Re: Official Thread of the Leftover League
It's called the Alaska exemption and plenty of schools involved love the extra home games. Please do a little research before trying to make a point...
The extra home games, however, do the most good to schools with large barns that fill them up. For the most part, those are the Big 10 schools, the schools in the new "Superconference", and the schools in HE. The exemption is much less valuable to a school that averages 2,000 per game than it is to a school that packs in 4,000+ and has a TV deal for their home games. The schools that are most likely to significanly benefit, financially, from the exemption also appear to be leaving the Alaska schools out at the moment.
Here is average home attendence for men's ice hockey in 2010 for the top 20 schools:
1. Wisconsin.....................15,048
2. North Dakota..............11,654
3. Minnesota.....................10,108
4. N Neb.-Omaha................ 6,866
5. Michigan........................ 6,646
6. C Colorado Col................ 6,548
7. N New Hampshire.............5,760
8. St. Cloud St....................5,670
9. Denver........................5,527
10. Massachusetts...............5,313
11. Boston U.......................5,167
12. Boston College...............5,012
13. Michigan St...................4,966
14. Mass.-Lowell..................4,664
15. Minn. Duluth..................4,512
16. Maine...........................4,291
17. Cornell.......................4,264
18. Vermont........................3,944
19. Minn. St. Mankato...........3,880
20. Alas. Anchorage..............3,310
If Wisconsin, North Dakota, or Minnesota get two extra home games, they rake in serious money. Assuming an average ticket price of about $25 (which UND easily charges, higher depending on the opponent), 10,000+ per game means a $500,000+ income for the weekend, just based on ticket sales. Add on concessions, parking, merchandise sales, etc, and its very lucritive to have those two extra games.
Now, here are the 2010 attendance numbers for the "left behind" schools:
8. St. Cloud St....................5,670
19. Minn. St. Mankato...........3,880
20. Alas. Anchorage..............3,310
24. Alas. Fairbanks................3,069
25. N Northern Mich..............2,953
35. Lake Superior St..............2,314
36. Bemidji St.......................2,303
37. Bowling Green..................2,247
38. Michigan Tech.................2,164
42. Ferris St.........................1,618
For St Cloud, Mankato, and Northern Michigan, those extra games are fairly lucritive. They could clear $100,000 for the weekend in ticket sales if they charge $20+ for tickets. I know some schools charge more and some charge less, and I don't know what these schools charge. Any school averaging less than 2,500 ticket sales per game will bring in less than $100,000 in ticket revenues for the weekend if they average $20 or less per ticket sold. The concessions, merchandise sales, and parking (if they charge it) income for these smaller attendence schools will also be proportionally lower.
A Wisconsin, North Dakota, or Minnesota might bring in well in excess of $600,000 with an extra home weekend. But some of these smaller attendance schools might not break the $100,000 mark. The Alaskans seem to be hanging their hat on the exemption, but that exemption is much more valuable to the big money schools than they are to the cost-containment schools. And let me be clear that I don't want to see the Alaska schools and their hockey programs disappear. I wish UND and UAA were still both going to be in the WCHA in 2013 and beyond. But I just don't see the exemption as being as big of a bargaining chip in a cost-containment league as many of the Alaskans think it is.
