In Soviet Big Ten, Title Game Pays You
![acc_championship_game_crowd_view_2007_empty_stadium_jacksonville_altel_acc_sucks_sux[1]](https://mgoblog.com/sites/mgoblog.com/files/acc_championship_game_crowd_view_2007_empty_stadium_jacksonville_altel_acc_sucks_sux1.jpg "acc_championship_game_crowd_view_2007_empty_stadium_jacksonville_altel_acc_sucks_sux[1]")
Probably not this bad, but not good either.
This popped up on Craigslist last night:
Event Seat-Filler (Indianapolis / Downtown)
Date: 2011-11-29, 9:24PM EST
Reply to: [email protected] [Errors when replying to ads?]
Saturday night event in downtown Indianapolis needs seat-fillers. Total number of seat-fillers needed will vary based on crowd.
Must tolerate loud noise and crowds. Must have red or dark green casual clothing to wear. Event will last all evening on Saturday night. All ages, sexes, races, etc.
Please use contact e-mail. Event planner will follow-up with exact details on location for staging of seat-fillers (additional information and instruction provided there).
- Location: Indianapolis / Downtown
- it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
- Compensation: 75 dollars, parking validation and access to event
I saw one of The Only Colors guys complain that ticket prices were collapsing on StubHub and he should have waited to pick tickets up; he had no idea. If you paid more than negative 75 dollars you've been had.
Stubhub is currently showing a whopping 38 pages of tickets totaling 9000(!) seats starting at ten bucks. Almost 15% of the stadium is currently being hawked on a single website. This is "sold out" in an extremely technical sense.
"As you look at these games all around the country, all of them are going to be under face value,'' said Franksmann, whose site was listing $89 tickets for $29 on Tuesday. "You hate to say this, but people don't really care to go to a meaningless game.''
Needs moar "Build Me Up, Buttercup," I think.
November 30th, 2011 at 11:07 AM ^
I hear they're quite effective at filling half the seats at a venue... teamed up with Mark Dantonio and Bret Beilema, you're looking at a standing room only event! WIINNN!!!
November 30th, 2011 at 12:20 PM ^
will be there, holding a charm bracelet from Izzo close to his hairless chest
November 30th, 2011 at 11:08 AM ^
Indianapolis FAIL.
And we're stuck there through 2015.
November 30th, 2011 at 11:34 AM ^
If they are not going to have the title game in Chicago, then the B1G should allow the team with the better record to host the game on campus (like the Pac-12) is doing.
November 30th, 2011 at 11:10 AM ^
"We would have walked to Michigan('s first Big Ten Championship Appearance)."
November 30th, 2011 at 11:11 AM ^
Is Fox televising this hallowed event? How much $$$ did they cough up for TV rights?
November 30th, 2011 at 12:03 PM ^
Yes, Fox. Something like $24 million per year.
November 30th, 2011 at 11:12 AM ^
If the teeming masses of (non-alumni) Save-A-Lot Spartans were allowed the priviledge of being "real" Spartan fans they could fill that stadium in a heartbeat.
But alas, rules are rules.
November 30th, 2011 at 12:22 PM ^
Wal-Mart'n Spartans
November 30th, 2011 at 2:07 PM ^
Imagine if more bloggers had the privilege of spelling correctly.
BTW, I recall a dairy devoted to defining a Wal-Mart Wolverine; does anyone have the link?
November 30th, 2011 at 2:15 PM ^
Was it Quality Dairy?
Remember, kids: If you correct somebody's spelling, make sure you spell all of the words in your post correctly.
November 30th, 2011 at 11:14 AM ^
I find it amusing that some people seem disposed to belive the Craig's List posting is an advertisement for extras rather than a witty commentary on the lack of demand for the B1G CG. (No, i'm not including Brian in this. I presume he knows better.) Then again, maybe i'm the sucker and people pretending to believe the B1G would pay $75 for fake fans managed to fool me.
November 30th, 2011 at 11:43 AM ^
November 30th, 2011 at 11:49 AM ^
And if the local convention authority and/or the stadium posted the ad and is making the payments, that would technically be correct, yes? Misleading, but correct.
November 30th, 2011 at 12:01 PM ^
It's also a bad sign when the ticket market is so bad you have to post a denial about it in the first place. If we saw a posting go up for seatfillers in Ann Arbor on a Saturday we'd just all laugh at it in.
Edit: Also I kind of buy the Tourism Board theory. Someone on the Indy Tourism Board had to give Delany a really sweet sell to land that game and now the last thing they want is for Lucas Oil Field to be 15+% empty on gameday.
November 30th, 2011 at 12:16 PM ^
Exactly. The plausibility of it really is funny. (Especially to me as an SEC fan at a B1G institution... i shall now run for cover from the flying MGoBrickbats....)
November 30th, 2011 at 4:33 PM ^
who is it?
I'm going to guess Tennessee.
November 30th, 2011 at 6:18 PM ^
With the VU, I'm guessing Vandy.
November 30th, 2011 at 8:31 PM ^
Yeah, i wasn't trying to be opaque, it's Vanderbilt. Good grief, man, Tennessee? Couldn't you just guess Arkansas or Miss State?
Saturday was a sweet sweet day.
November 30th, 2011 at 12:11 PM ^
You could be right, but my intiution is pretty strong that it's a hoax for a couple of reasons:
1. Giving away tickets to something people paid money for is terrible business, because next year in a vacuum no one will buy tickets. (Next year Michigan will be a favorite to win the West so CG tickets will be in higher demand, but never mind that detail. In general it's bad to make people think tickets will be available for free.)
For $75 pp a better strategy is to find local charities that would like something for kids to do, give them tickets, and buy them popcorn and a piece of Spartan or Badger gear. Or just give them to corporate donors. To be fair, they probably already give them to corporate donors, which doesn't create the most engaged fans.
And a CL ad isn't exactly secret. What gives it away is....
2. The line, "Must have red or dark green casual clothing to wear," just sounds like a subtle dig at the participating teams. Of course you'd want to dress your extras as fans and of course it could just be an early holiday party with a huge crowd, but.... it's pretty obvious what event they're referring to, and it's only supposed to be obvious if it's satire.
I'd like it better (and be surer of myself) if they'd said, "Must tolerate moderate ambient noise and relatively small crowds."
November 30th, 2011 at 12:19 PM ^
It may be a hoax, but if its not, giving tickets to charity wouldn't work. The problem is, the tickets are sold. In theory, you need a reserve supply of seat fillers to fill in empty portions of the stadium that will also be perfectly willing (b/c they're being paid) to up and leave if the people holding the tickets suddenly appear mid 2nd quarter. It would look really bad if you suddenly had to eject 1/3 of the local Boys and Girls Club because Sparty or Bucky was getting his drink on and couldn't show up on time.
It does raise the logistical question of when you'd start filling the seats in. Mid first quarter?
November 30th, 2011 at 12:43 PM ^
No idea if Lucas Oil has this, but you can actually manage it remotely. Everyone gets a little hockey puck sized thing with a small screen. A bit before gametime it shows a seat and row number on the screen. You go and sit there. If the ticket holders arrives, the minute their tickets are scanned the puck vibrates so you know to clear out. Also if the TV says "Hey, forget filling in section X, we can shoot around that, but we need to fill in section Y" you can have th pucks tell people to move. A college roommate of mine just got done installing one at a Japanese stadium.
Very cool but also very pricey. Likely worth it though if you plan on using the stadium to hold a lot of marque events (and thus may find yourself frequently employing seat fillers).
November 30th, 2011 at 11:56 AM ^
You should read those Tweets like you would an Urban Meyer statement about taking the Ohio State job.
Just because the B1G Ten isn't doing it, doesn't mean the City of Indianapolis or its Tourism Bureau isn't doing it.
November 30th, 2011 at 11:13 AM ^
that the first B1G Championship game had to be wasted on these two teams.
SMH
November 30th, 2011 at 11:13 AM ^
If they wanted to guaranty a sell-out, they should have had this game at the stadium of the higher-ranked team (or some other arbitrary metric). Unlike other events, college football fans tend to be team specific and do not care to go to games that do not involve their team (obviously, there are exceptional games and die-hard cfb fans that go against this). So, while your will have Wisco and MSU fans that travel, you will not get hometowners buying seats for this game.
Also hurting this game is that a championship game between Wisco and MSU has about as much cache as the Beef O'Brady Bowl. Neither of these programs really has a national fanbase (sorry, MSU). If the game were between Michigan and OSU, or even Nebrask and OSU, the result might be different.
November 30th, 2011 at 11:14 AM ^
This is why the B1G needs Michigan and Ohio to be great every year. Lucas Oil Stadium would be packed if we were playing them in the championship.
November 30th, 2011 at 11:23 AM ^
The best part is that they separated the two and put them in different divisions so that they wouldn't play each other in back-to-back weeks. But I bet that attendance and TV viewing would be higher the second game if they played back-to-back.
November 30th, 2011 at 11:41 AM ^
If Michigan and Ohio were undefeated in conference play going into the Game in all likelihood they would play again the next week in the Championship game (regardless of which team lost). Having the team with the best record hosting the championship game would add extra impetus to that game.
November 30th, 2011 at 11:48 AM ^
But could you imagine the outcry if your scenario came to pass, and Michigan beats osu in Ann Arbor in The Game, and then plays osu in Ann Arbor the following weekend for the conference title? And vice versa, with potentially 2 weekends of Michigan-osu in C'bus.
November 30th, 2011 at 1:46 PM ^
"Sweet! a day game one week, followed by a Night Game experience the next week!"
On top of that there would be all the Tweets from OSU providing electronic bulletin board material for the night game.
This year I'm expecting the media will fill the December lack of football news with comparisons between "The Game" and "The Championship", and will find the latter lacking.
If I remember the recruiting ranking's update even before Urban Meyer rumors started, were'nt the top three Michigan, ND, Ohio? A couple of the Little 8 may have grown in stature following the scholarship parity of reducing to 85 scholarships in the 90's, but the same names keep coming up on top.
On top of that, the highest populations are still Michigan and Ohio, or at least the highest populations of Football Viewing fans (I not sure what people in Philadelphia do in the fall)
How many Michigan Fans wanted a National Championship rematch of "The Game" back in 2006? How many LSU and Bama fans are going to be bored with the likely NC this year?
November 30th, 2011 at 9:41 PM ^
November 30th, 2011 at 1:59 PM ^
The argument against putting them in different divisions was so they didn't play back to back. If OSU and Michigan both won our divisions we would play back to back. The only way to prevent back to back games was moving the game away from the last week or putting us in the same division.
November 30th, 2011 at 11:17 AM ^
So, if this ad is real, who's paying the seat filling agency? The Big 10 or the Indianapolis tourism people. It's gotta be the Indy people, right? It doesn't particularly hurt the Big 10 if its not sold out, but it would damage Indy's reputation for being able to put on big time events, and might lead the Big 10 to look elsewhere after 2015.
If they have to fill 5,000 seats, let's figure the agency charges a $25 fee for each seat filled (this is likely low, but it makes the number round). $500,000?
November 30th, 2011 at 12:09 PM ^
Indy sold themselves as an inexpensive central location that fans would flock to. They are sort of screwed because the Spartans don't fill their stadium for home games, so expecting them to travel is wishful thinking, and it's a long way from Madison (unlike Chicago). So Indianapolis wants to look good to the B1G. I'm guessing this has backfired, though.
November 30th, 2011 at 11:14 AM ^
This can't be real, can it?
November 30th, 2011 at 11:32 AM ^
Send 'em an email. I'm curious what'll happen. (But i don't expect you to really get offered $75 to go to a game.)
November 30th, 2011 at 11:15 AM ^
But wouldn't hosting the game in Chicago be an unfair advantage to "Chicago's Big Ten team"?
November 30th, 2011 at 11:52 AM ^
They'd have to get to the B1G champ game first!
November 30th, 2011 at 12:06 PM ^
About that...
November 30th, 2011 at 12:25 PM ^
Northwestern's a weird case of a team that doesn't sell out their home stadium but almost always sells their bowl allotment. They put something like 5,000 fans in the stands at Army this year. Smaller alumni base, but more scattered and willing to travel for event games?
November 30th, 2011 at 11:21 AM ^
Need teams that people care about. Like not MSU.
November 30th, 2011 at 11:21 AM ^
November 30th, 2011 at 11:24 AM ^
We've FOUND our target demographic!! "Don't really care who wins"
November 30th, 2011 at 11:23 AM ^
This game is being aired on Fox Sports. It's almost like they knew before the season started nobody would have an interest in it.
November 30th, 2011 at 11:34 AM ^
It's being aired on FOX, not FOX Sports. Those are two different networks.
November 30th, 2011 at 12:46 PM ^
This isn't quite as ridiculous as I thought it was.
November 30th, 2011 at 11:25 AM ^
I don't know that the game would do much better in Chicago. Sure, it's a bigger population, but I wouldn't expect lots of neutral fans to pack the stadium when it's 30 degrees outside and windy. Fans of the teams playing? Absolutely. People who don't care who wins and just go to watch football? Seems unlikely to me.
November 30th, 2011 at 11:45 AM ^
A few people mentioned it and I agree, Chicago has a big enough B1G presence that there will be plenty of alumni from any of the 12 schools in the area. It's at least a little more centrally located too, maybe negligable though.
November 30th, 2011 at 12:09 PM ^
The only reason I'm considering not going (it's less than two hours drive and if tickets are only $10, why not?) is that I hate indoor football.
November 30th, 2011 at 11:26 AM ^
We live in downtown Indy, so I replied to the ad. At worst, nothing happens, at best, we make $150. I'll report back!
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