Their season ticket sales trajectory is quite sobering.
https://www.nj.com/rutgersfootball/...et-sale-numbers-heading-into-2019-season.html
https://www.nj.com/rutgersfootball/...et-sale-numbers-heading-into-2019-season.html
Can RU football survive dwindling attendance?
- Thread starter Hugh Laurie
- Start date
With all due respect why should any PSU fan give a damn about Rutgers? They are rude, boorish and obnoxious. Their comments on their site regarding us, and treatment of PSU fans at their stadium rival and often exceed Pitts crudeness. We should just let Darwin’s Law play out and have them return to the Patriot League. They comically couldn’t win that either with any regularity. But then again that’s just my opinion.
If rutgers football went away tomorrow would anyone notice or care?
All of the attorneys involved with Rutgers University. The program has been established in the B1G
“We’re getting much better data on who is buying our tickets.”
True, presumably you have time to get twice as much data on half as many purchasers.
True, presumably you have time to get twice as much data on half as many purchasers.
Ironically I believe Rutgers is 5th in the country in wrestling ticket sales.
I can’t believe they kept their coach after last year. The poor guy looks lost, figuratively and literally.
Reading the comments on the article brought some other pieces of info:
Students are apparently given free tickets to the games that count towards reported attendance but most just tailgate. Also they haven’t lowered the cost of tickets even with the declining attendance figures and poor result on the field.
What I’m most amazed at though is they weren’t last in the B1G for average attendance - that honor went to Maryland.
Students are apparently given free tickets to the games that count towards reported attendance but most just tailgate. Also they haven’t lowered the cost of tickets even with the declining attendance figures and poor result on the field.
What I’m most amazed at though is they weren’t last in the B1G for average attendance - that honor went to Maryland.
Maryland was a complete train wreck.
It will be interesting to see if their new regime can get things turned around.
A
anon_is9z1n0h3zblb
Guest
$10+ million buyout. After this season it's $7+ million buyout. Maybe they can afford to fire him for the 2021 season. His agent deserves a bonus.
From the article:
"Rutgers has sold 16,585 season tickets for the 2019 season, which begins Aug. 30 at SHI Stadium against the University of Massachusetts."
Outside of the band and players' families, who is going to sit in 90-degree heat to watch this game? I can't wait to see a picture of the "crowd".
"Rutgers has sold 16,585 season tickets for the 2019 season, which begins Aug. 30 at SHI Stadium against the University of Massachusetts."
Outside of the band and players' families, who is going to sit in 90-degree heat to watch this game? I can't wait to see a picture of the "crowd".
I don't think they can afford to get rid of him...but then I don't see how they can afford to keep him either.
Quite the conundrum.
In a way, IF Rutgers football simply went away, it would probably be a blessing for the B1G, because we could aggressively add a new 14th team that at least adds "something" to the league.
I believe the addition of Maryland helped the league in recruiting because it put a B1G foot-print in that very fertile Mid-Atlantic Region. The ACC can become a very viable league if a few members can build their programs back up. Lets say FSU and Miami can restore their place as legit top 10 programs. Add that to Clemson, and the ACC all of a sudden has 3 legit national powers. If VaTech can restore themselves as a top 20 program and if Mack Brown can bring UNC back to a top 25 type program and Willingham can do the same at UVA, then the ACC is very legit. If the ACC is a very legit league, then swooping down into the Mid-Atlantic to get players from MD and VA like we do all of a sudden becomes a lot harder..... so nabbing Maryland was a very strategic move that helps the league in recruiting.
But Rutgers really adds nothing. First of all they do not bring the NYC/Jersey TV markets. The B1G and the BTN already had most of that area with Penn State. And programs like Penn State, OSU, MSU, Mich, Iowa, Wiscy .... already had strong foot-prints for recruiting Jersey. Kids from Jersey already saw the B1G as their natural region for big time college football .... with or without Rutgers.
If Rutgers football simply "went away" then the B1G could go after a program like UCF which would be odd and weird, but it would put the B1G down in Florida.
I believe the addition of Maryland helped the league in recruiting because it put a B1G foot-print in that very fertile Mid-Atlantic Region. The ACC can become a very viable league if a few members can build their programs back up. Lets say FSU and Miami can restore their place as legit top 10 programs. Add that to Clemson, and the ACC all of a sudden has 3 legit national powers. If VaTech can restore themselves as a top 20 program and if Mack Brown can bring UNC back to a top 25 type program and Willingham can do the same at UVA, then the ACC is very legit. If the ACC is a very legit league, then swooping down into the Mid-Atlantic to get players from MD and VA like we do all of a sudden becomes a lot harder..... so nabbing Maryland was a very strategic move that helps the league in recruiting.
But Rutgers really adds nothing. First of all they do not bring the NYC/Jersey TV markets. The B1G and the BTN already had most of that area with Penn State. And programs like Penn State, OSU, MSU, Mich, Iowa, Wiscy .... already had strong foot-prints for recruiting Jersey. Kids from Jersey already saw the B1G as their natural region for big time college football .... with or without Rutgers.
If Rutgers football simply "went away" then the B1G could go after a program like UCF which would be odd and weird, but it would put the B1G down in Florida.
But here is the problem. One of the top 2 or 3 ... if not the very top priority for many big time difference-making recruits is "the ability to win championships". Rutgers can hire a world class recruiter, but until Rutgers begins to win games on the field, it would be very tough for anyone to convince the stud difference-makers that they can win a championship at Rutgers.
To a lesser degree this is a problem we are facing now. Franklin & Staff have taken our program from "good", to "very good" and we are now a consistent top 10 / top 15 program ... which is excellent. But in order to get up to that "Elite" status where we are winning conference titles, playing in the 4-team playoff, and wining national championships we need more "difference maker" studs. The staff is going after them. The problem is that they are spurning us to go to the Bamas, Clemsons, Georgias, Ohio States of the world...... It's a very vicious cycle..... You gotta win to get the studs but if you do not have the studs it's hard to win....
Correct. As we see with our own Men's BB program. Our BB program is basically a "welfare recipient". Money they receive thru the B1G's TV contracts and money received from the NCAA Tourny by other programs in revenue sharing saves our BB program from extinction. But they are not winners.
I said it before and I'll say it again. They made a monumental error in getting rid of Kyle Flood. Yes he made some mistakes and should have been slapped on the wrist, but not fired!! Rutgers was in no position to fire a guy that went 9-2 in 2012 and 8-5 in the Big 10. Kyle Flood was a profoundly better head coach than a mid-western Co-DC with absolutely no East Coast ties. Kyle Flood thoroughly embarrassed an Arkansas team not once but twice and who was Arkansas' DC, Chris Ash. The year he suffered a multi-game suspension he lost 7 starters, that team would have won at least 8 games in B10, maybe 9. A school like Rutgers cannot and will not compete in the B10 doing it the right way and Flood knew this which is why he started turning the program around by recruiting borderline kids. Today Flood is at Alabama working for Nick Saban.
Last edited:
A
anon_is9z1n0h3zblb
Guest
Ash was the first big hire of AD Patrick Hobbs. Hardly a good start. They don't get a full share of B1G money until the 2021 season, so they just may be holding on until then, or after the season when the buyout drops $3 million to $7 million. This season is already lost. They'll be lucky to get two wins from Liberty and UMass. Their best chance for a B1G win is Illinois but that's on the road and Lovie loaded up on transfers to try to save his job.
I don't remember the drama of the 2015 Rutgers coaching search, except that it was mixed in with the drama of firing previous AD Julie Hermann. Maybe Ash was literally the best they could do and only then with a long contract and a major buyout. His hiring of Pikiell as Mens BB coach hasn't been stellar either but they've been terrible at that for the past decade also.
I don't remember the drama of the 2015 Rutgers coaching search, except that it was mixed in with the drama of firing previous AD Julie Hermann. Maybe Ash was literally the best they could do and only then with a long contract and a major buyout. His hiring of Pikiell as Mens BB coach hasn't been stellar either but they've been terrible at that for the past decade also.
my understanding of rutgers wasn't so much that they brought additional viewership, but somehow the cable dollars became more advantageous having a local team. Other than that, I totally agree with you (but being an nj resident I was happy to have more options to watch a penn state game live).
Well actually they don’t and won’t. From what I understand, upon joining the BIG they took out a significant loan against future revenue to rectify current financial problems. They won’t receive a full share for several years, and the Rutgers administration is not exactly athletics friendly which probably means future funds will be spent elsewhere. Or direct University funding will be reduced to equal new BIG financial payments. It’s a collaborative sh*t show as their stadium naming implies. They will always be the red headed step child because of a degree of institutional stupidity that makes our BOT appear brilliantly competent.
The only way the rest of the BIG members should view Rutgers athletes is as a punching bag that improves other members win totals and makes them eligible for post season play in multiple sports.
No, absolutely not. However that team in 2015 at full strength was winning 8 games. But that is the risk of bringing in borderline kids. Ash promised Barchi, every donor and every member on the BOG's (at the time) that he was going to win doing it the right way. He's 7-29 over three years.
Last edited:
Ru31trap actually sounds like a PITT fan suffering from delusional revisionist History syndrome.
wow, if you are longing for Kyle Flood, that shows how bad Rutgers is. Flood was a disaster and you quote a winning season using all of Schiano's recruits and once they were gone he tanked. Then the trying to force teachers to pass players and the other scandals.
Rutgers is a program that is just about impossible to resurrect. To get anywhere in modern college football requires money and RU has none. The new stadium was a disaster as it was rife was classic north jersey pay for play and every other bad thing about a big project to the point it got in the papers and politicians got involved and basically said RU will never get money again for something like this. The athletic dept at RU is hugely in debt as noted and they need the Big Ten money just to pay back the debt service so they have no money left over to improve anything. With all that, no way that Rutgers is ever going to be able to compete at the P5 level. I would agree that Big Ten should somehow look at how to eject them from the Big Ten in the next round of expansion.
i don't think it was a myth. i don't think it was 100% the reason, but it did help. If you remember at the time Big Ten Network was also in heavy negotation with what tier of cable the BTN was going to be on and adding RU made sure that NJ was on that basic teir which considering the population was a large amount of money. Both UMD and RU were not going to solely capture NYC and Baltimore/DC market, but their additions along with the large Big Ten alumni base in those cities was enough to put it over the edge. Who knows what the bargaining power of the BIg Ten would have been in those areas without those two additions.
They've survived this long... They probably bring in more money now through the big ten than they would have made with sell outs in the big east.
That said, their fanbase is a bunch of wretches and they have the football program they deserve.
That said, their fanbase is a bunch of wretches and they have the football program they deserve.
Looking at cable only, both Rutgers and Maryland were dilutive i.e. the incremental cable revenue brought in by each is less than the conference pays to each. Beyond that, you'd have to argue that their value is elsewhere e.g. the Fox/Disney/CBS contracts to the tune of $45mm p.a......each. Knock yourself out.
but you don't know what the revenue would be if NYC and Baltimore/DMV were not included in the basic cable package. That is the main reason those two were added were for basic cable package in those areas and the incremental revenue it would bring in. Plus the little big of incremental revenue to the BTN via some additional advertising dollars. I would assume that Delaney did the math on that and that is why they were added.
But I do know and if you did a little critical reading of my post and some research you could have figured it out for yourself. But since you won't, here it is: between $14mm-$16mm p.a for both schools. I don't have the breakdown for each school.
In the NYC DMA, tier movement isn't significant because it only applied to Comcast and only in parts of NJ and not at all in NYC where it is virtually non-existent.
Delany has his math done for him and he gets crummy advice. His own TV guy is a blithering idiot. The outside people he hires aren't the best because he's cheap. I will give him credit for being very lucky. He just happened to catch Fox and Disney at a time when they were both competing to see which could shoot itself in the foot more often.
Both are AAU schools, the flagship universities of their states. Does the B1G academic alliance ring a bell to anyone? In value added is that is where the big $ is. http://www.btaa.org Sad that they can't seem to see the value in investing in their athletic programs as a way to get their names out there...
“After exceeding expectations with a 4-8 record and three Big Ten wins in 2017”
Classic line from the article. Rutgers, what more can you say.
Classic line from the article. Rutgers, what more can you say.
At least someone is still drinking that Kool-Aid. There is value there, but it's minimal.
If Temple can rebuild their program so can Rutgers. Temple has put out a competitive product over the past several years so why not Rutgers. I think that the Rutgers athletic admin needs to go and the University needs to get some one in there who is all about NJ athletics. Now I know academics are what all universities are built for but as an old coach down here in NC said "Athletics is to a school like a front porch to a house, its not the most important feature of that house but it is the first thing that people see."
