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 11:28 AM ^
No one would go, it's too cold.
/sarcasm
November 30th, 2011 at 11:32 AM ^
Too cold is definitely my favorite Delany excuse. After all I mean the Winter Classic in Chicago was a bust, our outdoor hockey game was a bust, and Lambeau is a ghost town in December.
November 30th, 2011 at 11:30 AM ^
Because the games are meaningless, nobody cares/ goes. However, if the winner was automatically in a 4,6, X team playoff for the NC game, there would be a ton more interest (and money) for CFB.
November 30th, 2011 at 5:03 PM ^
we just had a plus one championship game that only bowl winners from the conference championship matchups went to ...
Then we would have winning the B1G championship mattering, and winning the Rose Bowl mattering once again in the college universe.
The BCS sucks, it has always sucked, and they just needed to add a plus one game to fix the whole thing (e.g., Michigan plays Nebraska for the national championship on January 11th, 1997, or USC plays Florida in 2007).
November 30th, 2011 at 11:35 AM ^
"Build Me Up Buttercup" reference. This is TRULY the worst song of the RAWK music in Michigan Stadium (tho I could do without Neil Diamong too ... whoa , whoa, whoa).
What a great song about being happy only to have your heart broken ... yeah that's what fans want to hear.
Go Blue!
November 30th, 2011 at 11:38 AM ^
The irony is that the game is anything but meaningless to US. The outcome of this game will dramatically impact which bowl we go to as well as Whisky & Satee. Maybe we should all attend instead. Tell em that if we can wear Maize n Blue we'll sit in the seats for only $50. They'll save $25 per seat filler!
November 30th, 2011 at 11:51 AM ^
I assume we'll jump whomever loses in the BCS rankings. In that case, it doesn't really matter who wins. We might want to root for a blowout, as that would certainly send the loser below us.
That would get us to 15, and Georgia dropping if they lose to LSU gets us to 14.
November 30th, 2011 at 12:11 PM ^
There is speculation that if Michigan State narrowly lost, they could remain above Michigan in the standings. So, either a) root for Wisconsin to blow out Michigan State, or b) Michigan State to beat Wisconsin. I'm going with a).
November 30th, 2011 at 11:39 AM ^
Well this proves it, nobody cares about MSU. Will anyone watch it on TV either?
November 30th, 2011 at 11:41 AM ^
I think Indy is fine to host, I also think having it in Chicago is also fine. I don't mind it moving around to different venues as the years go by. I think there are a number of neutral sites they could use. I hope they sell out.
November 30th, 2011 at 11:43 AM ^
BIG Ten Just tweeted that they are in fact not paying fans to attend. Told fans to beware of the offer.
November 30th, 2011 at 11:44 AM ^
November 30th, 2011 at 11:53 AM ^
....BUT, if we threw in a six-pack, would anyone consider it?
November 30th, 2011 at 11:46 AM ^
Be aware is not the same as beware. What they're saying is that they are not paying anyone to attend. Odds are its the folks in Indy.
November 30th, 2011 at 11:58 AM ^
Thats a good point. Guess I should have pasted the tweet first because I thought it said beware.
November 30th, 2011 at 11:51 AM ^
Pathetic. I just posted this on my FB page with a plea to my Wisky friends (I don't have any MSU friends thankfully) to get their hineys to Indy.
Edit: If this doesn't factor into the BCS standings, maybe it should. Just goes to show how uninterested money-spending fans are in MSU (or Wisky, for that matter).
November 30th, 2011 at 4:20 PM ^
really surprises me.
I posted in another thread a few days ago that Wisconsin travels so well they would fill up that stadium no problem.
I guess I really over-estimated how much fans will want to go to the first ever big ten championship game.
Maybe it's an effect of the struggling economy? Or I guess all Wiscy fans are saving their money for the rose bowl?
I was way off on this I guess.
Before the first big 10 Championship Game has even been played, I've changed my mind from "This is so awesome" to "What a waste of time and money - let's ditch all championship games and just start the playoffs this week" - of course this only applies if we actually have a playoff system.
November 30th, 2011 at 11:51 AM ^
Indianapolis is a little far from DC for a weekend trip.
Especially when I don't have a car (trying to fix that...).
November 30th, 2011 at 11:56 AM ^
"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.''Be nice if all these conference championship games could be turned into the first round of a real playoff system. The bowl-game argument gets weaker and weaker.
November 30th, 2011 at 12:09 PM ^
...any more. I thought the same thing about the argument that Alabama's in a better position than LSU because they don't have to endure the risk of competing for a conference championship, losing, and dropping in the polls. Apparently the SEC championship itself doesn't mean much to anyone.
Since that's the case, let's blow up the whole system and go to a playoff. If only college presidents were rational people....
November 30th, 2011 at 12:01 PM ^
Although the 600 level is EXTREMELY cheap the cheapest to be found in the lower level is 65 bucks.
November 30th, 2011 at 12:21 PM ^
What they should do is alternate divisions whose champion gets to host the title game. That will work well when we get to 9 conference games. One division can get a 5-4 home-away split for conference games and the other can get a 4-5 split, then the division winner with 4 home games gets to host so that the two division winners have 5-5 splits at the end of the year.
November 30th, 2011 at 12:22 PM ^
http://indianapolis.craigslist.org/evg/2727703432.html
Within the last hour, they took out the sentence "Must have red or green casual clothing to wear." The rest of the ad is unchanged.
November 30th, 2011 at 12:25 PM ^
First three callers said "I'd love to help you but Brady Hoke confiscated all my red and green clothing" and they decided they'd better take that out.
November 30th, 2011 at 12:38 PM ^
That last line I imagine being spoken by Bill Murray's character from Caddyshack. Priceless, I think.
November 30th, 2011 at 12:44 PM ^
Don't get me wrong, I like that we are exposing already exploited teenagers to further injury in an absolutely pointless game for the sake of coaches, coordinators, and AD's salaries, but paying people to be there is a little over the top
November 30th, 2011 at 1:33 PM ^
There's one large reason it's not in Chicago:
6 of 7 years, the game would conflict with the RSNA medical convention, which brings 25,000+ people to the city. There wouldn't be hotel availability downtown, and the fans would be competing for $450+ hotel rooms, higher air-fare, etc.
Chicago likely had no interest.
November 30th, 2011 at 1:58 PM ^
Interesting. would have be an issue with Chicago. The Park District (owners of Soldier Field) did make a presentation for the championship game when the Big 10 asked for bids. Who knows how much behind the scenes support that bid received, however.
November 30th, 2011 at 2:19 PM ^
November 30th, 2011 at 2:22 PM ^
I highly recommend you concede this point to Chitown.
December 1st, 2011 at 7:39 AM ^
December 1st, 2011 at 7:51 AM ^
I defer to your knowledge in this area but it seems odd to me that Chicago would even make a proposal if they had no interest. Maybe the prospect of higher-than-usual room rates killed the proposal from the conference's perspective?
November 30th, 2011 at 9:02 PM ^
It had 65,000 attendees for a week. Downtown Chicago handled it no problem, Yes the room rates at premium hotels were $375+ but so what? It really doesn't matter, on any given week/ weekend there can be mulitple convetions in downtown Chicago. It's a fact of life. The city can handle it. If you are looking for a discounted room, downtown Chicago is NOT the place to look. Further for a game, the environs offer plenty of space and the drive on a Saturday morning is pretty easy.
How many Sundays do the Bears play at home? At least half that attendence is visiing the city. Plenty of space.
November 30th, 2011 at 2:08 PM ^
Someone who responded to the craigslist posting received this response:
"Thanks for expressing interest in helping us fill empty seats on Saturday night. We have gotten your e-mail address, and will be sending out details Saturday morning to match the expected number of needed seat-fillers. Our client has asked for discretion about this opportunity, as "seat-filling" is behind-the-scenes aspect of this event production."On the day of the event event, we will designate a parking garage and validate your parking. Seat fillers will be assigned seats inside or near the event close to the event start time. We expect fillers will need to be checked in around 6:30pm on Saturday. The event itself begins shortly after 8pm, and we expect it to conclude close to midnight. You will receive payment at the end of the evening upon turning in the paperwork given to you at the beginning of the evening.
"No experience is necessary, and there are no age, sex, or race requirements. We are asking that all participants wear red or dark green t-shirts and/or hats.
"This is an exciting opportunity to be paid to see a live sporting event! We look forward to seeing you on Saturday."
November 30th, 2011 at 2:14 PM ^
Perhaps not the Big Ten, but the craigslist posting was posted by an organization called the ICC. Probably Indiana Convention Center.
November 30th, 2011 at 2:51 PM ^
They must be worried about losing the game to another city like Chicago or Detroit.
November 30th, 2011 at 1:57 PM ^
You would think State fans would want to savor this game, knowing they aren't going to be there for another 25ish years.
November 30th, 2011 at 2:02 PM ^
November 30th, 2011 at 2:46 PM ^
Color me shocked that a national program like MSU has trouble moving the needle in Indy.
November 30th, 2011 at 5:59 PM ^
Maybe they got the 50,000 people they needed already!
November 30th, 2011 at 6:45 PM ^
Of course the game is sold out. You don't use seat-fillers if the game isn't sold out--you donate tickets to charity or corporate backers or find an agent to dump them below face. It's when you've sold the tickets but fear a ton of no-shows that you hire people to fill the empties. You can't sell them twice; you can't ask people you've given tickets to to move when the holders show up late.
I don't know how we're ever going to know if this was real or not unless someone that's trusted here reports that they actually made contact, or better yet got into the game this way.
November 30th, 2011 at 8:09 PM ^
yet another reason to hate hate hate all conference title games.
also, why the hell aren't those fans showing up? they suck.
December 5th, 2011 at 2:44 AM ^
Thank you for developing this website. Canada Goose JackorThe stories here are worth reading many times over in order to refresh us timeCanada Goose Online and time again to do good and positive thingsBilliga Canada Goose and inspire or influence others to do the same.
Comments