Auburn Keeps Selling And Selling And Selling…
December 18th, 2009 ║ Posted By: John Pennington ║ Permalink ║ Tags: Auburn, Tennessee
Every year folks start trying to project bowl matchups based on head-to-head competition, overall records, conference records, conference standings, “name” appeal, hot finishes, etc.
And every year I try to tell them that one thing trumps every other thing on the list: How many butts will School X put in the seats?
Bowl games — aside from the BCS Championship Game — are set up to drive fans into a town for a few days. Hotels get a bounce. Restaurants get a bounce. Bars get a bounce. Stores get a bounce. That’s the goal. Bowls are chamber-of-commerce events. End of story.
The best example this year is the Outback Bowl in Tampa. Exactly six SEC teams finished the season with identical 7-5 records. But only one of those teams finished the season on a 2-5 skid. Still, Auburn got the nod over every other 7-5 team to go to the league’s third or fourth best bowl (depending on the year).
Since all of those schools finished just 7-5, I don’t believe there was any room for crying from the other five fanbases, though I heard plenty of it.
But look at what Auburn has done since nabbing that bid. They blew through their ticket allotment within a week. Then they requested more tickets and sold those out.
Now — with more than 14,000 Auburn fans already on their way to Tampa — the school has secured some extra premium club level seats for the game. The new tix go for $150 a pop.
THAT is what bowl committees (and the city councils who give them tax breaks, parking help, etc) like to hear.
So anyone who cried about Auburn getting the Outback Bowl bid needs to pay close attention to the tickets Tiger fans are snapping up. And remember that next year when you start trying to figure out who’ll go where. (Betcha AU gets another spiffy bowl slot next season, too.)
For those needing further proof, notice that the Outback Bowl chose Northwestern — lesser name, lesser TV draw, worse record — over Wisconsin as Auburn’s opponent. Why? Because there was a better chance of Chicago folks traveling to Tampa than there was of Wisconsin folks returning to the city for the second time in three years.
Ticket sales, folks. Ticket sales.
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