MSU Red Cedar Message Board

I give it two days until the the athletic department gets an $650,000 donation.

Fuck you Jobu. I do it myself.

Haysbert shills for Allstate, nicely done Pedro Cerrano reference.

Just like it was when Bob bumped it 4 hours ago. Bob is member of a protected class.

15000 sold out of 17500 contingent
UNSOLD:
2500 left
$125/ticket
$312,500

MISC FREEBIES:
assume 400 ppl band (including support staff) (better location, $185/ticket, $74k)

Assuming 400 for player/coaches family tickets (better location, $185/ticket, $74k)

That leaves about $190k. I'd imagine a suite for the game would run about $30-50K, so for prestigious alumni, A-D, etc., it's not unreasonable to have 4-6 suites.

http://www.annarbor.com/sports/um-football/michigan-football-program-sells-about-86-percent-of-its-sugar-bowl-tickets/

Okay someone explain this. Am I dumb?

Under the current BCS system. Institutions are required to purchase a block of tickets from the Bowl that they attend. After the school pays for the travel party, the NCAA sanctioned amount of tickets for athletes families, and the band (yes, the band that is contracted to play the half time show unpaid must pay to be in the stadium) the school has to try to sell the remainder to fans. Often times the school is unable to sell their allotment which requires the school to assume the liability and eat the tickets.

Which makes two interesting points.

1. Always buy your tickets to bowl games from the MSU ticket office. No matter how much you think they suck, it's important that the school doesn't pay for unused tickets.

2. Michigan was paid out 17 million last year for the Sugar Bowl. After sharing the revenue with the other members of the Big Ten, they were left with 1.4 million. Minus the 650,000 they could not sell and Michigan walked away with only $750,000 before paying for transportation, hotel and food for the team/travel party/band.

regarding point #2. Michigan was paid $6.1 million (The BCS reduced the payout to the second team from a conference invited to a BCS game a number of years ago, so a conference like the SEC or Big Ten, that often send two teams to BCS games, wouldn't get a windfall from two huge payouts).

According to U-M's Patricia Sellinger (FOIA Coordinator at U-M), "The total amount of conference-absorbed unsold tickets for the 2012 Allstate Sugar Bowl is $375,490. Once these conference-absorbed unsold tickets are taken into consideration, the University of Michigan will net a profit of $78,916 for its participation in the 2012 Allstate Sugar Bowl."

Here's where it gets fun [CPA alert - they're cooking the books]. The Sugar Bowl requires each team to sell 17,500 tickets for the privilege of playing in its game. Yes, that means the band, the coaches and players family and friends, etc. - at list price. If you read the report you'll find that Michigan added a $5 surcharge to each ticket they sold to their fans [so Michigan of them).

Now the Big Ten has for years committed to buying portions of the unsold tickets "to help their member-schools meet their contractual obligation" thus relieving the University of what is often a sizable expense on their bowl game P & L. That "Big Ten ticket commitment" removes - in the case of the 2012 Sugar Bowl - $375,490 of unsold ticket expenses. As Ms. Sellinger noted, "Once these conference-absorbed unsold tickets are taken into consideration [removed from the Michigan bowl game P&L and shifted to a Big Ten account], the University of Michigan will net a profit of $78,916 for its participation in the 2012 Allstate Sugar Bowl."

Bottom-line - Michigan did not "sell out" their 17,500 ticket commitment - they only sold 12,848. And, they did not net $78,916 in profits when you eliminate the $375,490 subsidy that the Big Ten gave U-M by committing to over 3,000 tickets from the 17,500 contractual commitment.

Plus, Delaney, ACC Commish, and Sugar Bowl Board Pres were all UNC alum, and went there around the same time...

Boise would have sold all of their tickets.

They travel well.

MSU probably lost money on the Outback bowl too. The current system financially rewards teams like Indiana who perennially suck, yet make millions on their conference member's successes.

Not reading the whole thread, but this is completely normal for the BCS, and bowls in general. Without having to look at the numbers, every team in a BCS bowl lost that type of money. ESPN and bowls trying to flaunt the "huge pay day" for BCS games is a plain out lie. The bigger the bowl, the more money you lose. Why do you think Brandon said the two most profitable seasons in years for Michigan football was the first 2 with RichRod? Once again, this may have been mentioned in the thread, but I can guarentee you that State lost money in their bowl game as well.

The bowl games are broken. The ADs receive huge bonuses for football teams making bowl games, yet the university takes a massive hit sending their teams even to a stupid bowl like the Pizza Bowl in Detroit.