UConn Fiesta Bowl fiasco — $2.5 M in unsold tickets
The New Haven Register says the University of Connecticut has sold only 4,000 of its Fiesta Bowl allotment of 17,000 tickets, and is similarly behind in securing its commitment to sell more than 500 hotel rooms in Arizona for its BCS Fiesta Bowl appearance.
The paper says that UConn is holding about $2.5 million in unsold Fiesta Bowl tickets, and has head coach Randy Edsall taking to the airwaves to plead for fans to make the trip. Read the story here.
Excerpt:
The Fiesta Bowl distributed 17,500 tickets to UConn, and the school is responsible to sell them all. The cheapest of those tickets cost $111 (in the lower end zone) and can cost as much as $268 for club level.
UConn also has a hotel obligation — a total of 550 rooms at three different hotels ranging in price from $125-225 a night, not including tax, with blocks reserved for either three or seven nights. Additional expenses include a chartered flight and meals for the team, staff and 300-member band, as well as a $100,000 bonus to coach Randy Edsall, and smaller bonuses for assistants, per their contracts, for getting the team to a BCS bowl.
Cost of any tickets or hotel rooms that go unfilled are absorbed by the university, with the exception of the 150 rooms at the Westin Kierland Resort and Spa, where UConn is on the hook for only half of money owed on unsold rooms at the $225-a-night hotel.
Whether UConn maximizes its revenue opportunity will depend on the amount of tickets it can sell. The school will almost certainly take a bath. As of Monday night, only 4,000 tickets had been sold, meaning UConn was still holding roughly $2.5 million in unsold tickets.
UConn ad campaigns encourge fans to purchase travel packages through the school (uconnbowl.com). But it doesn’t help that game tickets can be purchased through alternate websites like stubhub.com for as little as $20.
Edsall made his pitch to fans Monday.
“If you have the opportunity and the wherewithal to make it happen, (you) should make it happen, because this is a once in a lifetime experience for the most part,” Edsall said. “There’s (other) BCS (games), but this might be the only Fiesta Bowl we go to. We hope it’s not, but if you have the opportunity to go, (you) should spend the money and go.”
The web site SportsbyBrooks raises the question of who will foot the bill for any shortfall, wondering if it would be taxpayers or the university. The fact is a shortfall may be minimal. UConn will probably receive about $3 million for its BCS trip, so the losses from tickets and hotels will be covered. But after travel and other expenses, the university will probably do little more than break even.
It’s a wake-up to the costs of big-time football, even when you win and reach the highest level. And it also illustrates the farce of a system we have when a team that does not belong in the top tier of bowls makes it, and even the fans don’t respond with support. The Big East has taken some P.R. hits this season, and this is simply a capper.
Don’t look for school ticket sales to pick up. According to SportsbyBrooks, ticket brokers are hawking Fiesta Bowl tickets for $18 each.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
I think we ought to consider eliminating the automatic qualifiers and conference tie-ins for the BCS. Nothng against UConn, but this is as good a reason for that if anything. They lost to Temple and end up in a BCS Bowl while Temple compiles the same record and is home for the holidays. Something is not right here…..