Ticket Revenues
Drive U Basketball Schedule
Fans may believe the Gophers home
basketball nonconference schedule needs upgrading but don’t expect
change in the foreseeable future. The schedule this year consists of
exhibition games against Minnesota Duluth and Minnesota State Moorhead,
with regular season nonconference games against Tennessee Tech,
Stephen F. Austin, Utah Valley, Brown, Morgan State, St. Joseph’s,
Northern Illinois and South Dakota State.
There’s not one exciting box office draw
among the 10 teams. Ten years ago the Gophers nonconference home
schedule at least included Marquette and Virginia. Thirty years ago
Nebraska, Kansas State, Texas A&M, and Rutgers visited Williams Arena.
To maximize revenues, major college teams
including Minnesota have put the nonconference home scheduling emphasis
on home games with plain-Jane opponents. Jane comes to your place for a
modest appearance fee and doesn’t expect a return game.
Gophers athletic director
Joel Maturi
told Sports Headliners that ticket revenue from men’s basketball
home games ($20 million) represents about 20 percent of his total ticket
revenue budget for this year. “I can’t afford too many games in a
given year because financially I need to make the bottom line,” he
said. “You make more money when you play at home than you do on the
road.”
The other benefit with the scheduling
philosophy used by major conference schools like the Gophers is they can
fluff up their record by scheduling the Morgan States, Utah Valleys and
Stephen F. Austins. Yet reality in Minnesota is fans pay some of the highest
ticket prices in college basketball and watch a lot of low-appeal teams
come to town. And the Gophers don’t generate much game day ticket sales
activity for the nonconference games and last Saturday even had a buy
one ticket ($35) and get another free.
Coach Tubby Smith has increased interest
in the Gophers since coming here from Kentucky in 2007. But none of the
nonconference games approach selling out while most or all of the Big
Ten games have that potential this season. There’s a clear distinction
in perceived value by the public including some season ticket holders
who don’t use their tickets and leave a lot of seats open at November
and December games.
The most that can be hoped for in today’s
major college basketball environment is to have a couple of appealing
opponents come to your town. Some other Big Ten programs did better
than the Gophers this year.
Wisconsin booked a home nonconference
schedule that included Arizona, Duke and Marquette. Indiana lined up
Maryland, Pittsburgh and Kentucky. Illinois scheduled Utah and
Vanderbilt. Northwestern played Stanford and Butler.
The Gophers were at Miami this year as
part of the ACC-Big Ten rivalry. In a Thanksgiving weekend tournament
in California the Gophers played Butler and Texas A&M. All three of
those teams would be welcomed at Williams Arena by Gophers season ticket
holders.
The Gophers schedule is more appealing in years
when an ACC team plays here as part of the Big Ten-ACC challenge. The
norm is alternate years for hosting an ACC team but Maturi said that's not guaranteed.
He also said next year’s nonconference schedule isn’t completed and so
no comparisons can be made to the present one.
It won’t be dramatically different though,
but one approach that could add some marquee value in the more distant
future is that Maturi and Smith have talked about a “neutral” court game
at perhaps Target Center or the Xcel Energy Center against a traditional
college basketball power. Presumably it would be a made-for-TV matchup.
