2012 New Orleans Bowl

[CajunZ1]

What an odd way for a journalist to handle writer's block...

[Hammer58]

I thought ULM was closer to 20k, ASU 4k, WKU about 2k.

The Hoax may have 20k or more at the game but, according to their fans, many are buying from sources other than the ulm due to the poor seats allocated to them by the I Bowl.

I would hope that if given an invite to he I Bowl we negotiate either a guaranteed payout or better seating allotments.

[moorecajun]

Also, Bowl Committees have also seen that fans of 7-5 SEC, ACC and Big Ten schools won't travel to see their "mediocre" teams play in a bowl. Some of the bowls that have the 7th or 8th picks from the larger conferences would be better off picking Sun Belt, CUSA or MAC teams in their back yards. Specifically the Independence and Liberty Bowls.

The bowl committees' reasoning for picking the cellar dwellars in the "big" conferences was because they travel so well. Well, maybe they don't and we have done a good job of disproving that theory. I am going to look at all the bowl games this year to see about doing a comparison of total attendance and team attendance breakdowns. Two things to note: schools are obligated to a certain number of tickets and they are not selling them; but the tickets sold will be included in the total number. Also, we do travel very well to New Orleans ... we won't do that well elsewhere ... at least not for the next few years until we have a dedicated home crowd over 30k consistently.

[moorecajun]

The Hoax may have 20k or more at the game but, according to their fans, many are buying from sources other than the ulm due to the poor seats allocated to them by the I Bowl.

I would hope that if given an invite to he I Bowl we negotiate either a guaranteed payout or better seating allotments.

This is where CAJUN NATION gives us some leverage ... we now have improved our resume and, like you said, hopefully we can use that to negotiate a better situation with the I-bowl for in the future. And if they don't budge, it's back to New Orleans and a SELLOUT!

It's no accident that Bad Company and the Beach Boys played this year. Last year's success in the NO Bowl allowed them to provide better entertainment this year ... they had to make these preparations long before they knew we were coming back. With this years increased success, I expect next year's New Orleans Bowl to be even bigger and better; moving up the bowl chain!

[cajuncorkdork]

The Hoax may have 20k or more at the game but, according to their fans, many are buying from sources other than the ulm due to the poor seats allocated to them by the I Bowl.

I would hope that if given an invite to he I Bowl we negotiate either a guaranteed payout or better seating allotments.

Sponsor seating is always guaranteed before the teams are chosen. Without those sponsors these bowls wouldnt exist, no matter how many fans a school brings....

[I_Bleed_RED]

Did we break even? Lose money? Or did we somehow make money with this terrible new SBC rule?

[Just1More]

The bowl committees' reasoning for picking the cellar dwellars in the "big" conferences was because they travel so well.

They actually choose the super conference members, even with .500 records, because they are a national TV audience draw. In addition, regardless of how poor their fans travel, the majority of lower conference programs aren't going to travel any better or sell more tickets. If you matched Georgia (in a down year) with Florida State (in a down year)... neither school may sell large numbers of tickets, but the bowl may sell local tickets at a good clip, and TV audiences (ratings) will still be large.

UL is currently unique. We're hungry for seeing our football catching some limelight. We will travel massively to "local bowls" and we are likely to travel fairly well to moderate distance bowls. Our leadership needs to recognize that the NO Bowl situation has some conditional repeatability, and they must capitalize on what we achieved over the past two years... immediately.

[VObserver]

Sponsor seating is always guaranteed before the teams are chosen. Without those sponsors these bowls wouldnt exist, no matter how many fans a school brings....

That must be why ALL the prime seating at the New Orleans Bowl was allocated to UL and ECU.. sarcasm off.

[moorecajun]

That must be why ALL the prime seating at the New Orleans Bowl was allocated to UL and ECU.. sarcasm off.

No, but that is one big reason we were on the VISITORS side this year; the NO Bowl has blocks of seats on the home side which did not allow us to seat as many in prime locations as this year. No sarcasm needed.

[Just1More]

Sponsor seating is always guaranteed before the teams are chosen. Without those sponsors these bowls wouldnt exist, no matter how many fans a school brings....

Sponsor seating does not comprise that many seats. The I Bowl has chosen to retain a large portion of premium seating for local sales. It's their decision to do so. In certain cases, it burns the bowl. In other cases, not. It always irritates the participating programs' fans.

[cajunwarhawks23]

A school played here, closer in time and distance than UL. It has a better history and higher accomplishments than UL, and brought nowhere near the fans. University of Southern Mississippi is less than a hundred miles from the Mercedes Super Dome, and has numerous big wins against teams like number one FSU.

This year was an uphill battle for attendance for lots of reasons, or excuses if you prefer. I have zero doubt with a good start next year we will shatter Cajun game and season attendance records. Our weak attendance record of this year out draws about just about every school in C USA, so we would be at least as good as 3/4 of the teams currently in or going to C USA.

maybe im wrong but im sure the conf that are looking to expand or add teams like the cajuns cant just look at attendance...i am excited about the possibility of moving to a biiger conf...but i think it may take longer than we all think...more than a couple of winning seasons would help the most imo...but with all of the conferences making so many changes I hope im wrong

[Just1More]

No, but that is one big reason we were on the VISITORS side this year; the NO Bowl has blocks of seats on the home side which did not allow us to seat as many in prime locations as this year. No sarcasm needed.

I saw nothing but ECU fans in the core premium home side seats. Cajun fans flanking them on one side and bowl ticket distribution (sponsor and otherwise) flanking the other side. I agree that we were seated on the visitor side in order to accommodate us with an entire side. It only makes sense to allocate the least participating program fan base primary seating on the same side as sponsors and other ticket distribution.

[moorecajun]

Sponsor seating does not comprise that many seats. The I Bowl has chosen to retain a large portion of premium seating for local sales. It's their decision to do so. In certain cases, it burns the bowl. In other cases, not. It always irritates the participating programs' fans.

You bring up a good point. Some bowls may be able to sell tickets locally, with these tickets being a higher price than the ones iven to the two teams. This works if it works (kind of like Yogi Bera) because it alows them to maximize their profit (and if the state will subsidize them, so much the better).

This is why I think we are spoiled now by the New Orleans Bowl ... they have catered to us because we have made money for them. In the process people have gotten upset by not getting "prime" seats ... the best seats in other bowl games may not be as good as the worst in the Superdome that we got.

[cajun67]

If we were going to Detroit, might not be too bad a rule. Guess it depends on whose ox is being gored. Only the BCS schools benefit from rules like this. Not us.

[Hammer58]

Sponsor seating is always guaranteed before the teams are chosen. Without those sponsors these bowls wouldnt exist, no matter how many fans a school brings....

Wow, you just make these things up as you go?

Actually the I-Bowl exists, in part, because of state subsidies. Maybe a better theory I that those redneck _______s that run the I-Bowl don't know what the ____ they are doing. If they want to come beg for us to sell 20,000 or more tickets to that game they better be ready to change their seating allotments or give UL a guaranteed payout to offset poor ticket sales due to allotted seating areas.