Regionals attendance

[blackbear80]

Re: Regionals attendance

Arguing with myself here, but from a crowd behavior standpoint, the NCAA should really look at college athletic events at which beer is sold. I've been to the Hockey East playoffs, the Beanpot, and some college venues at which beer is sold, and I've never witnessed what seemed to be alcohol-related bad behavior.

Agreed. The lines and prices are sufficient to curb excessive drinking. The only alcohol-related bad behavior I've seen at hockey events has been where no alcohol was sold. Funny how when there is no alcohol sold the plan is to drink enough ahead of time to last the event

 

[WeAreNDHockey]

Re: Regionals attendance

I don't know how much you can infer from Midwest numbers the last 2 years since different cities.

Ticket Revenues*


Midwest Regional
2014 Cincinnati (5500 @ $40 package = $220,000)
2013 Toldeo (2700 @ $75 package = $202,500)

For argument's sake lets say the numbers given by both venues are fairly close to the truth and those were actual turnstile counts. That means nearly 3000 more people to pay for parking, buy concessions, visit the local pubs and eateries. So the ticket revenue might be similar but the secondary and ancillary revenue would be much much greater. FWIW, Toledo's numbers were nowhere near the truth, but Cincinnati's seem to be an honest reflection of how many people actually walked through the doors.

We've been round and round this for years now, but it seems obvious that there are things the NCAA and the potential hosts CAN do to make the regional system work better. Will they? I have my doubts.

 

[CLS]

Re: Regionals attendance

I don't know how much you can infer from Midwest numbers the last 2 years since different cities.
...
Midwest Regional
2014 Cincinnati (5500 @ $40 package = $220,000)
2013 Toldeo (2700 @ $75 package = $202,500)

...

Interesting, thanks. Toledo must've been a financial disaster. At least in Cincinnati those folks who bought the cheap tickets had to pahk their cah and buy overpriced <strike>beer</strike> bottled water and pizza.

Northeast Regional
2014 Worcester (6000 @ $85 package = $510,000)
2013 Manchester (8200 @ $77 package = $631,400)

*attendance is 2 sessions added together divided by 2 and round down to 100.

I think (not sure) that Worcester sold one day tickets. In post 86, UML mentions a $47.50 number. I thought it was odd that the tickets from my $85 package had a $42.50 "face value". I have no idea why. Scalping laws?

Agreed. The lines and prices are sufficient to curb excessive drinking. The only alcohol-related bad behavior I've seen at hockey events has been where no alcohol was sold. Funny how when there is no alcohol sold the plan is to drink enough ahead of time to last the event

Funny you should mention that. My son and I got to Worcester early enough to have a beer before the game. We wandered into a sketchy looking bar that only had Bud and Bud Light on tap, and they were out of Bud Light. The drafts were $5 for each round. Haven't paid that little for a draft in probably 20 years.

 

[PrezdeJohnson09]

Re: Regionals attendance

I don't know how much you can infer from Midwest numbers the last 2 years since different cities.

Ticket Revenues*

West Regional
2014 St Paul (9000 x $94 package = $846,000)
2013 Grand Rapids (2100 x $65 = $136,500)
2012 St Paul (10100 x $90 package = $909,000)

Midwest Regional
2014 Cincinnati (5500 @ $40 package = $220,000)
2013 Toldeo (2700 @ $75 package = $202,500)

East Regional
2014 Bridgeport (6500 @ $?? package = $ ????? )
2013 Providence (5600 @ $77 package = $431,200)

Northeast Regional
2014 Worcester (6000 @ $85 package = $510,000)
2013 Manchester (8200 @ $77 package = $631,400)

*attendance is 2 sessions added together divided by 2 and round down to 100.

Bridgeport was $80 packages.

 

[PrezdeJohnson09]

Re: Regionals attendance

I paid 37 for lower bowl seat from PC for one game....Paid 65 for the three games total at the Regionals in Bridgeport. So it was basically the same price point for me.

How did you get $65 tickets for Bridgeport? Was there a student price? I paid $80.

 

[mnpokecheck]

Re: Regionals attendance

For argument's sake lets say the numbers given by both venues are fairly close to the truth and those were actual turnstile counts. That means nearly 3000 more people to pay for parking, buy concessions, visit the local pubs and eateries. So the ticket revenue might be similar but the secondary and ancillary revenue would be much much greater. FWIW, Toledo's numbers were nowhere near the truth, but Cincinnati's seem to be an honest reflection of how many people actually walked through the doors.

We've been round and round this for years now, but it seems obvious that there are things the NCAA and the potential hosts CAN do to make the regional system work better. Will they? I have my doubts.

I doubt parking, hotels, local pubs and eateries affect bottom line of institution hosting.......

 

[WeAreNDHockey]

Re: Regionals attendance

I doubt parking, hotels, local pubs and eateries affect bottom line of institution hosting.......

Of course the parking could be if it is at the venue that hosts. As well, the concessions sold is their money to keep. For reasons like this the host can make significantly more money even at a much lower price point for tickets. And if they want to do a community wide marketing plan involving the local businesses and chambers of commerce and other business entities, than pointing to potential revenue to be realized is hugely important. Marketing this event is something that has needed serious improvement and marketing involves a whole lot more than just scheduling the games and printing the tickets. For too long the NCAA and the local hosts have done little or none of this. And in fact where the effort has been there -- which I am hearing was the case at least to some extent in Cincinnati -- there has been some success.

 

[CLS]

Re: Regionals attendance

We might get a glimpse of whether lessons were learned or not from what Notre Dame does next year. They took a bit of a bath in 2010 in Fort Wayne when there were 8000 empty seats for an MU/UM regional final. They overpriced tickets assuming Notre Dame would make the tournament and Notre Dame ended up sucking that season. Next year they will host in South Bend and we're going to be hugely impacted by graduation and my early prediction is the team will struggle quite a bit next year. For the first time since 2006 I EXPECT a bad season and would be shocked if they made the NCAAs. Will they overprice the tournament again and host three games before mostly empty seats or will they see that a reasonable ticket price might mean you get a few thousand people in the building even without a home team?

When you said "They took a bath", by "They" do you mean the University took a financial bath? I thought the host institution only provided administrative/logistical support.

Might be better for UND if they don't make the tournament at all, rather than making it as a low seed. Then you'd have to listen to the *****ing and moaning (I'll be one of them) at the unfairness of a lower seeded team getting a home game. To me, that's the major argument against pre-assigned on-campus venues and it's also one of the reasons that many eyebrows were raised when the regional sites were announced. Not Notre Dame's fault -- they can't help it that there are so few suitable venues in the west.

 

[The Zlax45]

Re: Regionals attendance

How did you get $65 tickets for Bridgeport? Was there a student price? I paid $80.

PC charged 65 for the tickets through the school.

 

[WeAreNDHockey]

Re: Regionals attendance

When you said "They took a bath", by "They" do you mean the University took a financial bath? I thought the host institution only provided administrative/logistical support.

Might be better for UND if they don't make the tournament at all, rather than making it as a low seed. Then you'd have to listen to the *****ing and moaning (I'll be one of them) at the unfairness of a lower seeded team getting a home game. To me, that's the major argument against pre-assigned on-campus venues and it's also one of the reasons that many eyebrows were raised when the regional sites were announced. Not Notre Dame's fault -- they can't help it that there are so few suitable venues in the west.

Yes, "they" is Notre Dame. The host bid is a financial one and $$$ is definitely at risk. They basically "buy" a regional from the NCAA then make whatever they can by selling enough tickets and whatever else they have arranged with a particular venue. The host pays for everything in addition to whatever guaranteed $$$ they give the NCAA. The NCAA sets all the relevant conditions (the venue has to remove all signage, no beer sales, the NCAA/host organization gets to take control of the arena 4 days prior, those sorts of things) and the host sees to it the conditions are met.

I too don't like the "idea" of teams hosting in their own buildings either. In a perfect world, the regionals would be festive and attractive enough at TRULY neutral sites. I don't even think something like the X counts in terms of Minnesota as a neutral site. But for the most part in the west these regionals have been awful in terms of attendance and atmosphere. I don't know that I'd go so far as to say it is unfair, since everyone knows going into it this is what we have to work with. Now that the NCAA has signaled that they will be open to on-campus facilities once again, I look for Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, among others, to bid going forward as long as we keep the current format. As for NDs bid, it wasn't the lack of suitable sites that won them theirs, it was the fact that other than their offer, there were NO bids on the Midwest regional, or at least no bids that met any minimum standards the NCAA would entertain (read $$$).

 

[Kdaddy1968]

Re: Regionals attendance

400 miles is the threshold. And they don't charter you a jet. If you are far enough away that travel will be by air the NCAA travel agency makes the arrangements and it may very well be commercial. Teams may also choose to get themselves there too, if they want to fly but the NCAA is only paying for ground transport.

My meaning was more for the fans. Trying to get into a place with limited air service on short notice is tough.

 

[Stauber1]

Re: Regionals attendance

How did you get $65 tickets for Bridgeport? Was there a student price? I paid $80.

Tickets through the NCAA website (which led to TicketMaster) had them for $65 up until at least mid-February (that was the last time I looked at them). There were additional fees on TicketMaster that added up to about an additional $10-$12. At most arenas (and this was the case at Xcel) if you buy directly from the ticket office on-site those added fees are reduced to $3 or less.

The NCAA listed the price of a 2-day pass for Bridgeport as $65. Did you buy the day of? Maybe the arena jacked up the price for same-day sales.

 

[Stauber1]

Re: Regionals attendance

I also wanted to address a post made a few pages back that correctly points out that the NCAA is not the one who finally sets a price for tickets. The bidding venues are the ones who set the price.

That being said, I have to believe the NCAA has influence over that. If the NCAA tells a venue "We like your bid, but if you want to host a regional you are going to need to reduce the price you plan to charge for tickets" then the price is going to be reduced.

I would suspect that the NCAA has some sort of guideline for bidding venues about the range they expect for ticket cost. If they don't, they should.

 

[MarkEagleUSA]

Re: Regionals attendance

How did you get $65 tickets for Bridgeport? Was there a student price? I paid $80.

Bridgeport tickets were $65 all-session. The Ticketmaster ransom was $15.00. Mine came out to $80.20/ticket.

 

[mnpokecheck]

Re: Regionals attendance

Bridgeport tickets were $65 all-session. The Ticketmaster ransom was $15.00. Mine came out to $80.20/ticket.

Calculations I used above did not include ticketmaster, so I'll adjust to 65 for comparison.

 

[PrezdeJohnson09]

Re: Regionals attendance

Bridgeport tickets were $65 all-session. The Ticketmaster ransom was $15.00. Mine came out to $80.20/ticket.

That's how much mine were too...I purchased about five days prior to the event.

So if you got directed to ticketmaster, how could you purchase the tickets for $65 unless you bought through one of the schools?

 

[LTsatch]

Re: Regionals attendance

Refresh my memory, who are the future hosts?

 

[Stauber1]

Re: Regionals attendance

That's how much mine were too...I purchased about five days prior to the event.

So if you got directed to ticketmaster, how could you purchase the tickets for $65 unless you bought through one of the schools?

Go to the rink and buy at the gate.

 

[WeAreNDHockey]

Re: Regionals attendance

I also wanted to address a post made a few pages back that correctly points out that the NCAA is not the one who finally sets a price for tickets. The bidding venues are the ones who set the price.

That being said, I have to believe the NCAA has influence over that. If the NCAA tells a venue "We like your bid, but if you want to host a regional you are going to need to reduce the price you plan to charge for tickets" then the price is going to be reduced.

I would suspect that the NCAA has some sort of guideline for bidding venues about the range they expect for ticket cost. If they don't, they should.

The NCAA does set prices ranges for the regionals, just not a final price. When they put out the request for bids one of the guidelines is a floor and a ceiling on ticket prices. Whoever bids has to charge somewhere within this range. So while they don't set a final price, they require the final price to be, say, somewhere between $40 and $94, like this season. (before all the ticket seller fees are added on of course) It is up to the host to decide how much they want to bid based on what price within that range they can sell enough tickets at. Once the NCAA accepts your bid they don't care if you make or lose money, so they don't care if you over charge for your tickets. The bottom line drives 99.99999% of their decision making process so they care little if the arena is empty or full. They already got their money.

The NCAA listed the price of a 2-day pass for Bridgeport as $65. Did you buy the day of? Maybe the arena jacked up the price for same-day sales.

The host/venue has to sell the tickets as all session passes until the day after the field is announced. After that they are allowed to sell the tickets as single day passes and can raise the price up to $10 per day. (again, before the Ticketmaster and venue "fees" are added on)

 

[WeAreNDHockey]

Re: Regionals attendance

Refresh my memory, who are the future hosts?

Future sites and (hosts)

2015

• East Regional: Dunkin’ Donuts Center, Providence, R.I. (Brown)

• Northeast Regional: Verizon Wireless Arena, Manchester, N.H. (UNH)

• Midwest Regional: Compton Family Ice Arena, South Bend, Ind. (Notre Dame)

• West Regional: Scheels Arena, Fargo, N.D. (North Dakota)

• Frozen Four: TD Garden, Boston, April 9 and 11 (Hockey East)

2016

• East Regional: Times Union Center, Albany, N.Y. (ECAC)

• Northeast Regional: DCU Center, Worcester, Mass. (Holy Cross)

• Midwest Regional: U.S. Bank Arena, Cincinnati (MU)

• West Regional: Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, Minn. (Minn)

• Frozen Four: Tampa Bay Times Forum, Tampa, Fla., April 7 and 9 (Wisconsin and the Tampa Sports Commission)

2017

• Frozen Four: United Center, Chicago, April 6 and 8

2018 (Notre Dame and the Chicago Sports Commission)

• Frozen Four: Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, Minn., April 5 and 7 (Minn)