
Originally Posted by
GatorDawg
This has nothing to do with kickbacks and cruises. Ticket guarantees are a direct result of conferences asking for larger payouts. As we all know the larger the payout, the higher selection a bowl has for their game. So there clearly is a driving factor in all of this.
As well with ticket guarantees, schools also get the assurance that bowl games will not directly market ticket sales in the schools home market. I am open to any suggestions you may have on how to sell tickets to a football game without being able to target the teams fans to buy tickets.
I cannot detect your tone so you are either being sarcastic or you really do not understand that bowl games are more than the games themselves. I will assume you are being sarcastic but still answer your logic. Bowl games are much more than a game. There is typically a week long buildup to each game with special opportunities available for the players and coaches to be a part of. In fact the first bowl game (Rose Bowl for the few that didn't know) actually started as an additional event as part of the Rose Parade.
But apart from that much more work goes into a bowl game than a regular home game. I know you know this unless you honestly thing the hosting the Super Bowl is no different than a regular season game for NFL teams. Regular season games are about your fans. Bowl games are about providing top notch hospitality to all. When you go to a bowl game, you should be treated differently than when you attend a typically game. You are not as much as customer/fan as a guest. From a fan's perspective you might never notice that. Simply because it is really hard to treat 50-80K people as a valued guest. But I can guarantee you that each school's athletic department feels that way. I have heard countless stories from Athletic staff members regarding how the Poinsettie Bowl rolled out the red carpet for us a couple of years ago. That should be the typical treatment. Some bowls are much better than others. The little secret most fans do not know is that those bowls are not always the highest paying bowls. Which brings up another idea that the destination bowl for many schools may not actually be the bowl fans have in mind as they go down the selection order for their confernce. But that is another train of thought.
By the way while schools do put on 5-8 individual games a year, they also do so with a much larger staff than a bowl game. In fact I would be willing to bet that ULM has more athletic department employees than most bowl games out there. Hopefully next year you go to a bowl game you will have a good understanding of how much individual work goes into pulling that "one game" off and actually see the nuances of what makes this game different than anything else all year.