A Pac-10 expansion look at attendance
From the FanPosts...
It has been blogged to death that the most likely contenders to enter the Pac-10 are Colorado and Utah. The most prominent reason($) being that the Pac-10 would want to incorporate the Denver and SLC TV markets. However, those teams don't even own their own markets. Denver is "Bronco Nation," first and foremost, and Utah is over 70% LDS.
Also, for a conference that lost 3,164 Fans per game last year, it would help to pick teams that put fans in the seats (both at home and on the road).
A breakdown of attendance data after the jump...
|
Ave Attendance |
Capacity |
States |
LDS Population |
||
|
BYU |
64,236 |
65,000 |
Arizona |
374,839 |
|
|
Utah |
45,155 |
45,634 |
California |
755,747 |
|
|
Colorado |
50,088 |
53,750 |
Oregon |
145,429 |
|
|
|
|
Washington |
257,710 |
||
|
California |
59,472 |
75,662 |
Utah |
1,857,667 |
|
|
Oregon |
58,544 |
53,800 |
|||
|
Oregon St. |
42,328 |
45,674 |
Idaho |
406,764 |
|
|
Arizona |
52,555 |
57,803 |
Texas |
278,492 |
|
|
Arizona St. |
48,556 |
73,379 |
|||
|
UCLA |
64,547 |
92,542 |
|||
|
Stanford |
41,436 |
50,000 |
|||
|
Southern California |
84,799 |
93,607 |
|||
|
Washington |
64,356 |
72,500 |
|||
|
Washington St. |
25,909 |
35,117 |
|||
|
Average |
Difference |
||||
|
Pac-10 |
54,186 |
-3,164 |
|||
|
(the biggest loss of any conference) |
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1 recs |
11 comments
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Comments
Hasn't BYU sold out all of their games for the last 3 years?
I just thought that’s what I heard. Or is this just saying the actual attendance and not just tickets sold? Good info none the less.
Shoot, everybody else is doing some dumping and picking up, it looks like the PAC10 needs to do a little in house cleaning.
Very close
I think it has been a near sell out of all games. Northern Iowa I dont think sold out, or the tickets could have been sold but the game attendance was not full.
by Jeremy Mauss on Feb 25, 2010 8:58 AM PST up reply actions
It's obvious
that if the Pac-10 is interested in making expansion fiscally successful (as much as possible), BYU and Utah are the clear cut winners.
Though the Denver market matches—and exceeds SLC—relatively nobody in Denver cares about CU. Like this article says, Denver is Broncos’ country.
In any event, what these market numbers fail to realize, and what this (JP Murph’s) post points out is the enormous market in the west of the LDS population that is dedicated to BYU and Utah. Not only in the west, but really throughout the U.S. … When including those numbers in the market equation, the “Utah market (BYU and Utah)” far exceeds anything the CU Buffs could bring to the table.
Vanquish the Foe, a BYU Cougars blog at SB Nation
CU
I’m from Denver, and I definitely don’t think it is true that nobody in Denver cares about CU. Yes, it is Broncos’ country first, but Denver is overall a fantastic sports town. There is room for more than just the NFL. Right now interest in CU might be down a bit due to their struggles lately, but I can tell you that when they’re good, Denver is definitely on board, and they are the college team of choice. This is not to say that for a variety of reasons someone other than CU might be the best choice, but as a Denverite and a CU fan (they are my hometown team, BYU is the alma mater), I just had to counter that.
I did say relatively nobody ;)
I wasn’t trying to say CU doesn’t have fans—obviously that isn’t true. And, yes, they’ve been going through a decade of down years which has hurt them… My main argument was that in comparison to the LDS market comprised by BYU and Utah followers in the western US (and actually all throughout the US), it is relatively nobody—very small, at least.
Vanquish the Foe, a BYU Cougars blog at SB Nation
Colorado in the original WAC...
…probably could have established a preeminent BCS level league in the Mountain Time Zone had they not run off and joined the Big-8 a decade prior to the formation of the WAC in 1961. Think of a league not only including BYU/Utah and the Arizona schools, but also Colorado as well as CSU/Wyoming and Texas Tech (rather than UTEP) as well as New Mexico in a league. But the way the Mountain Time Zone of the country is structured has destined the Texas/Prairie league to take the big name schools (Colorado) on the east slopes of the Rockies, and the proximity of Arizona to California has destined them to the west coast league. The Utah schools have been the big “what-if” in major college league formation over the years.
Colorado (CU) is the Denver Markets #1 Choice
This is why the Denver TV Market has been a Big-XII stronghold that the MWC will never touch with the other 3 Front Range schools (CSU, Air Force, Wyoming). The lack of Denver being a dominant market in he original WAC configuration of the 1960s and 1970s is why the Arizona schools chose to merely use the league as a springboard from the old Border Conference to the PAC. The fact that Denver is #16 and Salt Lake City is #31 is where the marketing and $$$ thinking can often be flawed. If the PAC-10 successfully poached Colorado from the Big-XII, it opens up the door for the Big-XII to take BYU, then the PAC-10 loses out on what they could really gain in the Salt Lake City market. They key here is Salt Lake City is a growth market as opposed to a stagnant or declining one. Back in 1984 Salt Lake City was only raked #42, but in the interceding years has surpassed many BCS league market strongholds, and Census Bureau projections will indicate continued strong growth in the coming years, and could have potentially the same effect on the PAC-10 that adding Phoenix did 30 years ago. Salt Lake City is the only sizable and largest market in the overall footprint of both the PAC-10 and Big-XII conferences not to have a school involved. Like many posters here I don;t think taking Utah alone will deliver the Salt Lake City TV market adequately to the BCS. And to everyone who thinks Salt Lake City is a small town market like say Boise, Idaho (#112 Spot DMA), keep in mind that Salt Lake City is no longer the smallest market in the NBA (Oklahoma City and Memphis are significantly behind), and Salt Lake City is now larger than at least 6 NFL markets (Kansas City, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Jacksonville, Buffalo, New Orleans). The bottom line is that if the PAC-10 takes Colorado along with Utah, they risk having the Big-XII take BYU and take away a bi chunk of what they’ve gained.
Stadium Capacities
Keep in mind that a few years ago Stanford rebuilt their on-campus facility that resulted in a significant capacity reduction, and Cal-Berkley is about to do the same sort of rebuild. Washington also talks about doing the same thing to their aging, but large capacity facility. Even during their leanest years from 2002-2004, BYU was still well over 50,000 per game and has had at least 60,000 available seats for nearly 30 year now. I for one think Utah under built their stadium when Rice-Eccles was reconstructed in the late 1990s, and it should have been built closer to 55,000, and I honestly believe in the post-McBride era they would still be at or near capacity. BYU can and should look a a renovation for Edwards Stadium during the teens no matter what league they end up in.
Renovation?
Would you suggest “horse-shoeing” the north or south end zones? Just curious…
Vanquish the Foe, a BYU Cougars blog at SB Nation
How About Completely Rebuilding...
…the east stands for starters and putting the new stands at the same angle of steepness as the north and south stands, and then adding a mezzanine deck with luxury boxes (4-5 stories worth) to complement what is on the west side. Then do something similar to the west side sooner than later. Future capacity when all is said and done; 75,000-80,000. Think fan comfort rather than numbers. Look at what Arizona State has in their facility (bleacher seats with backs and drink holders).

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