UC/Sooners game a Boon

[swg]

If the University of Cincinnati attracts a crowd of 45,000 for its Sept. 25 football game against Oklahoma at Paul Brown Stadium, the school will pay approximately $133,750 to use the Hamilton County-owned facility.

If the UC-Oklahoma game attracts 45,000 fans, UC officials say the school will make $240,000 more than it would have made if the game had been played at Nippert Stadium with its smaller capacity.

UC will pay Oklahoma a $300,000 guarantee to play the game here, essentially paying back the same guarantee the Bearcats received when they traveled to Norman in 2008.

This is the second home game that UC will have played at Paul Brown Stadium. The Bearcats played Ohio State there in 2002.

While UC officials analyze the prospects of renovating and possibly enlarging Nippert Stadium, they also are considering the possibility of playing more games at PBS, especially games against marquee opponents.

But Arkeilpane said the Oklahoma game was not set up as a test case to gauge the feasibility of moving other games downtown.

"When we were negotiating with Oklahoma, the only way they were going to do a home-and-home with us was if they came back and the game in Cincinnati was played in an NFL stadium," Arkeilpane said. "The mere size of our stadium was prohibitive in trying to get them to come here."

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100709/SPT0101/7090375/1064/UC-Sooners-game-a-boon-for-Bengals

 

[Little Danny]

If the crowd at the OU game is 45,000, I will be sorely disappointed. I expect Oklahoma to bring 5K-10K of their own fans. If only 35K UC fans show up against a national opponent, then shame on us. I would expect much more than that-- not to mention thousands of people from the area who like college football but have no rooting interest for either team or who are just curious in all the buzz. I expect 55K+.

Something that intrigued me is the comment that UC expects to make $240K more with a figure of 45K than they made at Nippert. If that is the fact, then we sorely need to reconsider where UC plays their home games.

 

[swg]

I wonder how many more people would attend UC games if there were better facilities, parking, etc.

 

[david aka the TYZ]

I agree that Oklahoma should bring a decent amount of fans. The Cats have about 20,000 season ticket holders and have 10,000 student tickets allotted to them. (I would be surprised to see 10,000 students down there honestly, but I could easily see 5,000.) I got to think with enough casual fans that will attend the game and corporate giveaway stuff going on 45,000 is the minimum we would see. I would like to think we could get about 55,000 down there. I hate to say it, but hopefully it doesn't coincide with an OSU game. That could keep some casual fans away.

 

[JasonS]

I was in school when UC played OSU at PBS and they shuttled all the students down and back for free. There will be a ton of students there especially if the shuttle situation is the same.

 

[Little Danny]

I agree that Oklahoma should bring a decent amount of fans. The Cats have about 20,000 season ticket holders and have 10,000 student tickets allotted to them. (I would be surprised to see 10,000 students down there honestly, but I could easily see 5,000.) I got to think with enough casual fans that will attend the game and corporate giveaway stuff going on 45,000 is the minimum we would see. I would like to think we could get about 55,000 down there. I hate to say it, but hopefully it doesn't coincide with an OSU game. That could keep some casual fans away.

Well, Eastern Michigan is playing at OSU on this day on what I'm guessing is a noon kick-off. I would have to think that is good for UC and drawing people to the game who ordinarily might be sitting at home watching the Bucks.

45,000 would mean to me that the 35,000 people who go to Nippert to watch the Cats plus 10,000 Oklahoma fans. I think the game would easily draw interest from another 10,000 more people who for whatever reason would not go to Clifton to watch a ballgame (ie. people in the area who never attended UC but as Greater Cincinnati residents would be there to cheer the home team or UC alum who for whatever reason never make their way back to campus).

 

[david aka the TYZ]

I think if the local media makes as big a deal about this game as they should and tickets aren't overpriced (which I highly doubt they will be) there's no reason we don't draw at least 55-60,000 for that game. Beating Fresno State and remaining undefeated up until this game will go a long way, too.