Bowl Money...

[locoguano]

CUSA
1. Liberty $1,350,000
2. Hawai'i $750,000
3. Armed Forces $750,000
4. Beef 'O' Bradys $1,000,000
5. Military $1,000,000
6. New Orleans $500,000

Sunbelt
1. New Orleans $500,000
2. GoDaddy.com $750,000
Little Caesar's $750,000
Independence $1,100,000

A few questions...
1. Anyone know how much money UL made from the N.O. Bowl last year?
2. Was it enough to offset being in (by far) the lowest paying bowl? (vs. better pay, less ticket sales)
3. Was UL lobbying the better paying bowls or did we just jump at the chance to return to New Orleans? (I believe we would travel just as well to Shreveport or Mobile.)

[BeauCajun]

1) I think I remember net about $850,000 or so. We would not have netted anywhere near that at any other bowl beside a BCS.
2) Yes
3) See #1. No other bowl beside BCS was "better paying".

Just as an FYI, the "guarantee" from the I Bowl is just for their contracted conference partners. They negotiated a seperate payout for other conferences. Their offer to us was "far" less than the $1.1 mil above and what we are getting from the New Orleans Bowl.

[VObserver]

CUSA
1. Liberty $1,350,000
2. Hawai'i $750,000
3. Armed Forces $750,000
4. Beef 'O' Bradys $1,000,000
5. Military $1,000,000
6. New Orleans $500,000

Sunbelt
1. New Orleans $500,000
2. GoDaddy.com $750,000
Little Caesar's $750,000
Independence $1,100,000

A few questions...
1. Anyone know how much money UL made from the N.O. Bowl last year?
2. Was it enough to offset being in (by far) the lowest paying bowl? (vs. better pay, less ticket sales)
3. Was UL lobbying the better paying bowls or did we just jump at the chance to return to New Orleans? (I believe we would travel just as well to Shreveport or Mobile.)

1. We made roughly $700K from New Orleans last year.
2. Yes. See notes below
3. We jumped on New Orleans. See Louisiana Tech AD for the answer why.

Notes: Bowl Payouts are smoke and mirrors.

1. That $1,100,000 payout at the independence bowl is the contract number for teams in the SEC. If no SEC team goes, the payout is negotiated with whoever does go. Same with all the others, the payout number they show is the contract number for the league with the most lucrative tie-in. Everyone else negotiates.
2. Even for teams in the contracted conferences, the bowl does not actually pay them the contract amount. They pay them a modest sum for expenses [New Orleans paid us $60K last year] and the rest of the payout is the face value of tickets allotted to the school. If the school sells them all, they will reach the payout #, if they sell none, they get nothing.
3. New Orleans, because they know we will bring a huge crowd, is willing to allot us tickets over and above the original contract. Last year the original allotment was 2K tickets @ $60 and 8K tickets @ $40. We negotiated an additional 10K @ $40 with a 50/50 split, and sold about 8K of them. Other bowls are not willing to do that for us.

[HoustonCajun]

1. We made roughly $700K from New Orleans last year.
2. Yes. See notes below
3. We jumped on New Orleans. See Louisiana Tech AD for the answer why.

Notes: Bowl Payouts are smoke and mirrors.

1. That $1,100,000 payout at the independence bowl is the contract number for teams in the SEC. If no SEC team goes, the payout is negotiated with whoever does go. Same with all the others, the payout number they show is the contract number for the league with the most lucrative tie-in. Everyone else negotiates.
2. Even for teams in the contracted conferences, the bowl does not actually pay them the contract amount. They pay them a modest sum for expenses [New Orleans paid us $60K last year] and the rest of the payout is the face value of tickets allotted to the school. If the school sells them all, they will reach the payout #, if they sell none, they get nothing.
3. New Orleans, because they know we will bring a huge crowd, is willing to allot us tickets over and above the original contract. Last year the original allotment was 2K tickets @ $60 and 8K tickets @ $40. We negotiated an additional 10K @ $40 with a 50/50 split, and sold about 8K of them. Other bowls are not willing to do that for us.

Most conferences allow a team to take out expenses and share the rest with all conference members regardless of whether they were in a bowl or not. Apparently the SBC doesn't do that as we got to keep all of our payout last year. With 4 bowl games this year, does each team keep full revenue or is anything shared?

[VObserver]

It is my understanding that the Sun Belt is not a revenue sharing conference when it comes to bowl revenue.

[HOUCajun]

It is my understanding that the Sun Belt is not a revenue sharing conference when it comes to bowl revenue.

Or debt sharing as the case would be in years UL is not in the NOLA Bowl

[moorecajun]

Most conferences allow a team to take out expenses and share the rest with all conference members regardless of whether they were in a bowl or not. Apparently the SBC doesn't do that as we got to keep all of our payout last year. With 4 bowl games this year, does each team keep full revenue or is anything shared?

HC, are you sure you're not thinking of something else ... say tv revenue sharing, or basketball tourney sharing? I've thought the bowl teams were in it for themselves; would you want to share say, USM's lost revenue from last year at the Hawaii Bowl?

[HoustonCajun]

HC, are you sure you're not thinking of something else ... say tv revenue sharing, or basketball tourney sharing? I've thought the bowl teams were in it for themselves; would you want to share say, USM's lost revenue from last year at the Hawaii Bowl?

No. Was talking to a friend who went to Illinois and he said the Big 10 shares all bowl revenue after expenses and he thought all conferences were like that. I didn't think the SBC was, but I wasn't sure. Was just asking.

[jllanclos]

No. Was talking to a friend who went to Illinois and he said the Big 10 shares all bowl revenue after expenses and he thought all conferences were like that. I didn't think the SBC was, but I wasn't sure. Was just asking.

I think we share the bowl revenue if we get a BCS bowl...but most teams don't make revenue off the others.

If we go to Detroit, UL isn't getting crap out of that trip (you've got to sell all of your tickets). Because it's N.O., and we've sold the 13k tickets we're required to sell, we get the payout (and don't share).

That may not be right, but that's the way I understand it.