(11-01-2017 07:10 PM)cleveland Wrote:  

(11-01-2017 06:20 PM)NIUSox10 Wrote:  Agreed espn3 is pointless for maction.

By the time this deal is up ... most of us won't care one way or another. It actually just started ...

+1

Years before this contract is up, the conference needs to be negotiating with Fox Sports or any other network that wants to televise college football without paying out bushel baskets of $ that the major conferences require. Another network may be happy with just 2 midweek games a week and televise MAC games on Saturday in Oct & November. Yeah it won't get as much exposure as ESPN2 but at least MAC football will take back saturday while maintaining a weeknight presence.

By the time this contract is up, digital should also be a more attractive option. Also for the final week of the regular season, all games should be either the Wed night before Tday or the Friday after. Much easier to get to a game on either one of those dates than the Tuesday of that week.

(11-09-2017 10:09 AM)Policiious Wrote:  Years before this contract is up, the conference needs to be negotiating with Fox Sports or any other network that wants to televise college football without paying out bushel baskets of $ that the major conferences require. Another network may be happy with just 2 midweek games a week and televise MAC games on Saturday in Oct & November. Yeah it won't get as much exposure as ESPN2 but at least MAC football will take back saturday while maintaining a weeknight presence.

By the time this contract is up, digital should also be a more attractive option. Also for the final week of the regular season, all games should be either the Wed night before Tday or the Friday after. Much easier to get to a game on either one of those dates than the Tuesday of that week.

I agree with everything except the same exposure. Who on the west coast is watching 3pm and 4 pm kickoffs on a weekday?

Dr. Jon Steinbrecher and the rest of the MAC boys should be forced to attend at least one MACtion game on each weekday they are played and sit outside for the entire game. No sky box for them.

Korcek: Midweek football games may not be a boon for the MAC

(11-01-2017 08:31 PM)Love and Honor Wrote:  

(11-01-2017 08:22 PM)DICK Wrote:  

(11-01-2017 08:02 PM)HUSKIEFOOTBALLFAN Wrote:  

(11-01-2017 07:15 PM)axeme Wrote:  ESPN wants the MAC and other non majors in part to help fill out its streaming platform. If the MAC says ‘no thanks’ to ESPN3, why would ESPN want the MAC at all? What bargaining power does the MAC have to demand that they put all the games on the main channels? (Hint: none)

It shouldn't be only what is best for ESPN. It should be what is best for the teams, students, fans, communities, MAC and ESPN. The contract should be beneficial to all of the parties. While the MAC offices may not have the bargaining power to demand that all games are on main channels, they should have thought this out much better before they entered into this conference ruining contract.

ESPN3 games midweek in November ( and there are not too many of them) are really the only major drawback to this deal. Having gone to MAC games for over 50 years, I can assure you that even Saturday games in November are much more poorly attended than those in September/October. The only well attended November games have always been the big games. So Yes, instead of starting at 5:00 on a Thursday for Toledo at NIU, if that game was on Saturday afternoon it would be much better attended, but that is probably the biggest MAC game of the year. It is an outlier.

The other point is that the contract is signed, the MAC got a great deal financially compared to what similar conferences are now getting, and we do get great exposure. I am currently flipping back and forth between Game 7 of the World Series and Western-Central in the rain. This contract still has about 10 years to run, so might as well enjoy the advantages of it.

That's the thing, we're making out like bandits especially compared with the C-USA and Sun Belt. And those conferences have the inherent benefit of being located in warmer climates with faster-growing demographies, the TV deal is a big differentiator for us in terms in cash and exposure. And with ESPN on shakier footing nowadays, it's probably a good thing for our wallets that it's locked in for a while.

We are losing our fan bases for a mere $670,000 per year per school. That's all. No way is the loss of many thousands of fans worth that puny amount of money.

The P5 schools that play on a weeknight now? They get paid a whole lot more for 1 game than we get for a season with 5 weeknight games.
NIU played 50% of their games in 2017 season on a weekday. Absolutely not worth only $670K.

The ESPN deal is amazing. Every game is available in HD. I will gladly play some weekday football games for be able to watch every road game I cant make on TV. And basketball season, the fact that we can now watch every road game, men and women, on espn3 is amazing. Again, I will gladly play some weeknight football games for that.

Without TV and RTB coverage, the AAC gets a 3 loss champ Temple over WMU. At least the Fleck and WMU hype was on TV during weekdays so WMU had a name by December.

The thing I don’t get is that if the deal is so bad for our fan bases, why does the MAC avg attendance stay fairly stable year after year? It looks like the argument could be made that the midweek games, which have incrementally increased over the last decade, have had virtually NO impact on attendance, anecdotal evidence aside. It looks like attendance goes up a bit and down a bit and stays in a pretty tight range between 15,000 and 17,000.

2007-17,334
2008-16,727
2009-15,317
2010-15,609
2011-17,033
2012-15,525
2013-16,739
2014-15,431
2015-15,316
2016-16,391


NCAA.org

(11-16-2017 04:06 PM)axeme Wrote:  The thing I don’t get is that if the deal is so bad for our fan bases, why does the MAC avg attendance stay fairly stable year after year? It looks like the argument could be made that the midweek games, which have incrementally increased over the last decade, have had virtually NO impact on attendance, anecdotal evidence aside. It looks like attendance goes up a bit and down a bit and stays in a pretty tight range between 15,000 and 17,000.

2007-17,334
2008-16,727
2009-15,317
2010-15,609
2011-17,033
2012-15,525
2013-16,739
2014-15,431
2015-15,316
2016-16,391


NCAA.org

I wonder if they announce attendance differently - e.g. tickets sold instead of actual attendance, in order to keep up the charade that we're still getting 15,000+ at the games.

Attendance is always tickets sold. No university, professional sports venue, concert, or event uses any other metric.

The great sports writer, John Feinstein, has an excellent article on the subject being discussed in this thread.

Lot of quotes from the COMMISSIONER, discussion of $, exposure, etc. etc. and, drum roll, the PRINT version has a photograph from Wednesday's Miami/EMU game.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/co...2b6b533296

As an outside observer, the $700K per school isn't worth these time slots. Playing on a Tuesday night on front of 2,000 fans isn't helping the conference despite what ESPN tries to tell you.

(11-17-2017 10:03 AM)The Knight Time Wrote:  As an outside observer, the $700K per school isn't worth these time slots. Playing on a Tuesday night on front of 2,000 fans isn't helping the conference despite what ESPN tries to tell you.

We can draw during the week so I love being able to watch our away games on TV. It takes away other schools home field advantage too....

(11-16-2017 02:12 PM)T4C8 Wrote:  The ESPN deal is amazing. Every game is available in HD. I will gladly play some weekday football games for be able to watch every road game I cant make on TV. And basketball season, the fact that we can now watch every road game, men and women, on espn3 is amazing. Again, I will gladly play some weeknight football games for that.

Note that after the ESPN deal is up, the MAC schools will keep the facilities that allow all of the BBall games to go out on ESPN3. So if they are shopping around, they could be shopping live streaming of all BBall games not on cable as part of the deal.

If Fox Sports is in a position to schedule two Tuesday night games and then pick which goes on FS1 and which goes on FS2, that would make them an attractive alternative. Though if Fox was willing to go for one midweek #MACtion night, they might want that for longer than just November.

(11-16-2017 05:12 PM)NIU007 Wrote:  

(11-16-2017 04:06 PM)axeme Wrote:  The thing I don’t get is that if the deal is so bad for our fan bases, why does the MAC avg attendance stay fairly stable year after year? It looks like the argument could be made that the midweek games, which have incrementally increased over the last decade, have had virtually NO impact on attendance, anecdotal evidence aside. It looks like attendance goes up a bit and down a bit and stays in a pretty tight range between 15,000 and 17,000.

2007-17,334
2008-16,727
2009-15,317
2010-15,609
2011-17,033
2012-15,525
2013-16,739
2014-15,431
2015-15,316
2016-16,391

NCAA.org

I wonder if they announce attendance differently - e.g. tickets sold instead of actual attendance, in order to keep up the charade that we're still getting 15,000+ at the games.

Since they have to keep track of and document whichever alternative in the NCAA rule they use to keep over the line, it's just as possible that they announce what they have to keep track of for NCAA reporting because it saves the extra work.

(11-17-2017 10:03 AM)The Knight Time Wrote:  As an outside observer, the $700K per school isn't worth these time slots. Playing on a Tuesday night on front of 2,000 fans isn't helping the conference despite what ESPN tries to tell you.

700K is vital to a school like EMU whose gate receipts are very small.

I assume we have the worst gate receipts in the MAC. Other schools who don't draw well for FB do better than us in MBB.

A school like EMU lives off of the ESPN monies, road game guarantees, share of the CFB playoff monies, etc.

P.S. a lot of these midweek game match ups this season haven't been marque. Does anyone think BG at EMU would draw 10 - 15K if on Black Friday or the day after? EMU has trouble drawing football crowds after the first frost.

(11-18-2017 06:05 AM)emu steve Wrote:  

(11-17-2017 10:03 AM)The Knight Time Wrote:  As an outside observer, the $700K per school isn't worth these time slots. Playing on a Tuesday night on front of 2,000 fans isn't helping the conference despite what ESPN tries to tell you.

700K is vital to a school like EMU whose gate receipts are very small.

I assume we have the worst gate receipts in the MAC. Other schools who don't draw well for FB do better than us in MBB.

A school like EMU lives off of the ESPN monies, road game guarantees, share of the CFB playoff monies, etc.

P.S. a lot of these midweek game match ups this season haven't been marque. Does anyone think BG at EMU would draw 10 - 15K if on Black Friday or the day after? EMU has trouble drawing football crowds after the first frost.

emu steve, you are right that some MAC schools do benefit from the MACtion contract. The problem is other schools are decimated by it. Maybe the MAC should try and schedule schools that benefit from midweek MACtion contract on weekdays and let the other schools return to Saturdays.

(11-18-2017 09:29 AM)HUSKIEFOOTBALLFAN Wrote:  

(11-18-2017 06:05 AM)emu steve Wrote:  

(11-17-2017 10:03 AM)The Knight Time Wrote:  As an outside observer, the $700K per school isn't worth these time slots. Playing on a Tuesday night on front of 2,000 fans isn't helping the conference despite what ESPN tries to tell you.

700K is vital to a school like EMU whose gate receipts are very small.

I assume we have the worst gate receipts in the MAC. Other schools who don't draw well for FB do better than us in MBB.

A school like EMU lives off of the ESPN monies, road game guarantees, share of the CFB playoff monies, etc.


P.S. a lot of these midweek game match ups this season haven't been marque. Does anyone think BG at EMU would draw 10 - 15K if on Black Friday or the day after? EMU has trouble drawing football crowds after the first frost.

emu steve, you are right that some MAC schools do benefit from the MACtion contract. The problem is other schools are decimated by it. Maybe the MAC should try and schedule schools that benefit from midweek MACtion contract on weekdays and let the other schools return to Saturdays.

now you're talking about a conference of 'haves' and 'have nots' ... that won't go over too big, either.

Almost impossible to schedule some schools midweek and others on Saturday unless they never play each other or every school saves their bye weeks for November. Scheduling mess.

MAC needs to decide if they want to be on national tv or not because there’s almost no room on Saturdays for the mid major conferences. Of course, the decision has already been made for most of the next decade so there’s time to debate the issue.

I made the point pages back, but imo the biggest problem is that the MAC has decided the shift most rivalry games to weeknights. I realize that WMU-CMU or Toledo-BG will probably get higher ratings and have more dramastandings drama involved than Miami-EMU or Ball State-UB, but to John Q. Footballfan none of those matchups really mean anything when scrolling through your channel guide. I remember playing NCAA Football in high school before Miami and thinking BG-Kent and Toledo-Akron were rivals since I didn't know where Bowling Green and Kent were and the other two sounded like rivals since they were 'University of' instead of 'State University.'

Miami vs OU this season probably would've gotten well over 20K butts in the seats if it were a sunny Athens Saturday instead of the relatively sparse Halloween Tuesday crowd they got in reality. That's a case where they should've played Miami instead of Kent ten days prior for their last weekend game.