How greed ruined the MSU-Florida Atlantic game

Let's start with a pretty blanket statement and work from there, shall we?

There is no reason MSU should draw a piss-ant 25,000 fans to a game anywhere in Michigan, much less Ford Field in Detroit. Yes, I know it's Florida Atlantic. I get that. But this game should have sold out.

Here's the theory: Spartan Stadium seats 75,005. Ford Field seats 65,000. Detroit likely has more MSU alums within an hour's drive than East Lansing does. Even allowing for the fact that this is "out of the norm" so people have to go "out of their way" to see the game, one would figure that attrition to hit no more than 10,005 fans, right?

Instead, as of right now a scant 25,000 tickets have been sold. It might be a joke if this wasn't so egg-on-face embarrassing.

So what happened?

Well, the game was priced wrong and sold wrong. And as your mother always told you, two wrongs don't make a right.

Let's look at the regular ticket prices for a moment:

On FAU's end: Individual game tickets at Lockhart Stadium in Fort Lauderdale sell at a range from $12-25 a pop. There's a slight discount on for season ticket holders that can take the best seats down below $21 a game.

On MSU's end: Regular games are sold at $49 a pop, aside from Notre Dame this year which is going for $75 a seat. Full-price public season tickets include seven home games for about $44 a game.

Sideline seats for MSU-FAU started at $79 each.

Yes, that's right, some marketing genius decided that Joey Spartan would rather pay MORE MONEY to see his alma mater play FLORIDA ATLANTIC than NOTRE DAME.

Folks, that's nothing short of greed.

Here's why. Lockhart Stadium seats 20,450 when full (which it rarely is). Ford Field, as I mentioned above, seats 65,000. If this game were at FAU's current stadium AND they charged everyone regular sideline ticket prices with no discount AND it sold out, FAU would take in about $511,000.

That number's high because of my unrealistic caveats, but let's be generous and say that they'd actually take in around $400,000 once you factor in the discounts they're giving.

If they sold out Ford Field at that price, they'd make more than quadruple that amount, or $1,625,000. Even with paying MSU for the road game ($500K?) and covering FAU's travel costs (Maybe $200K), they'd still clear more than double their usual home game amount.

What if they decided to be a little greedy (but still very reasonable) and sell only the good seats at Ford Field at MSU's regular $49 rate for games like Iowa and Wisconsin? Assuming a half and half distribution between sideline and other seats, FAU would then clear $2.4 million for the game.

Now prices have come down. Most reports mention the fact that they're being sold for $19 a pop. Very few mention that there are thousands of tickets being given away for free.

Even still, most guesses are that this game will feature fields of empty seats. In Detroit. For Michigan State football.

For a school that usually gets less than $500,000 for a home game, $2.4 mil should have been plenty. But it wasn't enough. And now, they won't get nearly that.

Could the Big Ten Leave Detroit?

Earlier this week it looked like a done deal that Detroit's Little Caesars Pizza Bowl (formerly the Motor City Bowl) would continue to be affiliated with the Big Ten Conference, albeit as the eighth choice rather than the seventh.

However, the Big Ten's official bowl announcement for 2010-13 came and went with no mention of a Detroit game. At that point, the guess was that it just wasn't officially signed but would be worked out quickly.

Perhaps it's not that simple. The latest word out of Detroit, according to the Associated Press, is that a decision could come sometime next week. However, lost in the story is a little nugget of information that the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl is in talks with the Big East to step in and face a top team from the Mid-American Conference should a deal not work out with the Big Ten.

Detroit is the capital city of the Mid-American Conference, as evidenced by the conference's championship game being played at Ford Field and the sheer number of MAC schools located within 3-4 hours of Detroit. However, it's also a huge city for the Big Ten (arguably the second most prominent city in the conference, behind Chicago). Every team but Minnesota, Iowa and Penn State is within a six hour drive.

Perhaps a bigger blow to the bowl's leaders like MSU Trustee and former coach George Perles and former Michigan Coach Lloyd Carr, losing the Big Ten affiliation would likely kill the founding dream of the bowl game, that being a contest featuring Michigan or Michigan State.

What a turnaround from a few years ago when folks in Detroit seriously talked about moving up to fourth in the Big Ten pecking order when the Alamo Bowl contract expired en route to possibly crashing the BCS someday. Now, they're in danger of losing a regional tie-in, replacing schools within driving distance with those a flight away. That would likely mean fewer fans and less revenue for a bowl game already not in a traditionally "desirable" destination.

As Perles said, we should know by next week.

Final Four Friday: Neutral Site Games

It’s almost game time for MSU football, which means it’s time to return to a TOSSS tradition of Final Four Friday! Today, we’re looking at the option for MSU to play in an NFL stadium for a “neutral site game”.

Penn State and Indiana have set an example for the rest of the Big Ten, as Indiana moved its 2010 home tie with the Nittany Lions to FedEx Field in Landover, Md., a suburb of Washington, D.C. There are benefits aplenty for both schools – Penn State getting essentially an extra home game while Indiana hauls in $2 million more in gate receipts – so why can’t Michigan State have a part of that action?

We already know the university would consider it. The MSU-Western game this year was supposed to be held in Detroit at Ford Field, and the Florida Atlantic return game will either be at Ford Field, Chicago’s Soldier Field or Miami’s Land Shark Stadium.

Not counting FAU, here is our Final Four of possible destinations that make sense for both MSU and the opponent.

Soldier Field, Chicago – Illinois

While the Illini may have the occasional good year – and under Ron Zook they’ll get more and more of them – it’s no secret that they can’t sell out their own stadium. Memorial Stadium only seats about 62,000, and at 61,500, Soldier Field is about the same size.

But this time, it would sell out.

MSU’s largest alumni base outside of Michigan is in Chicago, about 20,000 strong. Illinois’ largest alumni base full top is in Chicago. You’d better believe they’d pack every seat in that stadium for what would be the most raucous “home” game the Illini would have all year.

Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis – Indiana

Indiana’s already going to D.C., may as well make the shorter trip to Indy, right? MSU has a great tradition in Indianapolis, including the men’s basketball 2000 national championship and the 2005 women’s team’s run to the Final Four – including the program’s biggest-ever win in the semifinals over Tennessee.

This wouldn’t be as much of a home game for MSU as facing the Illini in Chicago, but the game would definitely sell out. That’s a win-win in my book.

Ford Field, Detroit – Eastern Michigan

The Eagles don’t host MSU until either 2018 or 2020, and you can mark down my prediction right now that this game won’t be played in Rynearson Stadium. Go ahead, mark it down.

For one, that stadium only holds 30,200 fans. For two, well, that stadium only holds 30,200 fans.

There are two other stadiums Eastern could move that game to with no difficulty and guarantee a sellout. One is the Big House in Ann Arbor. The other is Ford Field in Detroit. And I doubt very much that the good folks at Michigan will want an MSU home game in their building.

Ford Field makes sense for the Eagles. A 60,000+ crowd at home would triple – yes, triple – their average attendance. The tickets would be pricier. There are luxury boxes galore that would sell out fast. Do the math and it’s not hard to envision Eastern getting more money out of this one game than the rest of their games combined.

Cowboys Stadium, Dallas – Baylor

OK, so this one might seem like a reach given that we don’t play Baylor, but hear me out.

That is a football team on the rise, a little like Cal and Rutgers were earlier this decade. What they need are marquee opponents willing to do home-and-home deals to really establish themselves in what is a hotbed of football. Enter MSU, a team that historically loves to play that sort of role.

Baylor’s Floyd Casey Stadium seats 50,000. Cowboys Stadium seats 80,000. Waco to Dallas is an hour and a half drive. A big-time opponent like MSU in the Bears’ biggest in-state home base outside Waco is a match made in heaven. Plus, MSU gets a chance to head down to the fertile Texas recruiting base to meet and greet a few 16 and 17-year-old future phenoms. It’d be great.

And the winner is – Soldier Field.

It has been the dream of MSU's long-suffering Chicago alums for far too long. It's time to make it happen.

Ford or Soldier Field?

So it looks like Michigan State will get to play in an NFL stadium after all.

It would have happened this year, but the economy forced Western Michigan to give up its game against MSU at Ford Field in favor of an additional Spartan home game. Now, it appears all-but certain that Sparty will play in an NFL stadium in 2010, as stadium construction delays are forcing Florida Atlantic to move the game.

FAU now is considering three options - two of which would be very conducive for Spartan fans. The Palm Beach Post reported that Ford Field in Detroit and Soldier Field in Chicago are the front-runners, with Land Shark Stadium (home of the Miami Dolphins, a park formerly known as Dolphins, Pro Player and Joe Robbie Stadium) as the backup.

The expectation would be to sell 50,000 tickets in either Chicago or Detroit - while the Florida option would be a last resort that would lose the university money.

I think the smart call here is to go to Detroit. The capacity is only about 60,000, and the Detroit area is home to about 80,000 State alums, as opposed to about 22,000 in Chicago. If you're FAU, a sellout here is a virtual necessity. Either option would work well, and I suspect would draw a good crowd.

But if I'm FAU, and the whole of my athletic department's budget is hinging on turning a profit, I go for the sure thing. That's Detroit.

Spirit Of Detroit

First off, sorry about no Final Four Friday. It should return next week.

This week the Wayne County Commission suggested that a $25,000 fee to dress the Spirit of Detroit statue in a jersey to celebrate the success of local sports teams be dropped after everyone was balking at paying such a high price for showing a little bit of team pride. The outrage was brought on by the success of both the Detroit Pistons and Red Wings, and the fact that the statue couldn't join in the fun. Fans of Detroit teams have grown accustomed to seeing the statue wearing their favorite colors come playoff time, and suddenly ending that tradition pissed many people off.

Thing is, I could honestly care less. It's not that I don't want the statue dressed up, cause I do. It's more that my outrage came and went back around the 1st of April.

It was back then that the question of putting a Spartan jersey on the statue was considered because of their success getting to the Final Four, also in Detroit. MSU was told "Sure, that will be $25,000 please" and they rightfully said "eh... no thanks."

Some of us were outraged. More people were not. And so the statue didn't dress up, and on went life. Now, just a month later, Detroit citizens are up in arms over the issue. What does this say about MSU's relationship with Detroit?

During the Final Four, MSU proudly adopted Detroit as it's second home, and they seemed embraced by a city that has fallen on hard times. Kalin Lucas went as far as lying to the NCAA (Just a little white lie) and had his hometown announced as Detroit, to show solidarity with the city (and perhaps to get a loud cheer during pregame).

MSU has also made Detroit area recruiting a top priority, scheduling basketball games at the Palace of Auburn Hills and Ford Field and scheduling (and then canceling) a football game for Ford Field.

In recruiting, there have been commitments recently that suggest this strategy is paying off. But, what is MSU's standing and status with the average Detroit sports fan? If measuring the fan outrage over the statue incident is any indicator, then the Spartans still have a long way to go to truly capture the hearts of those in Detroit.

Photo Courtesy of detroitbadboys.com

Spartan Stadium makes World Cup shortlist

MSU's Spartan Stadium has been selected as a finalist for inclusion in U.S. Soccer's bid for the 2018 or 2022 World Cup.

Seventy stadiums, representing 31 states and the District of Columbia, were picked for the list. To be considered, stadiums must seat at least 40,000 people. Venues must top 80,000 (which Spartan Stadium doesn't, topping out at 72,000 and change) to get the World Cup opener or final.

Spartan Stadium would be considered a big - no, make that massive - longshot to make the cut considering a) how far East Lansing is from a major global airport (Detroit) and b) that two other Michigan stadiums are much closer. Those other two are Ford Field in Detroit and Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor. The Pontiac Silverdome, which hosted games during the 1994 World Cup, was not on the list.

Other Big Ten/Midwest stadiums on the list include:

• Beaver Stadium, State College, Pa.
• Camp Randall Stadium, Madison, Wisc.
• Cleveland Browns Stadium, Cleveland, Ohio
• Heinz Field, Pittsburgh
• Lambeau Field, Green Bay, Wisc.
• Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis
• Metrodome, Minneapolis
• Notre Dame Stadium, South Bend, Ind.
• Paul Brown Stadium, Cincinnati
• Soldier Field, Chicago (which hosted the opening match in 1994)
• TCF Bank Stadium, Minneapolis (still under construction, will host Minnesota football beginning this year)

U.S. Soccer will trim the field to 12 - though two of those spots will be for the final and opening game, which Spartan Stadium isn't big enough to host. One ray of light in this: The press release does note that the list includes stadiums in "college towns", meaning that the federation may have already made a conscious decision to host at least one series of games in a college town. And Lansing does have an international airport...

Click on this link for the full list of 70 finalists.

Inside Ford Field

TOSSS contributor John Kreger is inside Ford Field, and called in with these observations:

10:10 p.m. "I feel like I am attending a church service, it's very quiet. The crowd is definitely out of it."

9:47 p.m. "It's much quieter here now. There have been a few fan disturbances already, with Detroit Police removing people from the building, no warnings. They are making sure no one is hassled."

8:55 p.m. "The Temptations just finished the National Anthem, the first group to ever sing. They honor the 50th anniversary of Motown. When the Spartans took the court there was a massive 'Go Green Go White' cheer that echoed around the building."

8:30 p.m. "There is a palpable energy inside this building. There is just an energy inside this building unlike anything else I've seen in sports. The Spartans seem very aware of their surroundings, but so is UNC. The Izzone now takes up the whole endzone, and they are rockin, and have been from the moment the doors opened. The white out doesn't seem like a great success, but I've never heard it this loud an hour before tipoff for any game in here. By tipoff it will be a madhouse. It looks like the UConn and Villanova sections were bought up by Spartan green. The Spartan fans seem to be here on a mission, everyone here watching warmups."

Forbes Picks UNC

As has been the case most of this NCAA Tournament, the experts seem to be rallying around whatever team is playing against MSU, and picking them for the win. Going against a preseason favorite and team who already beat MSU in Ford Field by 35 points this year is not helping MSU's case.

Even Forbes has gotten in on the UNC love. Before the tournament, Forbes released their rankings of the 20 most valuable college basketball teams and rankings of America's best college basketball coaches. MSU came in as the #14 most valuable team in the country, behind several other Big Ten schools including Indiana, Illinois, Ohio State and Wisconsin. All of the Big Ten schools were helped by their share of the Big Ten Network revenue. But UNC? They were #1 overall, relying on over $3 million in merchandise sales.

On the best coaches list, we fared about the same. Tom Izzo ranked a respectable #6, with consideration being given to his 4 (at the time) Final Fours. Roy Williams? Again, #1 overall.

That said, Kansas and Louisville were both ranked above MSU on the Forbes list, as was Bill Self. And that worked out just fine.

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A couple notes:

The LSJ Bleeding Green blog has a warning about fake tickets that were sold for the Final Four games on Saturday night. The tickets are supposedly very realistic, with most fans only realizing the deception when the bar code would not scan upon entry to the stadium. Watch out for this and leave the fake ticket buying to the UNC fans!

For those of you going to the game, MSU has asked for the game to be a White Out. So, wear your white tomorrow!

Gameday

It's time Spartan fans! I hope that most of you are either in Detroit (maybe in one of MSU's extra hotel rooms) or on your way to Detroit... Keeping it simple, here is some light reading for the day that we thought you would find interesting.

Larry Lage discusses the 30 year anniversary of the 1979 Championship.
Tom Izzo appeared on PTI's Five Good Minutes back on Monday. Video.
Joe Rexrode of the LSJ talks about Izzo receiving the Good Guy Award, and Lucas to NBA rumors.
The Spirit of Detroit won't be wearing a Spartan jersey today.
MSU had a magical public shoot around at Ford Field yesterday.
Rep. Mike Rogers is getting in on some action supporting MSU.
And finally, the LSJ brings you all of today's vital information about the big game.

Go Green!

Tickets, Tickets, Tickets

There are plenty of stories floating around out there about tickets to the Men's Final Four this weekend, and to sum them all up, "You can get tickets if you have money."

Beyond that, there are actually a couple of interesting story lines involving tickets. The first is the Izzone snafu mentioned in the last post. This story isn't a big deal to many people, but to members of the Izzone, it most certainly is. Apparently when the Student Alumni Foundation sent an email to Izzone members about tickets, it contained a faulty link to the online ticket site that was contracted by the NCAA. The situation was fixed, but not everyone could be notified in time (or it was not fixed for everyone, do we ever really know when it comes to computers?). This led to a number of eligible Izzone members who felt they were not given a chance to get tickets. The situation was compounded by unconfirmed rumors that because SAF members knew the correct link first, they and their friends, and their friend's friends were the ones who actually purchased all of the tickets as the link spread by word of mouth. While not confirmed, this is not an unrealistic scenario.

Obviously this made many students upset, and members of SAF (which is overseen by the Alumni Association) worked with the Athletic Department to see what could be done. The NCAA was able to release an additional 79 tickets, and those tickets were allocated by lottery to eligible members. Problem solved...

Another situation is involving the number of allotted tickets and hotel rooms. According to the Lansing State Journal, each school's overall ticket allotment is 3,250. This is down from 4,500 in 2005 even though Ford Field holds many more people than any previous arena used to host the Final Four. This simply means less tickets for everyone associated with the program, including students families and friends, MSU administration, donors, past players, local celebrities, etc. Compounding the problem is that each school is on the hook for 500 hotel rooms for four nights each. It seems that many of the State fans don't really feel like spending that much time in Detroit (or simply don't need the room and don't want to pay for it). Unless MSU can work something out, the athletic department is on the hook for the cost of those rooms. It was suggested to me that they could offer the rooms to fans of other schools who do need to travel, but then again, wouldn't that hurt our home court advantage?

Finally, Tom Izzo was asked in his Tuesday press conference about ticket requests. He said that he has been overwhelmed by ticket requests, and has found an easy way to handle it. He said he has basically stopped checking his email and phone messages, using the theory that he doesn't have to say no if he never gets the message in the first place. So if your work buddy promised you a ticket because he's got that "awesome connection with Izzo," you might just want to look into plan B.

Motown Bound

This is it Spartan fans, Michigan State is going to Motown for the Final Four, its fifth Final Four trip under Tom Izzo and first since 2005.

We'll have more - much more - on this throughout the week, but we wanted to flag a bunch of things for ya right away:

• There's a pep rally tonight at 10 p.m. at the Breslin Center to welcome home the Spartans. It's free to go.
• Final Four packages, hotel included, are available here.
• Show up in style with Final Four shirts, hats and miscellany.
  
• Tickets, through StubHub, start at $300 (as of this writing) for the semifinals and finals. Expect those ticket prices online to soar through the week before crashing Saturday. Tickets "found" outside Ford Field will likely be priced MUCH higher - they were $2,000 a pop in 2005.
• The Free Press has a great feature on what to expect when you're inside Ford Field, including details the elevated court, student seating and a photo gallery from the court installation.
  

Go State!

Dancing with the Spartans: Regional Edition

Continuing our thread from yesterday on possible destinations for MSU's basketball team, today we take a look at the regional sites.

Indianapolis, Ind.

Clearly, winding up in Indianapolis would be Michigan State's preference, given its proximity to East Lansing: It's just a hair longer than four hours' drive. The town has been good to Sparty in years past - MSU's 2000 national championship victory took place in Indy's RCA Dome, as did the MSU women's epic Final Four victory over Tennessee.

The stadium they'll be using this time, however, is the new Lucas Oil Stadium, which has its own plusses and minuses. On the positive side, it's brand new, got great amenities and all that. Not only that, it's sight lines were actually designed for basketball. There is one big drawback to the stadium, however. It wasn't designed to be a loud facility, thus any traveling Izzone impact would be muted, literally.

Saturday's loss, which basically eliminated any chance of a 1 seed, actually helps MSU get closer to Indy. There's little chance Sparty would have leap-frogged Pittsburgh or Louisville, both of whom are seeking a Midwest Regional #1 berth. But there are fewer teams on the 2 or 3 seed lines that fit better in this city, so the odds are good State will land in Indy with two wins. The one possibility that could push MSU out is Memphis - they're hosting the Memphis regional and will thus get placed somewhere else. This is their natural landing spot as well, and the higher of the two between Memphis and MSU should be rewarded with a trip close to home.

Chances of landing here: 80 percent.

Memphis, Tenn.

Of the non-Indy cities MSU could wind up in, I'm going to come right out and say that Memphis is the best landing spot. The drive, at about 11 hours, is doable in tandem or with 3-4 in a car. But flying here is just plain easy, considering Memphis International is a hub airport for Northwest. The trouble for State is that several other potential twos and threes - Duke, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and LSU, just to name a few - would be much better geographic fits. That's why, even though this would be the second best possibility, it's also the least likely.

Chances of landing here: Maybe 1 percent, but probably not even that.

Glendale, Ariz.

Glendale, on the other hand, is the exact reverse of Memphis. It's the worst possible option for Sparty, but the most likely for State outside of Indy. The reason for this is simple: There isn't a Pacific coast team that's a good option as a 1 or 2 seed. UCLA and Gonzaga, probably the best Pacific hopefuls, are projecting as four seeds, according to ESPN's Joe Lundardi. So that means someone's traveling.

Other teams make better sense for every other region than MSU, which puts the committee in a bind. Do you make everyone travel just a bit, or do you instead make three teams happy and send one packing? Easy, you send one packing. And that one is most likely MSU.

Chances of landing here: 15 percent.

Boston, Mass.

Aside from a love of the color green, Michigan State has practically nothing in common with Boston. There's not a huge alumni base there, plus it's a 13-hour (plus two border crossings) drive away. But the thing that could land Sparty in Boston is the same thing that could take them to Arizona: Relative proximity. UConn is an obvious choice for Boston, but aside from that, who do you put there? Every contender from the ACC would likely rather go elsewhere, as would Big East contenders Pitt and Louisville. So while there's no compelling reason to put State in Beantown, it could wind up there by default.

Chances of landing here: 5 percent.

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Finals:
Detroit, Mich.

By any criteria, this is the best possible site in America for a Michigan State Final Four team. It's not even close.

Ford Field is an hour to an hour and a half drive from East Lansing. It's even closer for metro-Detroit alums, who (by far) make up the largest population of MSU boosters outside the Lansing area. Add to that the fact that many tickets were bought way in advance by fans on a whim figuring MSU might be there, and it all adds up to a big home field advantage.

Of course, you have to get there first.