Will the addition of Miami, Charlotte, Birmingham, San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston pay off for the AAC? It remains to be seen, but ESPN is betting on it. What say you?

Miami? FAU isn't in Miami, its West Palm Beach.

West Palm Beach-Ft. Pierce is its own tv market.

2021 NIELSEN DMA RANKINGS
Tampa-St. Pete (Sarasota) #13
Orlando-Daytona Bch-Melbrn #17
Miami-Ft. Lauderdale #18
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West Palm Beach-Ft. Pierce #39

While air travel remained disrupted by Covid-19 and passenger counts continued to lag pre-pandemic levels, Charlotte Douglas International Airport moved up on a ranking of the world's busiest airports.

CLT ranked fifth among the busiest airports in the world in terms of aircraft movements — meaning arrivals and departures — in 2021, according to newly released, preliminary figures from Airports Council International. That's up from sixth place in the previous year. Based on passenger traffic, the Charlotte airport soared to No. 6 last year from No. 18 in 2020. ACI will release its final numbers for 2021 later this year.

Shudder to think that it doesn't considering some of us have found our forever home here...

(04-18-2022 04:01 PM)PuddlePirate Wrote:  Shudder to think that it doesn't considering some of us have found our forever home here...

Not necessarily. See USM, Marshall and ODU. Well see how it pans out in a few years. I'm betting on the Sunbelt being the better football and baseball conference cover time.

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(04-18-2022 04:36 PM)b2b Wrote:  

(04-18-2022 04:01 PM)PuddlePirate Wrote:  Shudder to think that it doesn't considering some of us have found our forever home here...

Not necessarily. See USM, Marshall and ODU. Well see how it pans out in a few years. I'm betting on the Sunbelt being the better football and baseball conference cover time.

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Disagree, those small markets will always hold them back. Look at their budgets and you’ll see a difference between AAC schools and SBC

I think the Sunbelt will never catch us TV contract wise so we stay put.

(04-18-2022 05:02 PM)PuddlePirate Wrote:  I think the Sunbelt will never catch us TV contract wise so we stay put.

Correct. College football is becoming more and more a made for tv event, Real attendance at games is dropping, so being in a larger market that could bring in more eyeballs when winning will help those metro schools.

No problem with the teams or the metro; just added too many.

In my opinion, ESPN and Fox are media companies. They are interested in how many eyeballs are focused on their products. They think that big markets mean more TV sets tuned in to their products. That's probably true. But athletic budgets are important too. Big markets tend to fund athletic budgets better than smaller markets. We'll see, but the strategy has worked so far.

(04-18-2022 06:07 PM)SMUstang Wrote:  In my opinion, ESPN and Fox are media companies. They are interested in how many eyeballs are focused on their products. They think that big markets mean more TV sets tuned in to their products. That's probably true. But athletic budgets are important too. Big markets tend to fund athletic budgets better than smaller markets. We'll see, but the strategy has worked so far.

I think another key is the TV contract. They'll benefit from the increased exposure and the infusion of cash for their athletic budgets. I know we all thought it was too long but honestly that was probably a blessing in disguise that'll help the new schools get traction.

(04-18-2022 08:36 PM)PuddlePirate Wrote:  

(04-18-2022 06:07 PM)SMUstang Wrote:  In my opinion, ESPN and Fox are media companies. They are interested in how many eyeballs are focused on their products. They think that big markets mean more TV sets tuned in to their products. That's probably true. But athletic budgets are important too. Big markets tend to fund athletic budgets better than smaller markets. We'll see, but the strategy has worked so far.

I think another key is the TV contract. They'll benefit from the increased exposure and the infusion of cash for their athletic budgets. I know we all thought it was too long but honestly that was probably a blessing in disguise that'll help the new schools get traction.

Its all well and good to "be in that huge city/market." Can you deliver that market in big enough numbers to be relevant?

(04-18-2022 08:56 PM)bearcat29 Wrote:  

(04-18-2022 08:36 PM)PuddlePirate Wrote:  

(04-18-2022 06:07 PM)SMUstang Wrote:  In my opinion, ESPN and Fox are media companies. They are interested in how many eyeballs are focused on their products. They think that big markets mean more TV sets tuned in to their products. That's probably true. But athletic budgets are important too. Big markets tend to fund athletic budgets better than smaller markets. We'll see, but the strategy has worked so far.

I think another key is the TV contract. They'll benefit from the increased exposure and the infusion of cash for their athletic budgets. I know we all thought it was too long but honestly that was probably a blessing in disguise that'll help the new schools get traction.

Its all well and good to "be in that huge city/market." Can you deliver that market in big enough numbers to be relevant?

If you win and are consistently successful you will draw more audience than those in a smaller market.

(04-18-2022 03:31 PM)ghostofclt! Wrote:  While air travel remained disrupted by Covid-19 and passenger counts continued to lag pre-pandemic levels, Charlotte Douglas International Airport moved up on a ranking of the world's busiest airports.

CLT ranked fifth among the busiest airports in the world in terms of aircraft movements — meaning arrivals and departures — in 2021, according to newly released, preliminary figures from Airports Council International. That's up from sixth place in the previous year. Based on passenger traffic, the Charlotte airport soared to No. 6 last year from No. 18 in 2020. ACI will release its final numbers for 2021 later this year.

This has everything to do with CLT being a hub for the 2nd largest airline in the world and literally nothing to do with anything related to the university or its value to the conference. People aren't landing and visiting Charlotte, they are just passing through because American is forcing them to.

There is no reason to realistically believe the strategy will work better for the AAC than CUSA. The P6 is dead. The AAC will be fortunate to stay above the SunBelt.

(04-18-2022 01:42 PM)SMUstang Wrote:  Will the addition of Miami, Charlotte, Birmingham, San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston pay off for the AAC? It remains to be seen, but ESPN is betting on it. What say you?

There may be two questions here:

1. Will it pay off for ESPN?

2. Will it pay off for the AAC?

For it to pay off for ESPN, all that might be necessary - - given that they are paying less than half as much for the CUSA6 broadcasting rights - - would be half the level of viewership that the current AAC teams have been getting.

From the standpoint of the AAC remainers, it could be said that the addition of the CUSA6 has already "paid off," in some respects, since it has at least permitted them to continue receiving their $6.94M/year revenue stream from the network.

However, given the loss of 3 powerhouse programs, and the millions in bowl game and NCAA tournament revenue that they have been generating,* it would take far more than that for it to pay off in the broader sense for the AAC remainers, since the conference's rankings and brand would take a significant hit if the CUSA6 only get half the average level of viewership that the AAC teams have been getting - - particularly if this continues to be the case, year after year, after they join the conference.

*Due to the recent successes of Cincinnati FB and Houston MBB, the AAC remainers will continue to receive a (gradually diminishing) amount of bowl and NCAA tournament revenue from them until 2029.

For it to really "pay off" for the AAC remainers, the CUSA6 viewership will have to grow, year over year, until it matches and eventually surpasses that of the current AAC. Only then will the AAC remainers be able to maintain their inflation-adjusted revenue stream from the network beyond 2032.

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It may be possible that the CUSA6 could generate enough viewership to be a solid investment for ESPN without necessarily advancing the AAC. Adding a sizable market to the conference may generate a significant baseline number of ESPN+ views, due to the large number of sports bars, regular pubs and bars, heavy college FB viewers, and alumni/staff/students/fans of the local teams.

However, large market teams don't tend to get much viewership unless they are successful. ESPN may be going with the law of averages or the law of large numbers, indicating that if they add 6 large markets, the chances are high that one or two of them will pay off in a big way.

If the minimum "pay-off" ratio is something like 1.5:6, one could argue that the AAC has usually had 2-3 strong (top 25 or top 30 quality) FB programs, and that that has been considered worth $7 million per year/per team to ESPN. They may figure that they'll be able to generate a similar amount of viewership if they can get the same ratio from the 6 added schools (i.e., ~1.5 strong FB programs, on average).

If that's their reasoning, the early data suggest that they may be on track, with UTSA, UAB, and UNT all playing in bowl games, and with UAB and UNT both playing in the 2022 NCAA/NIT. Things may be heading in the right direction for them and, possibly, for the conference.

We'll have a better idea after the first 2-3 seasons of play in the AAC 2.0.

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(04-18-2022 09:05 PM)Tiger1983 Wrote:  There is no reason to realistically believe the strategy will work better for the AAC than CUSA. The P6 is dead. The AAC will be fortunate to stay above fthe SunBelt.

Didn’t work for CUSA because they had AAC and MWC ahead of them and they signed a very bad tv contract with little money and exposure. That was the killer for CUSA.

(04-18-2022 09:05 PM)MagicKnightmare Wrote:  

(04-18-2022 03:31 PM)ghostofclt! Wrote:  While air travel remained disrupted by Covid-19 and passenger counts continued to lag pre-pandemic levels, Charlotte Douglas International Airport moved up on a ranking of the world's busiest airports.

CLT ranked fifth among the busiest airports in the world in terms of aircraft movements — meaning arrivals and departures — in 2021, according to newly released, preliminary figures from Airports Council International. That's up from sixth place in the previous year. Based on passenger traffic, the Charlotte airport soared to No. 6 last year from No. 18 in 2020. ACI will release its final numbers for 2021 later this year.

This has everything to do with CLT being a hub for the 2nd largest airline in the world and literally nothing to do with anything related to the university or its value to the conference. People aren't landing and visiting Charlotte, they are just passing through because American is forcing them to.

clt says having a global airport 15 mins from campus is an asset for an university, easy travel for our AAC friends.

have fun at MCO with the tourists, pal.

(04-18-2022 09:32 PM)ghostofclt! Wrote:  

(04-18-2022 09:05 PM)MagicKnightmare Wrote:  

(04-18-2022 03:31 PM)ghostofclt! Wrote:  While air travel remained disrupted by Covid-19 and passenger counts continued to lag pre-pandemic levels, Charlotte Douglas International Airport moved up on a ranking of the world's busiest airports.

CLT ranked fifth among the busiest airports in the world in terms of aircraft movements — meaning arrivals and departures — in 2021, according to newly released, preliminary figures from Airports Council International. That's up from sixth place in the previous year. Based on passenger traffic, the Charlotte airport soared to No. 6 last year from No. 18 in 2020. ACI will release its final numbers for 2021 later this year.

This has everything to do with CLT being a hub for the 2nd largest airline in the world and literally nothing to do with anything related to the university or its value to the conference. People aren't landing and visiting Charlotte, they are just passing through because American is forcing them to.

clt says having a global airport 15 mins from campus is an asset for an university, easy travel for our AAC friends.

have fun at MCO with the tourists, pal.

Major football programs fly on charters and don't go through normal terminals anyways. For non-revenue sports, most everyone in the AAC has a big airport nearby. That is sort of the point of this whole conversation about adding schools in major metro areas. Bragging about your airport size is really scraping the bottom of the barrel as to how little your school has to offer in real value if the biggest flex you have is the airport.

UNCC has nothing else to offer. It's going to prove to be a huge mistake. Trust me.

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