TommyG wrote: ↑Mon Feb 28, 2022 5:30 pm
The biggest issue with the midweek games in my opinion is that you give yourself no chance to draw fans. Maybe it wouldn’t matter? Bad teams don’t draw on late season Saturday’s either. It’s not so much about the ticket sales, more about opportunities to create fans and experiences for the community and students. Gamblers don’t give a s**t about the MAC, they only care that they can bet on something.
If it’s all about national exposure, sure, the weeknight games do that. Does that exposure really do anything for the institutions? I’d argue no.
Early on it was argued the weeknight games were going to help recruiting. For awhile it probably did. Now the talent is probably the lowest it has been in 25 years.
It’s a matter of time before MAC football is left behind completely or finally can’t do it anymore financially. They should start doing what’s best for the schools and not ESPN. There are enough streaming platforms now they could easily get a similar deal and avoid the weeknights.
This has long been my opinion on the weeknight games vs playing on Saturdays.
Yes, I'm happy that I can now watch the games on TV, pretty much every single game either streaming or whatever. The actual revenue stream is not even worth discussing it's basically nothing. The supposed draw has always been Exposure, exposure, exposure. But what actual help is it gaining for the university in terms of exposure? Basketball and football are both way behind where they used to be in terms of talent level. I think both sports are way behind where they used to be in the "this is a mid-major to be scared of!" factor for whatever that's worth. I don't think it's helped recruiting one iota. Is enrollment up from all this exposure? Are universities allowed to be more selective in admissions? Last I read the answer to those were both resounding Nos.
What is lost goes well beyond the "attendance numbers" for the UT/BG game. What is lost is that I can flat out state with 100% sincerity that it was the weeknight games that made me drop my season tickets years ago. What has happened for me since then is that discussing the football program on here is about my only attachment to it at all. I have been to one game in person over the past 3 years, and might watch bits and pieces of the games if I happen to be home when they're on. They basically lost me as a die hard. If Twitter and this website went away I'd probably never even know when another BG football game happened because I don't seek it out anymore.
What is lost is the ability to build a tailgate culture every Saturday for the students. A culture that helps build attachment to the university and its culture...things that are supposed to be the very reasons we HAVE intercollegiate athletics. To paraphrase Mr. Briggs's comments, the reason for MAC sports is NOT to simply provide additional programming for ESPN.
Like many others I had no issues with, and still don't really, playing some key big game matchups on Thursdays if they're going to be on ESPN or ESPN2. Those games being televised actually helps push for larger in person audiences because they are featured in ESPN ads and everybody knows when we're playing that big game. You are then featuring the best the conference has to offer and that can also work in favor of helping garner a future audience/following. But this nonsense of playing every single conference game on weekdays in November is just asinine. You're sacrificing the very reasons for MAC football's existence in the name of a couple hundred thousand eyeballs on ESPN the Ocho.
