2019 College Football National Championship ticket prices dropping like a rock

[RedAngie]

What moron decided to choose Santa Clara, California as the site for the game? Yes, Stanford and Berkeley are close by, but the area isn't known for its interest in college football.

P.S. Am I supposed to feel sorry for the sellers of tickets on the secondary market?

 

[LSUmiss]

The UCF administration just declared LSU as this year's national champions!

 

[msb578]

What moron decided to choose Santa Clara, California as the site for the game? Yes, Stanford and Berkeley are close by, but the area isn't known for its interest in college football.

P.S. Am I supposed to feel sorry for the sellers of tickets on the secondary market?

The moron responsible for cashing the check.

 

[LSUmiss]

I'm with you 100% on this. Like I said, I'm a Notre Dame alum, and so of course I believe they belonged there, even if it was painful and embarrassing.
But I think at this point it's time to give UCF a shot. They should have been #4 instead of Oklahoma. I suspect they would have been smashed by Alabama, but that's OK. Most teams are. Give them the chance. It also would give them a national stage which would help with continuing to recruit better and better players.

They just got their chance on a national stage & couldn’t hang. The Fiesta Bowl is a respectable New Years 6 bowl game. Although, it wasn’t a blowout, LSU was never really in danger of losing that game. If they would have won, then they may have had a shot at the playoffs next time but not now.

 

[soccerdad72]

So sorry so sad Ohio St. But don't get blown out by Purdue (6-6 at the time of the selection) and don't have a close shave against 5-7 Maryland and 4-8 Nebraska and you don't get snubbed.

Not that I think OSU belonged in the playoffs, but at least of the teams who can claim they belonged in the playoff, OSU were the only ones to actually go out and win their bowl game.

 

[SaintsManiac]

They just got their chance on a national stage & couldn’t hang. The Fiesta Bowl is a respectable New Years 6 bowl game. Although, it wasn’t a blowout, LSU was never really in danger of losing that game. If they would have won, then they may have had a shot at the playoffs next time but not now.

I'm still laughing at anyone who thought UGA should have been in the playoff.

 

[DopeyDame]

They just got their chance on a national stage & couldn’t hang. The Fiesta Bowl is a respectable New Years 6 bowl game. Although, it wasn’t a blowout, LSU was never really in danger of losing that game. If they would have won, then they may have had a shot at the playoffs next time but not now.

Right, we know that they lost to LSU now. But we didn't know that when they were making their decision. Oklahoma had already lost a game, proving they aren't "the best", which is theoretically the goal of the playoffs (unlike all the other bowl games).
I'm not saying that UCF is better than Oklahoma or even Notre Dame, but that an undefeated team should have been given the change to play. ("Any given Saturday", and all that)

 

[FlightlessDuck]

People are sick of seeing Alabama and Clemson every year.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Most of the lesser joke bowl games were sparsely attended.

Some of the lesser known bowls are jokes for a reason. The 2016 Military Bowl was shoddily organized. There was very little activity surrounding the bowl -- no pep rallies or band fights or anything. It was just sad. We went to the Maromet Boca Raton Bowl in 2015 and had a much better experience -- even in pouring rain.

 

[SteveH]

If you watched the bowl games, there were a ton of empty seats.

Been getting worse and worse too, my Ducks played at the RedBox (ugh!) the TV did as good of a job trying to hide the crowd shots as they could.

Within 5 years, there will likely be three postseason rounds. Hopefully the first round will be on-campus?

It should be, if the decsion makers would get some guts they would require the games to be held at college campus, respect the fans that attend. The PAC12 ditched having our championship games at the college team with the best record and it still ticks me off.

Cal had just beaten Oregon the previous week to go to #2, although they lost their starting QB. Up home they were back and forth with Oregon State all night trading leads...

I remember that, one of the times I was rooting hard for the Beavs sorry my Duck side came out

What moron decided to choose Santa Clara, California as the site for the game? Yes, Stanford and Berkeley are close by, but the area isn't known for its interest in college football.

So true, and with no West Coast teams sure doesn't help. IMHO the committee seems to think they are playing like the NFL where all college football fans will travel to watch, but times have changed. Big Screens have had an impact along with tickets, hotels and air fare. I'd say even your avid Bama fans are feeling some burn out.

 

[bcla]

What moron decided to choose Santa Clara, California as the site for the game? Yes, Stanford and Berkeley are close by, but the area isn't known for its interest in college football.

P.S. Am I supposed to feel sorry for the sellers of tickets on the secondary market?

The sites are chosen similar to the Super Bowl rotation. There has to be a bid. I don’t believe local interest was expected to be a big driver for ticket sales.

 

[SteveH]

The sites are chosen similar to the Super Bowl rotation. There has to be a bid. I don’t believe local interest was expected to be a big driver for ticket sales.

True! But it should, who wants to be in the Bay area right now? If you want good attendance you need to be someplace warm, or at least covered. As a local I'm sure you've heard the bad reports of the field there too.

 

[bcla]

True! But it should, who wants to be in the Bay area right now? If you want good attendance you need to be someplace warm, or at least covered. As a local I'm sure you've heard the bad reports of the field there too.

At least for a night game, the sun will be tolerable. I thought they got better grass.

 

[longboard55]

The good news is vegas will be in the rotation in a few years.

 

[DopeyDame]

I think there really are just waaaaaay too many bowl games at this point. It used to be a big deal to go to a bowl game. Now they are every day, all day it seems. Nothing special that would make fans want to travel and spend money.

 

[LSUmiss]

I think there really are just waaaaaay too many bowl games at this point. It used to be a big deal to go to a bowl game. Now they are every day, all day it seems. Nothing special that would make fans want to travel and spend money.

Also, for many programs who routinely are good enough to go to 1/2 way decent bowl games every year, the National Champ is really the only goal & anything less feels like a let down.

 

[longboard55]

The problem is there is no time to plan, you get about 3 days to decide

 

[LSUmiss]

The problem is there is no time to plan, you get about 3 days to decide

That’s why we have never gone unless we were playing in the Sugar Bowl.

 

[NotUrsula]

The sites are chosen similar to the Super Bowl rotation. There has to be a bid. I don’t believe local interest was expected to be a big driver for ticket sales.

True! But it should, who wants to be in the Bay area right now? If you want good attendance you need to be someplace warm, or at least covered. As a local I'm sure you've heard the bad reports of the field there too.

In fact, local interest is considered a BAD thing when choosing bowl sites for the major championship-stream games.

I used to work for the LSU athletic department in the pre-Saban era, and we got to deal with this issue almost every year, because of the presence of the Superdome in New Orleans. Every year the Sugar Bowl committee is pressured to NOT invite LSU, because NOLA tourism officials strongly prefer that the SEC team in the bowl be from as far as possible from NOLA, so that they 1) Fly in, 2) Use taxicabs, 3) eat at least 6 restaurant meals, 4) drink a lot of wine and spirits, and 5) stay at least 3 nights in a hotel, thereby generating tax revenue on 6 fronts (including the game tickets). The Sugar Bowl committee's favorite game matchups were always Notre Dame vs. either Georgia, Vanderbilt, or Florida, because all of those teams have large fan bases in major cities with good air service, and with the exception of Florida, tend to be places where people with money are starved for good fresh seafood, and bonus points for a fairly high likelihood of their being Catholic or Episcopalian.. (FWIW, Alabama and Auburn are unpopular with all factions of New Orleans tourism leadership except the NOPD, because so many of those fans do not drink alcohol. It's the same with Miss State and Ole Miss, and I suspect that they would collectively open a vein before ever extending a bowl invitation to any team from Utah, no matter how good they were. The ideal fan from their POV is wealthy, middle-aged, sedentary, and fond of good food, fine wines and expensive bourbon. Liquor tax revenue is important in New Orleans.)

When game attendees are local or almost-local (within a 3-hour drive) the airport taxes are lost, the hotel nights are almost lost, the restaurant meals normally go down to no more than 3, and there is no taxicab revenue. Money made on tickets to the game itself are almost an afterthought, really -- it's the opportunity to make money on the REST of the trip that has the host cities salivating.

The short-notice planning issue is considered to not matter much; the idea is that a fan of good football will attend no matter who is playing, because going to a high-level game will be satisfying, but that the trip to a fun destination will drive the decision.

 

[soccerdad72]

I think the problem with the way they set up the National Championship game is having it in early January eliminates the holiday traveler who might build in a bowl game into their plans. By January 7th, most folks are back to work and not necessarily able to fly across the country for a Monday game.