The Ball talks Big East basketball

[NJRedman]

No way in HELL do we bring in BYU! They are the same as UConn or Cincy right now. They have the wandering eyes and will ditch us in a second for a F5 conference. No way are we dealing with that shit again. That would be a big black eye for the conference to get raided again. NO FB SCHOOLS ALLOWED!!!!

I would be okay with Gonzaga if we can make it work and expand past 12, but no BYU. Never ever ever.

[TheBall]

The atmosphere at madison square garden today as then hyas battled the Hoosiers is why I am not worried.

That was awesome. And I welcome the away teams that want to come to our home base and play. The big ten and acc teams that want to visit need teams to play against, and I am happy to oblige. Nova v illinois, nova v Michigan, providence v miami, hoyas v Hoosiers, St. John's versus whoever. Lots of fun.

[TheBall]

Don't know about BYU but there are quotes from the Gonzaga AD saying they want in the Big East and that logistically, it would work for them. The east coast Big East presidents are the ones holding it up. I think in the long run, we do need to get to 14 teams to compete with the F5 but if their names aren't UCONN, Gonzaga or BYU, we can wait....

I have never seen those quotes. Maybe in some tj corbs corbs bleacher report junket, but I can't recall ever seeing that said.

And besides uconn, gonzaga or BYU, there really are not other viable candidates. Notre dame, syracuse and Boston college are gone and not coming back. We aren't raiding another major conference for any teams. There is nothing in the Atlantic ten or mwc or MVC that really fits. I would hope that all ten o the schools presidents are holding up dipping into the a10 for schools at this point (not just the east coast schools holding it up)

So just be patient. Focus on the ten teams we have. If the opportunity to grow presents itself, then I am sure it will happen. No need to rush.

[Jet915]

And Bill marsh, regarding BYU/zags:
If those two schools were to call Val and say: "hey Val, you got a great thing going, we want in, we think we can make it work, let's do this..."

Then I think we should absolutely consider them and try to make it happen.

I am not sure I think that call has been made. It is actually a much bigger burden on those two than it is in the current ten schools, and I am not sure they are committed to, or ready, for it to happen. Maybe they will decide it makes sense at some point, but as of today I don't know if that opportunity has even presented itself to the conference.

Don't know about BYU but there are quotes from the Gonzaga AD saying they want in the Big East and that logistically, it would work for them. The east coast Big East presidents are the ones holding it up. I think in the long run, we do need to get to 14 teams to compete with the F5 but if their names aren't UCONN, Gonzaga or BYU, we can wait....

Source?

I posted the link to the article several months ago, I think it was in one of the many expansion threads...

[hoyahooligan]

There's absolutely no need to expand just to sell out the garden. If the Garden ever poses an ultimatum to sell out all sessions then the BE would just make the 10 teams buy up allotments to sell out the Garden. Simple as that. Some schools would take a hit as a result, but it would solve the problem really easily. The garden seats just shy of 20,000. Easy to have each team sell 2,000 tickets each (not easy in the sense that all the schools will be able to sell that many, but the hit would be minimal and easily out weighed by the addition revenue we now get from fox plus the ability to retain the garden.) It's only about 760 more tickets than they were required to sell before the split.

[BEhomer]

i think too much is made of ticket sales. there are hundreds of other events and concerts that are held at MSG in any given year. not selling out the venue for few days in March i don't think will matter much to them in the big picture.

NY is a city that has two of every prosports. there simply is no room for college sports. however, the only true college team they care about is st. johns. MSG knows this and is the reason why they have st johns hosting their home games at MSG. if they really cared about selling out tickets st johns would've been kicked out long time ago.

[NJRedman]

i think too much is made of ticket sales. there are hundreds of other events and concerts that are held at MSG in any given year. not selling out the venue for few days in March i don't think will matter much to them in the big picture.

NY is a city that has two of every prosports. there simply is no room for college sports. however, the only true college team they care about is st. johns. MSG knows this and is the reason why they have st johns hosting their home games at MSG. if they really cared about selling out tickets st johns would've been kicked out long time ago.

Um we pay rent to use MSG. As of a few years ago when Lavin took over we were paying 150K a game to play at MSG. With that we also get full use of the Knicks home locker room that is decked out in SJU decor like a school rug and lots of red. Thats why only our conference games with the exception of DePaul and Seton Hall (to keep their fans out) and our big OOC games like Duke and Cuse are played at MSG.

[TheBall]

What type of attendance do you think we will see at msg for jan and feb games featuring a ranked st johns? (Duke will sell out of course, but the others)

The games with my guesses

Nova on 1/6 (tues, 11k)
Marquette on 1/21 (wed 9k)
Duke on 1/25 (sun, sold out)
Providence on 1/31 (sat, 12k)
Creighton in 2/7 (sat, 12k)
Xavier on 2/23 (mon, 10k)
Gtown on 2/28 (sat, 15k)

Those are my expectations. They should at least get those numbers. I would like to see them go above this, but those numbers work for me.

Attendance so far:
Minnesota: 5k
Gonzaga: 5k
Fordham: 8k

These numbers so far are actually pretty poor, but with the team being ranked I am expecting more casual fans to stop in and maybe some more involvement from the St. John's community. At least I am hoping for it.

I also see the johnnies are playing at the Barclays tomorrow. I hope their fans get on board this season and starting taking the train into the games.

[walijones]

First a word about Ball. His musings and rants on the Nova pay board and elsewhere are the stuff of legend. I swear there are guys on the Rutgers board who would shoot him on site if they had the chance. Personally, I've never been bothered, even by his most outlandish posts, since they are made with the express goal of pissing off 90% of whatever team board he's visiting (including Nova's), which delights him no end. So just accept the inevitable incendiary attacks on your school as Balls way of having fun and don't take it personally. He is very capable of offering constructive suggestions when the mood strikes him.

About the importance of selling out the Garden (or at least coming close to it)......the suggestion that each school should be forced to buy 2000 tickets, thus insuring a sellout, is not a bad one on its face, but MSG wants more than just a sellout, they want juice in the building. Because that juice transmits over the airwaves and into peoples homes, which drives ratings.

As someone who as never missed a Big East tournament at the Garden, there has always been plenty of juice in the building during the quarter, semi and final games. Last year's tournament had that juice, thanks in large part to all those Creightonites that made the trip from Omaha, and to the Providence fans that flooded into town for the final.

But as Bill Marsh noted, the Big 10 is coming. And I'm not convinced that they are only looking at this as an occasional fling.....I think they'd like to make it a permanent arrangement. It will be up to the fans of each Big East school to make a good showing, and also to stick around for entire tourney. even if your team gets sent packing.

[BEhomer]

as long as big east continues to have good product and stay relevant compared to f5, I wouldn't worry about losing MSG to any other conferences. Ticket sales is not the only thing MSG considers. They care more about the teams that make up the conference. that's why the contract has an out regarding conference membership but nothing about attendance/ticket sales.