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SBJ College: All Eyes On Football Season


Michael Smith is busy taking pics for his Instagram feed from Ocean Isle this week, so Austin Karp filling in again. 

I started an SBJ fantasy football league this season, and, I have to say, there is NO chance I’m losing to Michael Smith or John Ourand. None.

Here’s what is cooking on campus:

 

TRENDS IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL TICKETING, ATTENDANCE

AT&T Stadium has hosted a Week 1 neutral site game every year since the venue opened in 2009

  • Ticketing and attendance are issues every college football season. With that in mind, I chatted with Patrick Ryan, co-founder of ticket distribution firm Eventellect, to see what he’s watching ahead of the 2019 season.

  • Week 1 neutral site games used to be exclusive, but there has been a surge in the number of those games to start the season in recent years, which has affected attendance. Could schools soon pull back from those trips in order to give fans better at-home matchups? Ryan: “When the Cowboys started that AdvoCare Classic, that was novel. Now Houston has one. Orlando has one. Atlanta. The ‘non-traditional’ neutral site games have become too plentiful. ... Outside of a few exceptions, it doesn’t seem like fans are making those neutral-site games a spot where they want to spend their final weekend of the summer.”

  • Declining attendance for college football has been an issue for a few years, and it’s getting harder to sell “bad seats.” Top programs got into a seating capacity arms race, and Ryan feels those programs may look to “unwind” what they did. “Having a 100,000-person stadium seemed to be a goal that a good number of schools were pursuing. That’s backfired for a handful of these schools,” Ryan said. “Particularly in those non-premium areas, many seats are just not attractive. ... I’m shocked that more schools haven’t started ripping out their bleachers and adding more physical seats. That’s one way to improve the fan experience. ... We’re seeing more beer and liquor sales and other fan-friendly initiatives, but at the end of the day, that bleacher seat is just not up to standard for what people want.”

  • One interesting area that Ryan brought up was a revision to the U.S. Tax Code a couple of years back that repealed a write-off for seat donations. While some schools saw initial attrition, Ryan feels the tax revision hasn’t had an impact on donations. “It could be that people feel that if they’re going to support their university, they’re doing regardless of tax implications. Quite frankly, I’m a little surprised. It doesn’t seem like the colleges have had to pivot too much from their strategies.”

 

 

ESPN STAFFERS PREP FOR 2019 SEASON

  • ESPN today had a big contingent for the start of its college football meetings. It's the only time all season the group of 300+ will be together (including most of the on-air staff). The day-and-a-half seminar is highlighted by presentations from around the company, and the staff sets goals for the season.

  • The seminar started with new Thursday night analyst Pat McAfee offering his unique brand of humor. Summing up what the seminar means to staff, ESPN VP/Production Lee Fitting said, "College football is back. Life is good."

 

POWER PLAYERS IN THE COLLEGE SPACE

  • SBJ's Michael Smith this week took the lead on our latest Power Players feature, putting the spotlight on entrepreneurs, media execs and athletic department officials shaping the business of college sports. These 63 individuals, representing 50 groups, have distinguished themselves as some of the best thinkers, problem solvers and dealmakers in the space.
"POWER PLAYERS" IN COLLEGE SPACE
ORGANIZATION/SCHOOL
EXEC
ORGANIZATION/SCHOOL
EXEC
Bevilacqua Helfant Ventures
Chris Bevilacqua
Intersport
Drew Russell
Big Ten Network
Francois McGillicuddy
JMI Sports
Paul Archey
Buffalo Wild Wings
Seth Freeman
Korn Ferry
Jed Hughes
CAA
Nick Khan
Learfield IMG College
Andy Rawlings
Campbell Univ.
Omar Banks
Leona Marketing Group
Dan Gale Jr.
Capital One
Byron Daub
Melt
Vince Thompson
CBS Sports
Devron Edwards
Mercedes-Benz USA
Mark Aikman
Clemson
Graham Neff
Michigan
Rob Rademacher
Coca-Cola USA
John Mount
NCAA
JoAn Scott
College Football Playoff
Andrea Williams
Northwestern
Travis Goff
College Sports Solutions
Jeff Schemmel
Oak View Group
Dan Shell
Collegiate Licensing Co.
Cory Moss
Octagon
Bo Heiner
Collegiate Sports Associates
Todd Turner
Ohio State
Diana Sabau
Collegiate Sports
Management Group
Michael Schreck
Paciolan
Kim Damron
Disney
Sean Hanrahan
Parker Executive Search
Daniel Parker
Duke
Nina King
Purdue
Jason Butikofer
Dyehard Fan Supply
Rex Hough
SEC
Charlie Hussey
Endeavor
Karen Brodkin
Sidearm Sports
Jeff Rubin
ESPN
Rosalyn Durant
Stanford
Heather Owen
ESPN
Nick Dawson
State Farm
John Althoff
ESPN Events
Clint Overby
StubHub
Jill Krimmel
Evolution Media Capital
Alan Gold
Tailgate Guys
Parker Duffey
Facebook
Nick Marquez
Texas
Arthur Johnson
Fanatics College
Derek Eiler
Ticketmaster
Tim Martin
Fanatics College
Chris Prindiville
Turner Sports
Katy Mollica
Florida
Laird Veatch
Turnkey Sports
& Entertainment
Len Perna
Fox Sports
Mike Mulvihill
Twitter
David Herman
Fox Sports
Derek Crocker
Utah
Scott Kull
GMR Marketing
Todd Fischer
Van Wagner
Sports & Entertainment
Mike Palisi
Gridiron
Dave Brown
Vanderbilt
Candice Lee
Home Team Sports/
Fox College Properties
Kyle Sherman
Wasserman
Dean Jordan
IMG Media
Hillary Mandel
 
 
Download the
Power Players



SPEED READS 

  • Kentucky led men’s college hoops in home attendance the past four seasons, but the average at Rupp Arena has fallen the past two seasons. If a piece by Jerry Tipton of the Lexington Herald-Leader is any indication, attendance won't improve next season either. Tipton notes fans -- many of whom pay a steep price for tickets -- are upset with a lackluster roster of non-conference opponents coming to Lexington for 2019-2020. UK has matchups against big schools like Michigan State, Utah and Ohio State, but they are at neutral sites. Those neutral site games are good for the brand, but if local pressure keeps up, expect to see those bigger games return to Rupp in the future.

  • Nobody seems to like a plan that would move some Pac-12 football kickoffs to 9:00am local time. On ESPN's "College Football Live" podcast, Tom Luginbill said, "They need to get their league in front of the East Coast media. I get that. They need that. But you’re talking about trading national exposure for the well-being of your fan base, not to mention what you’re asking the teams to do.” David Pollack added: “It’s not good for the players. It might be a worse product you’re actually putting on the field. Let’s be honest, Larry Scott is struggling and he’s looking for answers. He’s made a lot of mistakes.” The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel was more understanding of what Scott is trying to achieve. Appearing on Paul Finebaum’s radio program, Mandel said, “Fox is going to start showing bigger games in that noon ET window, and for the most part, there’s not a lot of competition. When [the Pac-12] plays a big game at 3:30 ET and goes up against the SEC on CBS, they get crushed.”

  • No matter how successful you end up in life, leave it to your old college teammates to keep you humble -- even if you’re Tiger Woods. Golf Channel's Notah Begay III joined the latest Golf.com podcast to give an honest critique of the intramural hoops team that he and Woods played on together at Stanford. Begay said of Woods: “Let me let the cat out of the bag. He wasn’t in the starting five. I’m not going to disparage his athletic ability. ... But I’ll just leave it at that.”

  

  

Enjoying this newsletter? We've got more! Check out SBJ Media with John Ourand on Mondays and Wednesdays for insights into all the latest news around the world of sports media.

Something on the College beat catch your eye? Tell us about it. Reach out to either me (msmith@sportsbusinessjournal.com) or Austin Karp (akarp@sportsbusinessdaily.com) and we'll share the best of it. Also contributing to this newsletter is Thomas Leary (tleary@sportsbusinessdaily.com).