:  

(04-11-2023 01:49 PM)J.B. Wrote:  I really do hope though that blocks of tickets are sold by school and that there are 6 equal sections of fans in the lower bowl. I'd hate to see every fan get the same link to buy tickets so that fans of each school are scattered. They'll have time to work that out.

I got an email from Wells Fargo Center that made it seem more like the latter. You can sign up to get presale access to tripleheader tickets. I suppose they could still try to designate areas for schools, but I suspect they won't.

It won't work unless they do block off seats. They've hosted numerous NCAA Tournaments there where they do block off sections each school. Now the NCAAT is run by the NCAA and not by the venue, but they should have enough experience with basketball tournaments to know what works and what doesn't. Just having a presale doesn't really mean anything though. They're going to have over 10,000 seats to sell even if they did block off 1,000+ seats per school, so they're still going to have to market the hell out of it.

Nice picture on the cover of today's Daily News, with the headline

Quote:THE SIXERS
It's still called the Big 5, but Drexel is now sixth official member of the Philly treasure

In thinking about this format, my only real issue is what happpens when all 3 teams in a pod go 1-1 (a real possibility). Some arbitrary tiebreaker will determine which team gets to play in the title game at Wells Fargo.

Lots of red flags for me with this.

Sounds like the pods won't change year-to-year, doubt you'll see members schedule anyone outside their pod so as not to potentially play them twice if they matchup in the triple header, so no chance of a definite resumption of the Battle of 33rd Street.

Spiker talked about there being profit-sharing imbalances during early negotiations that were worked through making us a full member in that regard. That and the hints that Penn home games won't be the only games played at the Palestra give me the feeling that Temple will not be playing at the DAC (or Gola for that measure, and Nova won't be trekking to Hagan).

I'm not seeing a benefit that's greater than us helping Nova with its OOC scheduling and helping SJU and Penn keep Nova on their schedules with the rest having a 1/3 chance.

The Big 5 was dying and I don't think this is going to save it. Happy that our guys will finally be recognized by the city though.

i was buying coffee at sheetz out here in mechanicsburg and ended up buying the daily news because we were on the front page. this is great from a marketing perspective. i was debating how much i would bother to come down next year and definitely wasn't thinking about any sort of season ticket/ticket plan. they'll probably attach the ability to buy tickets to this to any kind of ticket plan which changes things for me.

we had the scoreboard to push last year. i would imagine this will be front/center in any of our marketing this year. unfortunately we don't have much else to sell right now.

price point will be interesting. villanova at the wells fargo center already probably makes this a $50+ ticket. will they split up the 2nd/3rd place games in an afternoon session and the title game into an evening session? three consecutive games probably doesn't sound appetizing to most people.

i like that they kept big 5. ultimately success will depend on philly programs becoming worth watching again. it's been a while.

(04-12-2023 08:45 AM)DrachenFire Wrote:  Lots of red flags for me with this.

Sounds like the pods won't change year-to-year, doubt you'll see members schedule anyone outside their pod so as not to potentially play them twice if they matchup in the triple header, so no chance of a definite resumption of the Battle of 33rd Street.

Spiker talked about there being profit-sharing imbalances during early negotiations that were worked through making us a full member in that regard. That and the hints that Penn home games won't be the only games played at the Palestra give me the feeling that Temple will not be playing at the DAC (or Gola for that measure, and Nova won't be trekking to Hagan).

I'm not seeing a benefit that's greater than us helping Nova with its OOC scheduling and helping SJU and Penn keep Nova on their schedules with the rest having a 1/3 chance.

The Big 5 was dying and I don't think this is going to save it. Happy that our guys will finally be recognized by the city though.

My understanding -- and someone should tell me if I am wrong -- is that the pods are set *for now*. So, yeah, that's a good point about Penn-Drexel in the short term, but it's possible the pods get shuffled in later years.

And not to pencil in losses, but we realistically have a 50-50 shot of playing Penn most years at the tripleheader under these pods. I hope we sweep the pod and play Nova! But Nova and Temple are the favorites, which will put us against either SJU or Penn a lot of years.

I actually do see a schedule benefit for Drexel. Drexel typically plays 2-3 Big Five teams per season, but this guarantees 3 and only one as a true road game.

We'll have to see how the Palestra thing works out. I just want to see the Owls at the DAC at least once.

Getting any of those teams not named La Salle at home could be huge opportunities to engage students for the future and build those "rivalries" back. We have had some games against local and not sure it seemed to matter, but with some marketing this could be a huge boon for the students, assuming any of those games end up at the DAC. Even if they dont I would hope we are pushing hard to walk students over to the Palestra with police escorts and make a big deal out of it.

(04-12-2023 09:17 AM)hiroshimacarp Wrote:  price point will be interesting. villanova at the wells fargo center already probably makes this a $50+ ticket. will they split up the 2nd/3rd place games in an afternoon session and the title game into an evening session? three consecutive games probably doesn't sound appetizing to most people.

I kind of thought that the whole reason for having it at the WFC was so that they'd have enough seats to do a one admission tripleheader. You'd have to figure that most fans would only watch their own team's games anyway, but this give fans the option to watch 2 or 3 if they desire. From a logistics standpoint, one admission makes the most sense too. Let's say that Drexel LeBow decides to rent a luxury suite out, they can just rent the suite without having to wait until the last minute to decide if it's an afternoon rental or night rental.
Also, the WFC profit model is based heavily on selling their overpriced food and beverages. The longer you invite fans to stay in the arena, the more money they'll be spending in the arena.


It will be interesting to see what they do with season tickets. The the article that Jon posted stated that tickets won't be tied to season tickets, but I'm still not so sure about this. It would make sense for Drexel to include tickets to this in their package.