John U. Bacon: "You're killing the fanbase, David Brandon!" (Paraphrased with liberties)
Mr. Bacon has written quite a bit about why Ticket Sales have been flagging. As I, myself, have recently been offered a "deal" on single-game tickets, I love reading Mr. Bacon's salvoes over Brandon's bow:
This fall Michigan is in danger of breaking its string of 251 consecutive games with 100,000-plus paid attendance, which started in 1975.
And then this gem:
After Brandon became Michigan's 11th athletic director in 2010, he often repeated one of his favorite lines: "If it ain't broke ... break it!" You have to give him credit: He has delivered on his promise.
Happy Monday Mr. Brandon! Special Delivery for you, direct from the desk of John U. Bacon!
to 1964 is out of context considering the previous decade of losing seasons and mediocrity. Contrary to what many would like to believe, ordinary fans don't have prescience so rationally based their ticket purchases in 1964 based upon Michigan's past peformance.
- 1963 3-4-2
- 1962 2-7
- 1961 6-3
- 1960 5-4
- 1959 4-5
- 1958 2-6-1
Given the records over the previous six seasons I don't think it unreasonable for ordinary fans to believe that 1964 would be more of the same. Moreover, the program returned to its losing ways in 1965. Even the magical year of 1969 wasn't great, the win over OSU was great but the losses to Missouri and MSU were more of the same, and the RB loss was very painful. So it is little wonder that it took five or so very good to excellent seasons before ticket sales matched stadium capacity. IMO, ticket sales for 2014 should be looked at in the context of 2008-2013 rather than as an isolated season.
Band day, we were on the schedule for Band Day, I think 1976...in any case that 25 year tradition, started 18 years before Canham became AD, stopped the season we were supposed to attend. Another tradition wiped out by Don Canham to make way for the almighty dollar.
Band day has been credited to Canham. From DB's blog "Canham ... Band Day was just one of his ingenious ideas. He brought high school musicians -- and their parents, of course -- into Michigan Stadium to help create a special day of entertainment and Wolverine football." But I stand corrected as Wikipedia has it starting in the late 1940's.
I do think in season performance affects sales, but not season ticket sales for sure. You don't think winning brings more fans into the stadium that season? Or that losing causes no shows?
"wiped out by Don Canham to make way for the almighty dollar." Band Day was created to fill emply seats, once there were no longer 20,000 free seats for crappy games, it went away.
I do agree there is an attendance lag effect for on field performance both good and bad, but that can be exacerbated by price actions.
You mean I get to read it a third time when HTTV comes out? Yay!!!
er....well...yes?
Maybe a better explanation is in order: his article in HTTV is about how the wants of the administrators (more money), the players (fairness), and fans (all this stuff) is putting too much strain on college football, and then suggests a way to compromise and save the sport for everybody. The part where he was outlining what the fans want was getting HUGE. So he siphoned much of that section into an article on his blog that he references in the article. Like an idiot I turned down the opportunity to have it published on MGoBlog (cause I didn't want to take away from HTTV) and SI jumped on it.
So the HTTV article is still pretty fresh, though you'll recognize parts from this article and from Fourth and Long, and from Three and Out, and from where he references MGoBlog, because all of those things are part of the big story.
Compare Brandon to current to CURRENT ADs. Not ADs of the past.
Doing that is never going to get anyone anywhere. It's just a completely different time.
Creating the future?
"It's just a completely different time.
Just like comparing football teams from different eras gets you no where. Or coaches.
Bo Schembechler the coach could've and probably would've struggled in this era that we're in. Not just on the field, but all the off-field shit too. Maybe not, but to compare him to someone from today is kinda silly."
So things change. I guess JFK and Lincoln would suck as Presidents today. I believe people who perfomed well in the past have the capability to adjust and perform well today. I agree that comparing atheletes from different eras does not work perfectly, but administrators and coaches? I think in general top people would do well regardless of era. I think you could drop Canham and Schembechler in today and they would do just fine.
Given JFK's personal indiscretions, health issues, etc, the modern media would have a field day with him. Probably wouldn't be a great president in this era. Some questions as to whether he really was all that great in his own (got us started in Vietnam, Bay of Pigs, and the Cuban Missile Crisis, while often considered his finest hour, occurred at least in part because Khrushchev perceived Kennedy as weak).
That sucks, he died a pretty crappy death.
If Apollo Creed = Michigan, Drago = 2012 Alabama........
Wouldn't it be "prissy personal pride" that would cause one to foolishly attempt to remove a blemish from history? We lost to App State - deal with it. Some stains are better left as reminders.
portion of the population, I think you make an excellent point.
There's nothing self-loathing about using a past failure as motivation and a reminder not to take future obstacles for granted - it's actually quite healthy. We could beat App State 50 times and OSU/State fans will still bring that loss up. It's now a part of our program whether we like it or not.
But, hey, if beating up on weaker opposition makes you feel better, have at it.
I dislike Dave Brandon. But Bacon's article, outside of the student stuff, which is probably dead on, is ridiculous. TV timeouts and altered kick-off times for national/regional broadcasts have been happening for DECADES now and haven't had ANY effect on season ticket sales. It's the fact that
A) This is the worst home schedule in probably 70 years
and
B) The football program has utterly sucked since 2008
and
C) The PSD has made the cost crazy
THAT is what is keeping people away.
Improve the schedule, start winning or lower the PSD and your problem is gone. Those are the 3 things that have changed that are the real issues (for non students). All of the other stuff is just BS. People will show up at noon 3:30, or 8 PM for good games and a winning team.
Your A) and B) are unique to Michigan. The problem of declining attendance is not.
So I keep asking, what is the point of raising all this money and what will they use it for?
To me, a 37% increase in the size of the budget and a 72% increase in administrator compensation answers the question at least partially, and not in a good way at all. Having admin salaries increase at twice the pace of the budget (to say nothing of the 80% marketing and promotion increase) really lends a lot of fuel to the argument that people are making themselves rich off of this.
A thousand times this. Brandon's end-all, be-all fpr the athletic department seems to be "make as much money as possible". If he happens to improve the brand along the way it's only because that's the easiest way to achieve the goal. I don't get why he gets so much of a pass on that. If "winning will fix everything", why is it okay that he so focused on monetizing seat cushions and water bottles and marketing in and around the stadium, instead of on making the program better? Instead of making the fans more passionate (maybe by treating them like fans and not ATMs)?
At some point, dumping more money into facilities and salaries is just getting rich and gilding the lilly for the sake of doing it (and stroking DB's ego). The AD makes plenty of money. Yes, Michigan's teams should have everything they need - quality coaching, quality (not opulent) facilities, etc. But if it's a choice between fat bonuses, waterfalls in the locker room, and 2 million dollar glowing billboards for field hockey ads, or making things a bit more affordable for the common fan... That's apparently where we are now. I'd choose the fans, and any good AD should too. Brandon chooses the signs and paying himself.
If Brandon wants to run the AD as a for-profit corporation, then fine. Spin it off from the University, let it pay corporate taxes, and see how long it survives. If he wants it to be part of Michigan, he needs to recognize he's the steward of a public good and a century long tradition. The "shareholders" want great memories of fall weekends with their classmates and families, not a fatter bottom line.
When Michigan had, if not the most boring offense, near one of the most boring offenses they have ever put on the field. I have to agree, near unwatchable so I just don't understand the fuss about that season.
But you were able to look forward to the defense taking the field during the 1996/97 team.
In truth I didn't mind Michigan's offense that season, while boring it rarely turned the ball over and it did score points, at least 20 points every game. Compare that to the 2008 offense that failed five times to score 20 points, and both the 2009 and 2010 seasons failed to score 20 points thrice each.
At the end of the day, all else being equal, boring wins trump exciting losses.
You might be underestimating the amount of buckeye fans that miss Tressel and would still prefer him over Urban.
I swear, all Bacon does is whine about DB. I like Bacon, and he's a great writer, but his agenda is unbearable
This goes to the seemingly largest debate on whether to continue supporting the program with the increased costs. Many say to continue to pay but, let's face it-customers will be customers when they feel they are going against the corporate man and his price gouging.