Bringing home the bacon

Hosting the Big Sky Men’s Basketball Tournament is a big deal, according to Athletic Director Jerry Bovee. It brings revenue and exposure to Weber State University, television coverage from stations like ESPN and Altitude. It fills hotel rooms and brings visitors to Ogden. But what WSU really wants is to fill the seats with students.
WSU has hosted the Big Sky Tournament for three of the last four years, but has experienced an uphill battle filling the seats for the tournament every year. This year the trend seems to still be a battle. As of Monday afternoon, Bovee said only 50 tickets had been presold to students for the Tuesday-Wednesday tournament.
“We have a small student section and we want that to be enormous,” said WSU junior and Purple Pak member Kyle Braithwaite.
Braithwaite said he hopes to turn the regular student fan section at this week’s tournament into something more than just the usual group of 50-plus purple-clad fans.
“Our hope is just that people will realize what kind of sport programs we have here at Weber,” he said.
Many students were receptive, according to Braithwaite, who has stood outside with members of the Student Alumni Association near the Bell Tower Plaza, by a basketball hoop and table, selling T-shirts and inviting students to purchase tournament tickets in the Shepherd Union Building. He said many students told him they plan to buy tickets at the door the night of the game.
Braithwaite said the SAA is trying to raise awareness about the university’s many nationally ranked athletic programs and convince students to be an active part of WSU.
“It is just that a lot of students on campus don’t hear about it (the tournament) or don’t care,” he said. “My hope is that people realize that being a Weber State student means something on multiple levels, not just coming to Weber.”
In 2009, ticket sales were $42,484 less than the last time WSU hosted the event at home in 2007. In fact, WSU actually lost $3,500 last year when all was said and done. There was no extra share to divide among the conference; revenues simply covered costs. WSU would have seen a greater net loss had it not been for the saving grace of multi-game package deals. Since the Wildcats lost the semifinal game last year, a sparse crowd showed up to the championship game the following night. Only 1,500 people showed up to the Dee Events Center arena, which is built to seat 11,000. The university was able to recoup some of its expenses because tickets were presold for both games, so regardless of the outcome on the court, money was still guaranteed to come in.
If the event brings a form of net income, a share or portion of money is divided up between WSU and all the other schools involved in the tournament. In order to cover shares and TV deals, Bovee said, WSU has to make at least $150,000.
“We go into this deal knowing that our guarantee is going to be somewhere around $150,000 with the shares that are paid, with TV money, and on our side we have got to sell tickets and sponsorships,” Bovee said.
According to statistics from the NCAA, in 2009 the Big Sky Conference had an average of 2,292 fans in attendance. WSU saw an average attendance of 4,598 per game, a little more than double what other schools in the Big Sky experience. However, higher attendance during the regular season means next to nothing when it comes to the conference tournament, according to Bovee. Students, faculty and staff do not get in for free to tournament games. During the tournament, the Big Sky regulates that ticket prices can only drop to half the normal price of the cheapest ticket, meaning a $12 upper-bowl ticket would be $6 for students per session. Since there are more games than one per session, a one-day ticket would be good for multiple games on the same day.
“I realize it may be an inconvenience because they (students) have to pay, but this is such a big deal for our school,” Bovee said. “If we are able to be successful in this tournament and go to the NCAA tournament, I wouldn’t figure there is a student on this campus that wouldn’t want their basketball team playing in the NCAA tournament.”
WSU freshman and business major Jake Wilson may be that very student.
“My interest in sports is just not really there,” Wilson said. “I don’t go to stuff that I don’t actually do.”
Even though he played basketball in high school, the only sport Wilson participates in now is snowboarding.
“If they (WSU) went to a national-level game and if they got pretty far into the national tournament and they played a game here (in Ogden), that might be something I would be interested in,” Wilson said. “But if it is nothing really huge, then it isn’t going to be of interest to me.”
Bovee said he hopes students will embrace the tournament and come out and support the team and the university in order to move the team to the next level.
He said having the tournament at WSU isn’t necessarily seen as a revenue generator for the university, but it does bring wins and a chance for fans to see their team without having to travel out of state.
“Any time we can put ourselves in a position to bring events to Ogden, I think it is good for everyone,” Bovee said. “Ultimately, I don’t know that we view it as a money-maker; it is more the benefit of hosting the tournament for what it does for your school. To be at home is huge. To be able to host this tournament at home is a great benefit to our program and mostly to our team.”
This year WSU held off on selling individual game tickets longer, compared to last year, in order to sell more tournament tickets.
“Our people know how to run a tournament,” Bovee said. “We have a very good staff and the Dee Event Center staff know how to put this thing on.”
In an effort to bring added awareness to the event, Bovee said over the past week and a half the Athletic Department has made more than 8,000 phone calls to the community, put ads in local newspapers and even added a new location for fans to purchase tickets. Fans can now also purchase tickets at the information desk in the Shepherd Union Building. Purple Pak has been selling T-shirts at the WSU Bookstore for $5 in order to have all students wear purple and fill up the Dee.
Lower crowd turnout isn’t just an issue in the Big Sky; in fact, nearly all 31 Division I men’s basketball conferences saw a decline in attendance in 2009.
Students are the drive to the atmosphere at college basketball games, according to Bovee.
“If you can’t get students out to your game, it is just another game,” he said. “It’s not college basketball without a frenzied student crowd. We have got to focus on students. We have to get back to the day when can we get 3,000 to 4,000 students out to a game. If we can do that, everything else will begin to change here.”