2013 BE Media Day Thread

[Bill Marsh]

Taking in all of the pageantry associated with Media Day got me to thinking about the only other time that the Big East teams all come together under one roof - the Big East Tournament.

Last year the tournament averaged 20,000 attendance per session. Contrast that with the Atlantic Ten tournament , which averaged 6,000 per session across the river at the Barclay Center. That's the conference from which 2 of the 3 new members will be coming. Creighton is used to bigger numbers than that at its conference tournament, which averaged 14,000 last year.

Will the new Big East be able to sell out the Garden as the old version did? Will the tournament be a happening?

If they don't sell out, expansion will be coming sooner rather than later in order to sell more tickets. That thought makes me realize why Dayton is still in the running for an expansion spot. Not only was their 12,400 home attendance 26th in the country last year, but they are located farther east than any of the other Midwest members of the conference. Contrast them with St Louis, which sits 362 miles farther west and averaged 7,673 in attendance last year. Which of those 2 is more likely to deliver fans at tournament time? VCU averaged 7693 in attendance last year, only a tick higher than St Louis, but they are also only a 333 mile drive up I-95 from Richmond and an easy commute to the tournament by Amtrak or air line. Richmond, the other frequently mentioned expansion candidate has the same location advantage as VCU but attendance last year (5960) that was under 6000 and barely made the top 100 in the country (95th).

The economics of the new conference normally focus on TV ratings and TV market, but ticket sales at the tournament are a big deal and relate heavily to the conference's ability to sell its tournament to the TV networks. It will be interesting to see how these economics effect expansion decisions when and if that time comes.

From MSG's perspective every game is already sold out because all the tickets are sold to the league/schools. The schools need to sell their allotments, but that should not be a problem. Schools are always looking for extra tickets if one team cannot sell their allotment a school like Georgetown will buy their extras. MSG will get their money either way. Plus there's a huge market for the BET for casual fans in NYC and surrounding areas. I have no concerns about the tournament selling out.

Financially, what you say makes sense. But an empty house doesn't play well to a TV audience.

Furthermore, even if the Garden makes money in that situation you described, the schools are losing money. That's not the way it's supposed to be; it's supposed to generate a handsome profit

[TheHall]

From MSG's perspective every game is already sold out because all the tickets are sold to the league/schools. The schools need to sell their allotments, but that should not be a problem. Schools are always looking for extra tickets if one team cannot sell their allotment a school like Georgetown will buy their extras. MSG will get their money either way. Plus there's a huge market for the BET for casual fans in NYC and surrounding areas. I have no concerns about the tournament selling out.

Financially, what you say makes sense. But an empty house doesn't play well to a TV audience.

Furthermore, even if the Garden makes money in that situation you described, the schools are losing money. That's not the way it's supposed to be; it's supposed to generate a handsome profit

There is no such thing as "supposed to be" for a new league. Everything is new and it's an uphill climb towards success, just like in 1979. The schools in this league have shown they understand the challenges ahead and have hired a great commish to make it happen..quit hatin.

[DumpsterFireA10]

That was a really easy cherry pick on the Tournament attendance.

Umm, elite league versus a trash-can fire? The Big East is better than comparing anything to that disaster area.

[Dave]

Financially, what you say makes sense. But an empty house doesn't play well to a TV audience.

Furthermore, even if the Garden makes money in that situation you described, the schools are losing money. That's not the way it's supposed to be; it's supposed to generate a handsome profit

I'm going with Bill on this one. MSG attendance and the NYC market are big reasons to..... add UConn.

11 teams. 20 games.

[Bill Marsh]

That was a really easy cherry pick on the Tournament attendance.

Umm, elite league versus a trash-can fire? The Big East is better than comparing anything to that disaster area.

Cherry pick? I talked about the attendance of the old Big East and the 2 conferences our new members are coming from. What's cherry picked about that?

[DumpsterFireA10]

You matched up the Big East with the worst conference in America. Easy to make any point that way.

[TheHall]

Financially, what you say makes sense. But an empty house doesn't play well to a TV audience.

Furthermore, even if the Garden makes money in that situation you described, the schools are losing money. That's not the way it's supposed to be; it's supposed to generate a handsome profit

I'm going with Bill on this one. MSG attendance and the NYC market are big reasons to..... add UConn.

11 teams. 20 games.

#19 in the coaches poll.

[DumpsterFireA10]

This touches on another reason I hate the A-10. They want to be the top midmajor league. That's like being the nicest guy in prison.

[hoyahooligan]

That was a really easy cherry pick on the Tournament attendance.

Umm, elite league versus a trash-can fire? The Big East is better than comparing anything to that disaster area.

Cherry pick? I talked about the attendance of the old Big East and the 2 conferences our new members are coming from. What's cherry picked about that?

I do agree in the sense that I think you created a false dichotomy. Just because Xavier fans possibly didn't commute to NYC to see Xavier take on Fordham doesn't mean they won't travel to see Xavier take on St. John's. It also ignores how much of the attendance was made up of butler and Xavier fans, perhaps they made up the majority of attendance. All schools need to do is sell 2000 tickets each for MSG to sell out.

I also disagree that schools will lose money with the method I described. Sure possibly some of the schools who have to sell off their allotments to other schools lose money, but they were losing money then during the old big east as well. Georgetown always bought up extra tickets from schools like USF and there was always more demand that could not be met. I really don't think attendance will be an issue especially as teams who have been down become more competitive. St. John's and Providence's attendance should improve this year. Seton Hall's should improve starting next year.

It's also the assumption that because Syracuse and Uconn bought the most tickets out of all the schools that there aren't fans who wouldn't have bought those tickets if those fans hadn't. There's always people who wanted to go, but someone bought the tickets first or were willing to pay more for them.

The BE revised their ticketing procedure from last year. In previous years you paid one price and got seated based on your donation level, now they're offering different ticket prices for 100 level vs. 200 level vs. 400 level tickets. Before there was no difference in price between 100 and 200 level tickets. I think the new ticketing procedure will definitely encourage more people to attend that might have been priced out before or were unwilling to risk overpaying for bad seats. Now it's possible they're doing this because they're worried about attendance, but perhaps they're just being overly cautious in this first year because they don't know what attendance will be like so want to make sure it's good the first year and will adjust the ticket pricing as the BE establishes how attendance will play out by monitoring how ticket sales go this year.

[Dave]

All schools need to do is sell 2000 tickets each for MSG to sell out.

As far as fannies in the seats, that's not really the way it works.

Most fans don't sit through the tournament regardless of what happens to their team. So for an early round that has 2 double headers, or 4 teams per session, that's 5,000 per school to fill it up. For an early round, on a given day, if your team is playing in the first double header session, you get tickets to only that session.

As the tourney progresses and teams are eliminated, many of the fans from teams eliminated don't stick around just for the joy of the game and the celebration of the conference. That's why, depending on who wins, the earlier rounds are sometimes a more difficult ticket. You can often buy tix from fans of the losing teams as they exit the garden.

So you need your core 5,000 fans early in the tournament, on the week days, and you need additional fans to flood in if you advance and get to the weekend. Cuse and UConn advancing are going to bring their bigger fan bases if their teams make it to the weekend. Will Xavier or Butler or Creighton? Would St Louis?

Which brings up another point... St Johns vs GTown or Nova in the final would be very good for the conference in this first year. Butler vs. Xavier or DePaul, not so much.

UConn would be a great add to the conference for MSG and NYC market. Add UConn.

11 teams. 20 games.