How we ended up at the Quick Lane Bowl

[GT98]

The fact that a bowl requires the teams to buy a block of tickets is proof that the model is not successful.

Remove the E$PN tv money and we are back to less than 10 bowls within one year - as God intended. Make it to where going to a bowl is a special event and a few non-playoff bowls in attractive locations will have successful ticket sales.

Boom. Nailed it.

The forced ticket purchases are garbage. Without them, you're right that a number of the bowls would fold. Even more hilarious is that the bowl committees are somehow "non-profits." For those of you (like me) that want an expanded playoffs and to get rid of the endless bowl games, one of the biggest obstacles to that is the bowl committees.

 

[jacket67]

öööö Belk. öööö all the bowls. IMO, the ticket buying thing is a red herring, it is TV eyeballs and politics that are in play.

If the bowl assholes want to sell tickets, they need to make their ööööing bowl attractive to ticket buyers - affiliated and unaffiliated to the schools. That is how a market works.

Hosting an exhibition football game in sub-prime locations far from the participating team's fanbases during ööööty time slots is not a recipe for success. Locals don't care and fans don't want to travel. Factor in that there are conservatively 10x the number of seats available to be sold versus the number of affiliated fans to buy them, the market depresses the price of the tickets well below the face value.

The fact that a bowl requires the teams to buy a block of tickets is proof that the model is not successful.

Remove the E$PN tv money and we are back to less than 10 bowls within one year - as God intended. Make it to where going to a bowl is a special event and a few non-playoff bowls in attractive locations will have successful ticket sales. Sure "consecutive bowl records" become a thing of the past, but were we, or any fanbase, really ever happy about going to Shreveport?

I am happy to see the Jackets play again this year, especially in light of the fact that this is CPJ's last game with us. But öööö all the bowl people - they are just another group of well connected rich ööööers making a buck on the backs of student athletes.

These are all good observations, but TV money is not going away anytime soon. Most of the bowls could be played in an empty stadium in the middle of nowhere, and there would still be enough people watching on TV to sell ads and keep the games going. Getting some fans to buy tickets just adds to the revenue pool and makes teams with rabid fanbases more desirable. The problem of empty stadiums is just an extension of declining attendance in general. TV has a lot to offer that stadiums can't.

 

[05GTCorndog]

GT had plenty of fans at the Orange Bowl, but those tickets were purchased through stubhub/etc as opposed to through the school. It's a hard sell (for cheap fans to being w/) to pay more for tickets through the school w/crappy seats to boot.

Regardless, UVA isn't taking more fans to the Belk than GT would have.

I get it if you are struggling to get by and living paycheck to paycheck. In that case, save the money. However, if you are 80k-ing like most GT grads, then man-up and buy from GT. The school is paying for them anyways. Maybe if we collectively did that, we wouldn't be in Detroit the day after Christmas.

"But muh pennies"

 

[GT98]

I get it if you are struggling to get by and living paycheck to paycheck. In that case, save the money. However, if you are 80k-ing like most GT grads, then man-up and buy from GT. The school is paying for them anyways. Maybe if we collectively did that, we wouldn't be in Detroit the day after Christmas.

"But muh pennies"

Sure--I buy my tickets through the GTAA for that reason, even though I am a little miffed that my seats as a 20+ year season ticket holder/contributor aren't as good as the guy getting them cheaper on stubhub. I was pointing out that I understand why people do it (especially cheap "GT fans" which we seem to have an abundance of).

 

[CiraldoForever]

Predicted ticket sales are the preferred excuse, but when that doesn't make any sense, the bowls have no problem coming up with something else to justify their unjustifiable choices. For example:

-Miami has no prospect of selling tickets for its home games or bowl game, but an exception is made for them, because "Miami is a national brand." Tech is a much bigger national brand than Miami, beat them on the field, and would attract more TV viewers than the thugs.

-Virginia has no prospect of selling tickets for its home games or bowl game, but an exception is made for them, because "Virginia hadn't been to a bowl for five years, until last year." What a ridiculously lame thing to hide your bias behind.

-Duke has no prospect of selling tickets for its home games or bowl game, but an exception is made for them, because "Duke really wants to come to our bowl." Possibly the dumbest lie of all. If wanting to go to a bowl was the criteria, FSU would be invited to the Orange Bowl, even though they had a losing record.

The only thing I don't understand about this bowl season is why the worthless Belch Bowl in Charlotte and Swoffy didn't get NCAA permission to invite UNC, for a "Welcome Back Mack" festival.

May all these bowls, and every ACC team besides Tech, including Clemson, get lose money, lose on the scoreboard, and go to hell.

 

[Allen Koholic]

Belk Bowl History: 10 out of the 18 games invole either UNC, UVA or NC State.

It's a second rate bowl for second rate teams.

I didn't realize that the original name for the Belk Bowl before the carousal of second-rate corporate sponsors was the "Queen City" Bowl. There's a joke to be made there.

 

[jacket67]

It would be nice if the article actually researched how many tickets were bought by the various ACC fanbases for the different bowls. The only actual numbers offered compares Mississippi State to GT for the Orange Bowl. I suspect all these bowls would be happy to pick two SEC schools to play and bring their unwashed masses to the stadium. But let's find out how many ACC schools turn out big numbers to buy tickets.

 

[JRJacket]

These are all good observations, but TV money is not going away anytime soon. Most of the bowls could be played in an empty stadium in the middle of nowhere, and there would still be enough people watching on TV to sell ads and keep the games going. Getting some fans to buy tickets just adds to the revenue pool and makes teams with rabid fanbases more desirable. The problem of empty stadiums is just an extension of declining attendance in general. TV has a lot to offer that stadiums can't.

Which makes their comment about "it's all about ticket sales" all the more baffling. That argument is total bull****.

 

[77GTFan]

The attendance at this game will be good. The Belk folks will feel vindicated. UVA will not be the reason, although they will sell more tickets than we will sell to go to Detroit the day after Christmas. The Charlotte folks will congratulate themselves. It is an hour or two drive for SouthCarolina fans. This will be the reason for a good crowd. GT versus the Gamecocks would have sold more tickets. With CPJ coaching his last game at Tech TV ratings and media interest would have been higher. So, UVA makes its third trip to Charlotte and we have never been invited.

 

[05GTCorndog]

Tech is a much bigger national brand than Miami"

Congrats on losing all credibility 2 lines into a post.

That is impressive.

 

[05GTCorndog]

Belk Bowl History: 10 out of the 18 games invole either UNC, UVA or NC State.

It's a second rate bowl for second rate teams.

I didn't realize that the original name for the Belk Bowl before the carousal of second-rate corporate sponsors was the "Queen City" Bowl. There's a joke to be made there.

Of course @Allen Koholic is super butthurt about not being invited to the Queen Bowl.

 

[jacket67]

Does anyone under 40 think that da U has a brand?

 

[Allen Koholic]

Of course @Allen Koholic is super butthurt about not being invited to the Queen Bowl.

My reaction when I saw the ACC bowl schedule:

 

[coit]

2. This crap about UVA taking more fans to the Belk Bowl than GT in CPJ's last game is horse manure. It's just an excuse to get some free expensive bottles of wine from the UVA elite who they have a special relationship with.

This is the game, this is the way things get done. We can complain about it, or we can play the game, and play it better than 2nd rate athletic programs like UVA.

Relationships are built, they don’t exist from birth.

CPJ didn’t earn us any brownie points with his annual berating of the officials and such. Even if he was right, we gotta smooth things out and schmooz our way into the ACCs good graces. There’s a saying about brining more flys with honey or something.