Monday, January 5, 2009
Kotz / Sports Contrary to Popular Belief, the Music City Bowl Was an Economic Success
Posted by Pete Kotz on Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 5:50 AM
The Tennessean's game day headline read "Bowl fizzles at cash register." With a Music City matchup between Vanderbilt and Boston College, Nashville hoteliers were reporting a 20-35 percent drop in business over the previous year. And since neither team has a large fan base, ticket sales were slower than usual. Despite breaking the 50,000 attendance mark--far better than the many Empty Seat Bowls aired on ESPN--general consensus called the game an economic bust.
But let's look at it another way, shall we? Call it the Beginning of Vanderbilt's Hopeful Reign of Competitiveness Theory.
For the first time in 25 years, Vandy fans saw their team in a bowl. Winning. With tickets starting at the relatively cheap price of 15 bucks, it was a chance for fathers to take their sons, for non-fans to take an interest in the local squad. In other words, it was the school's best opportunity in a quarter-century to build a real following...
Now imagine if Vandy kept this up. We're not talking about an SEC title. The obstacles are likely too great (see "The Grass Ceiling," Sept. 3). But what if they were consistently competitive--the .500 team that occasionally knocks off a powerhouse, the squad no longer assured of being blown out by halftime. Imagine the revenue that could bring.
Few people ring cash registers like traveling football fans. Go to a college town with a decent team on any fall Saturday, and watch the sale of red meat, liquor and nachos soar. But that hasn't happened in Nashville, largely because people won't travel see their team blown out by 30. Yet add a dose of competitiveness--the mere possibility of victory--and the numbers suddenly change.
I'm not saying that Vandy will someday rival Tennessee. But if it builds on this season, becoming competitive along the lines of Kentucky or Northwestern, it will more than compensate for slow Music City sales this year.
Call it a hopeful investment.
Comments (7)
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Aside from your hopes for the future, exactly how was this year's MCB an immediate "economic success"?
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Pete, you must be squinting awful hard, cuz I can't say I see the same silver lining. The home bowl game may have been a victory for car-deprived underclassmen who otherwise wouldn't have made the trip to Atlanta or Memphis to see their Commodores play, but it was most certainly a net loss for the city.
While I agree that what's good for Vanderbilt isn't necessarily good for the Music City Bowl, the two posts above miss some important points.
First, Vandy turned out to be a pretty good choice for the MCB. Vandy made a big push to sell tickets and more than did their part. Boston College sold only about 2,000 tickets (the bowl selection committees will tell you this is a historical problem with BC and a big reason why they don't get invited to bigger bowls when the committees have a choice). A lot of MCB tickets are sold (pushed on, more accurately) the local business community before anyone even knows who the two teams will be, and turnout then partly depends on the matchups and the weather. A lot of these locally sold tickets turned up on ebay at bargain prices (and were better seats than those allotted to the schools). And a lot of them were bought by Vandy fans. Turnout for the MCB (as opposed to ticket sales) is always affected by the weather. It is often freezing cold on New Year's Eve here, unlike, say, Tampa, and even people who have bought tickets may decide not to show up for a game they can watch on TV from the comfort of their warm dens. This is a built-in limitation for the MCB.
2. Here's a hint, Caleb: EVERYBODY suffered economically this year. That makes this MCB a bad comparison to other years when the economy was robust. Fewer people are spending money on discretionary travel right now. This had an impact not only on the MCB but other bowl invitations as well. North Carolina played their bowl game in Charlotte. Georgia Tech played in Atlanta. Even the traditional big bowls suffered. Anyone notice all the empty seats in the Orange Bowl for Cincinnati and Virginia Tech?
I probably didn't make my argument very well, but yes, I believe that anything that eventually lifts Vandy football to steady competitiveness will bring in far more money to Nashville than a single bowl game. People won't drive much more than 30 minutes to see losing football. But with the promise of competitiveness -- nicely advertised in the Music City Bowl -- I think you'll see a lot more fans willing to drive in for the weekend. I caught an Ole Miss game earlier in the season, and was stunned to see how many older, well-to-do alumni come in to tailgate. You couldn't get a hotel room within a half-hour of the place, and the game was against Samford. They're obviously different schools, but if Vandy could even build a lesser facsimile, I think it would generate far more money for the city over the long run than a single bowl game. So yeah, I look at this year's Music City Bowl as something of a loss leader, an advertisement to build a much larger fan base down the road. My colleague Mr. Hannan may disagree, but he uses hairspray, so he shouldn't be able to talk about football. That's in the Bible I think.
The dores play about 5-6 games a year most of which seem to be sold out thanks to the fan bases of programs like Georgia, Florida and UT. A consistently above-average Vandy squad won't bring more fans to Dudley Field and, in fact, would lure fewer fans from outside Nashville to our fair home. This doesn't mean we shouldn't root for Vandy to be decent, but let's not claim there is any economic benefit to doing so. That's just silly.
Vandy fan but...:
What you say about attendance may have been true in years past, when they only way to get a big crowd to Dudley Field was to host Tennessee or Alabama, who could be counted on to bring 40% of 50% of the audience.
But what's true of other sports at every level is also true even at Vandy: People turn out for a winner and stay home for a loser. This year, Vandy was actually able to draw crowds without depending so heavily on the other team. For example, they had a nearly full house for South Carolina, even though SC brought "only" about 5,000 fans. (And this was on a weeknight, with the game on national TV.) Then, the next week, I was surprised to see an even fuller stadium for Rice, which brought maybe 250 fans at most. I also noticed fewer Tennessee fans than usual this year, even though the place was fairly full. Some of this doubtlessly reflected reduced demand by UT fans. However, (and though I have no way other than anecdotal evidence of proving it), I also strongly suspect that there were fewer UT fans because fewer Vandy fans followed their usual custom of selling or giving away their tickets that that game. And more of them held onto their tickets because they expected Vandy to win (you'd have to go back a long time to find another year when the Vegas boys favored Vandy over UT).
I would expect that next year, when Vandy has 18 starters returning, they will set a record for season ticket sales. Perhaps that means that tickets for visitors from Alabama, Georgia, Ole Miss and Kentucky will be a little harder to come by.
Having said all this, I don't see how a winner at Vandy will create any real economic benefit for the city. If anything, having fewer out-of-town fans from Alabama or Ole Miss might even REDUCE hotel occupancy on football weekends. At best, those usual visitors merely will be replaced by out-of-town Vandy alumni.
Despite claims to the contrary, the Titans create no net economic benefit for Nashville (nor, as research shows, do pro sports teams in other cities). So it seems a little far-fetched to think that Vandy, with a much smaller fan base and stadium, has any real effect on Nashville's economy.
I apologize for my complete misunderstanding of the purpose of the MCB. I was under the mistaken impression that the MCB was created to bring visitors to our fair city during a notoriously slow week at the end of the year to aid the renting of motel/hotel rooms and put butts in restaurant seats hoping to increase the sale of red meat, liquor and nachos.
I was completely unaware that the actual purpose of the MCB is to create a foundation for future growth of the Vandy football program so that in the future more tickets at Vanderbilt Stadium will be sold to locals than to visitors who might need a room or sustenance.
Silly me.
