ACC ticket sales lower than necessary

[thelakelander]

By Garry Smits,
The Times-Union

With ticket sales lagging for Saturday's Atlantic Coast Conference football championship game between sixth-ranked Virginia Tech and No. 12 Boston College, Gator Bowl Association president Rick Catlett said his optimism is waning about Jacksonville keeping the event. 

Catlett believed that 65,000 tickets sold was the minimum needed to keep the game from moving to Charlotte, N.C., or Tampa next year. With BC fans avoiding a chance to see their team play for a BCS conference title for the first time in school history and public sales low, the actual number of tickets sold is on track to be about 10,000 less than that goal.

"It's a long shot, but I never give up hope," Catlett said. "The weather report for Saturday is very good, a lot better than last year, so we're hoping for very strong walk-up sales. I won't pack it in until the ACC says they're not coming back."

ACC athletic directors, faculty representatives and league officials will meet today to discuss the championship game and other issues. Speculation was that a vote might be taken on the site of next year's title game, but Catlett said that it's his understanding the vote isn't likely to happen until mid-December.

The first ACC championship game, in 2005 between Florida State and Virginia Tech, sold out Municipal Stadium. However, last year's Wake Forest victory over Georgia Tech sold around 60,000 tickets, and the prospects for reaching that amount seem bleak this year.

Catlett said he will respect the ACC's decision if the league moves the game out of Jacksonville.

"The most important thing is for the conference to grow this game," Catlett said. "If it's not us, then I understand. I don't want to get into blaming people. For whatever reasons, whether it's the economy or the ticket prices being too high or something else, the fans of the schools involved haven't traveled here in the past two years, and we haven't sold as many tickets locally as we would have liked.

"But Jacksonville's got nothing to be ashamed of. The city has done everything it needs to do to make this game special."

The box offices at the north end zone of the stadium will open at 9 a.m. Saturday for walk-up sales. Seats available include the club sections ($125), lower bowl sideline ($80) and lower bowl end zone ($70). Tickets will be available for purchase through halftime.

Fans also can purchase tickets online today by visiting www.ticketmaster.com or www.gatorbowl.com, and by calling Ticketmaster at (904) 353-3309.

garry.smits@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4362

This story can be found on Jacksonville.com at http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/113007/spo_221603432.shtml.

ACC Championship Game schedule of events

Today

9 a.m.-noon: ACC FanFest field trip for area youth, Pepsi Plaza, Jacksonville Municipal Stadium.

Noon-1:15 p.m.: ACC coaches and awards luncheon, Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront Ballroom (tickets are $25).

6-8 p.m.: ACC Legends reception, Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront Ballroom (tickets are $50).

5-10 p.m.: ACC FanFest, featuring Phil Vassar in concert, Pepsi Plaza, Jacksonville Municipal Stadium (admission is free).

10 p.m.: Fireworks on the St. Johns River.


Saturday

All events at Pepsi Plaza, Jacksonville Municipal Stadium

9:30 a.m.-1 p.m.: ACC FanFest.

10-10:30 a.m.: Virginia Tech pep rally.

10:45-11:15 a.m.: Boston College pep rally.

11:30 a.m.: ACC mascots game.

After the game-8 p.m.: ACC champion postgame party.

[copperfiend]

When BC beat Clemson a few weeks back, Catlett knew this would happen. The GBA did everything they could. Unfortunately, the timing was bad with Miami and FSU being down.

[Dapperdan]

Why should the city be made to feel guilty about not buying tickets for 2 teams we all could care less about? I guarantee you the SEC Championship sells all their schools allotted tickets and doesn't pan them back to Atlanta and threaten to yank the game if a certain number of tickets aren't sold.. BS, I say. Good riddance if they do go. They won't do any better anywhere else.

[Ocklawaha]

"But Jacksonville's got nothing to be ashamed of. The city has done everything it needs to do to make this game special."

I would suggest, El Paso, Texas... They have a big stadium, and it's the "garden spot" of the Southwest! LOL!

Ocklawaha

[RiversideGator]

I would love for the game to stay and I am actually going tomorrow to show my support, but to blame Jacksonville for the fact that many of their ACC member schools do not have good football traditions or large traveling fan bases is frankly ridiculous.  I seriously doubt that they would do any better in Tampa or Charlotte and would probably do worse.  The weather is bad in Charlotte and Tampa is more remote and harder to get to by car than Jacksonville.  Perhaps they need to look in the mirror and get their own football houses in order before blaming others.  For example, Boston College is a small private school which would not stand a chance were they in the SEC and would have 5 losses so this wouldnt even be an issue.  In the ACC, we are supposed to pretend that they are some sort of powerhouse.  A decent Florida team (8-3 at the time) absolutely destroyed FSU (who is supposed to be a mid-tier ACC team this year and was 7-4 at the time).  So, the bottom line is the football isnt as good and the schools for the most part dont bring their own fans.

BTW, I have been to the SEC Championship game in Atlanta several times (traveling up there from Jacksonville) and I have never met nonpartisan locals at the game.  The people I have met were all fans of the respective schools who either travel to the game from their states or who happen to live in Atlanta.  Neither Jacksonville, Tampa nor Charlotte has the population base and alumni base for the ACC like Atlanta does for the SEC so it is hard to believe that the ACC officials are holding us to that standard.  Anyway, I hope they stay but if they leave they are making a mistake in my view.

[tufsu1]

I would love for the game to stay and I am actually going tomorrow to show my support, but to blame Jacksonville for the fact that many of their ACC member schools do not have good football traditions or large traveling fan bases is frankly ridiculous.  I seriously doubt that they would do any better in Tampa or Charlotte and would probably do worse.  The weather is bad in Charlotte and Tampa is more remote and harder to get to by car than Jacksonville.  Perhaps they need to look in the mirror and get their own football houses in order before blaming others.  For example, Boston College is a small private school which would not stand a chance were they in the SEC and would have 5 losses so this wouldnt even be an issue.  In the ACC, we are supposed to pretend that they are some sort of powerhouse.  A decent Florida team (8-3 at the time) absolutely destroyed FSU (who is supposed to be a mid-tier ACC team this year and was 7-4 at the time).  So, the bottom line is the football isnt as good and the schools for the most part dont bring their own fans.

BTW, I have been to the SEC Championship game in Atlanta several times (traveling up there from Jacksonville) and I have never met nonpartisan locals at the game.  The people I have met were all fans of the respective schools who either travel to the game from their states or who happen to live in Atlanta.  Neither Jacksonville, Tampa nor Charlotte has the population base and alumni base for the ACC like Atlanta does for the SEC so it is hard to believe that the ACC officials are holding us to that standard.  Anyway, I hope they stay but if they leave they are making a mistake in my view.

well if BC is so terrible, they should lose to Va Tech and then will get a chance to play a team from the "powerhouse" SEC conference in the Chick-Fil-A (Peach) Bowl.

The SEC has tradition but they aren't that much better than the ACC (see Wake over vandy and Clemnson over USC last week)...in fact, they may be as overrated year-iun year-out as the Big Ten

[thelakelander]

This year it appears the SEC was overrated big time along with the Big Ten.  Btw, if Missouri wins Florida could end up playing Zook's boys in a bowl game.

[copperfiend]

I would love for the game to stay and I am actually going tomorrow to show my support, but to blame Jacksonville for the fact that many of their ACC member schools do not have good football traditions or large traveling fan bases is frankly ridiculous.  I seriously doubt that they would do any better in Tampa or Charlotte and would probably do worse.  The weather is bad in Charlotte and Tampa is more remote and harder to get to by car than Jacksonville.  Perhaps they need to look in the mirror and get their own football houses in order before blaming others.  For example, Boston College is a small private school which would not stand a chance were they in the SEC and would have 5 losses so this wouldnt even be an issue.  In the ACC, we are supposed to pretend that they are some sort of powerhouse.  A decent Florida team (8-3 at the time) absolutely destroyed FSU (who is supposed to be a mid-tier ACC team this year and was 7-4 at the time).  So, the bottom line is the football isnt as good and the schools for the most part dont bring their own fans.

BTW, I have been to the SEC Championship game in Atlanta several times (traveling up there from Jacksonville) and I have never met nonpartisan locals at the game.  The people I have met were all fans of the respective schools who either travel to the game from their states or who happen to live in Atlanta.  Neither Jacksonville, Tampa nor Charlotte has the population base and alumni base for the ACC like Atlanta does for the SEC so it is hard to believe that the ACC officials are holding us to that standard.  Anyway, I hope they stay but if they leave they are making a mistake in my view.

Well don't forget that Clemson beat South Carolina, Wake Forest beat Vandy and earlier this year FSU beat Alabama.

[vicupstate]

I would love for the game to stay and I am actually going tomorrow to show my support, but to blame Jacksonville for the fact that many of their ACC member schools do not have good football traditions or large traveling fan bases is frankly ridiculous.  I seriously doubt that they would do any better in Tampa or Charlotte and would probably do worse.  The weather is bad in Charlotte and Tampa is more remote and harder to get to by car than Jacksonville.  Perhaps they need to look in the mirror and get their own football houses in order before blaming others.  For example, Boston College is a small private school which would not stand a chance were they in the SEC and would have 5 losses so this wouldnt even be an issue.  In the ACC, we are supposed to pretend that they are some sort of powerhouse.  A decent Florida team (8-3 at the time) absolutely destroyed FSU (who is supposed to be a mid-tier ACC team this year and was 7-4 at the time).  So, the bottom line is the football isnt as good and the schools for the most part dont bring their own fans.

BTW, I have been to the SEC Championship game in Atlanta several times (traveling up there from Jacksonville) and I have never met nonpartisan locals at the game.  The people I have met were all fans of the respective schools who either travel to the game from their states or who happen to live in Atlanta.  Neither Jacksonville, Tampa nor Charlotte has the population base and alumni base for the ACC like Atlanta does for the SEC so it is hard to believe that the ACC officials are holding us to that standard.  Anyway, I hope they stay but if they leave they are making a mistake in my view.

Geography does give Charlotte a leg up.  Four teams are in NC proper and Clemson is also within 130 miles. If the game had been in CLT last year, more Wake Forest fans would have showed up.  For this year, CLT is driving distance from VA Tech, but is more like flying distance to Jax. I haven't done the research but there must be exponentially more flights from Boston to CLT than Boston to Jax, since CLT is a hub airport.  As for the weather, that can be an issue in SOME years, but most of the teams are in local climates at LEAST as far north as Charlotte is, so they are use to it.   

Also, it would only have taken $800,000 or so for the game to be a sellout this year.  If CLT were presented with the same situation, it is hard to believe that the corporate titans of CLT wouldn't have split the tab, bought the tickets and given them to their employees.  Losing Barnett Banks, Independent Life, Gulf Life, AHL, etc. takes a toll that shows up in situations such as this. 

While the SEC is the strongest football conference year-to-year, both ACC and ACC had off years this year.   Tampa is no doubt out of the picture.

[copperfiend]

What if the game is in Charlotte and it's a FSU/Miami matchup? Good luck to them.

[vicupstate]

What if the game is in Charlotte and it's a FSU/Miami matchup? Good luck to them.

Large schools with big fan base.  Tons of flights from the three Miami airports to CLT on USAirways.  If both are going well enough to be in the championship, there shouldn't be much problem. 

[thelakelander]

Third year not charm for city

The ACC is expected to take its game elsewhere due to low attendance.

By Garry Smits, The Times-Union

Jacksonville bid a likely goodbye to the Atlantic Coast Conference football championship game Saturday after three years of close games, good weather and spotty attendance.

"We did everything we could to make this a first-class experience for the teams and college football fans," said Gator Bowl Association president Rick Catlett, whose organization ran the game. "We're proud of what we did."

Now, it will be the turn of either Charlotte, N.C., or Tampa to make a go of it.

ACC commissioner John Swofford said in a brief news conference during halftime of the Virginia Tech-Boston College game that a decision on where the event would go would be reached "in a couple of weeks."

Swofford said the options are moving the game to a city for multiple years, or rotating the sites, as the Big 12 Conference does with its title contest.

"We're looking for the best model to make it successful, regardless of who's playing," Swofford said.

Swofford wouldn't rule out the conference keeping the game in Jacksonville, but almost no one at the league office or with the GBA believes it will.

After the first ACC title game between Florida State and Virginia Tech sold out in 2005, in spring-like weather, last year's chilly, rainy game between Wake Forest and Georgia Tech sold just over 62,000 tickets. With sparse support from BC fans and public sales waning because of the absence of a team from Florida, Saturday's game sold only 53,212 tickets.

A chamber-of-commerce weather day didn't seem to spark walk-up sales, and only a few dozen fans were in the upper bowl of the stadium.

Since GBA officials admitted earlier this year that only a sellout would keep the game in Jacksonville, the ACC is likely to take the game to Charlotte, which is located within a drive of no more than several hours from most ACC schools.

The distance to Jacksonville was one of the main reasons cited by BC fans for the lack of Eagles supporters coming to this year's game.

"Charlotte is about 1,000 miles closer," said Marc Hogan, a 1997 BC graduate who lives there. "You can drive from Boston in one day there. It's a little tougher to Jacksonville, and there are no connecting flights from Boston to here."

Mike Szarowicz, a 1999 BC graduate, said the school's small enrollment is a constant problem in ticket sales to postseason games.

"You can fit our living alumni in Michigan Stadium," he said, referring to BC's estimate of 100,000 living alumni. "It's a small private school."

When it was pointed out that Wake Forest has 40,000 living alumni and sold more tickets to last year's ACC title game than BC, Szarowicz shrugged and said: "Well, that's frustrating. I agree that we could do better."

While Virginia Tech fans supported yet another game in Jacksonville, some said they would welcome a day trip to Charlotte.

"You can drive to Jacksonville from Virginia in one day, but it's a long day," said Daphne Jamison of Smith Mountain Lake, Va. "Of course, I don't know that we'd get weather like we get in Jacksonville."

garry.smits@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4362

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/120207/col_222103914.shtml

[RiversideGator]

well if BC is so terrible, they should lose to Va Tech and then will get a chance to play a team from the "powerhouse" SEC conference in the Chick-Fil-A (Peach) Bowl.

The SEC has tradition but they aren't that much better than the ACC (see Wake over vandy and Clemnson over USC last week)...in fact, they may be as overrated year-iun year-out as the Big Ten

Well, considering that BC did lose to VT, perhaps your statement was prophetic.  Also, comparing the cellar dwellers in each conference does not in any way prove that the conferences are comparable.  The SEC is better than the ACC on the whole and we all know it.  Looking at the top tier is more indicative.  For example, the ACC has no team as good as LSU, Georgia or Florida.  VA Tech is the best team in the ACC apparently but they would be a mid-tier team in the SEC.  This is the bottom line.

BTW, the SEC is projected to have 2 teams play in BCS bowls one of whom (LSU) will be playing for the National Championship and the ACC just has one by virtue of the system automatically sending their champion to a BCS bowl. 

Also:

(updated through the 2006 season):

The SEC holds an 245-114-10 (.678) all-time advantage.

Since 1990, the SEC leads the ACC in head-to-head games with a 65-50-2 (.564) record.

http://www.secsportsfan.com/sec-vs-acc-football.html

And:

The SEC has the most alumni playing in the NFL. The 2007 NFL opening day active rosters showed 263 former SEC football players on NFL rosters. The ACC was second with 238 players; the Big Ten was third with 234; Pac-10 -- 183; Big 12 -- 176; Big East -- 84. (FYI -- Tennessee is the top SEC team with 36 players in the NFL; Georgia second with 35.)

The SEC has led the nation in football attendance for 9 straight years â€" averaging 75,706 fans per game in 2006...

In 2006, the SEC led all conferences in winning percentage vs. non-conference opponents with an incredible .854 winning percentage. According to the 2005 SEC Football Fan guide the SEC holds an all-time 72.4% non-conference winning percentage. That all-time percentage obviously went up after 2006...

Most scouting services ranked 6 SEC schools in the top 10 nationally in the most recent recruiting season. Rivals.com, for instance, had Florida #1 and Tennessee #2. No other conference came anywhere close.

http://www.secsportsfan.com/sec-football.html

Off the top of my head, Georgia (SEC) has won 6 straight over Georgia Tech (ACC) and Florida (SEC) has won 4 straight over FSU (ACC).  Since 2000, SEC teams have won 2 National Championships and the ACC just 1. 

I think these stats pretty much settle the matter.  The SEC is superior to the ACC.  Case closed.

[RiversideGator]

This year it appears the SEC was overrated big time along with the Big Ten.  Btw, if Missouri wins Florida could end up playing Zook's boys in a bowl game.

How does it appear this?  The SEC teams this year at the top are all quite good and have knocked each other off giving each top SEC team 2-3 losses.  We just dont have a clearly dominate team in the SEC this year, but LSU is probably the best in the conference.  The SEC is the best conference in the nation year in and year out, including this year.  See my post above for proof, not conjecture. 

[RiversideGator]

Geography does give Charlotte a leg up.  Four teams are in NC proper and Clemson is also within 130 miles. If the game had been in CLT last year, more Wake Forest fans would have showed up.  For this year, CLT is driving distance from VA Tech, but is more like flying distance to Jax. I haven't done the research but there must be exponentially more flights from Boston to CLT than Boston to Jax, since CLT is a hub airport.  As for the weather, that can be an issue in SOME years, but most of the teams are in local climates at LEAST as far north as Charlotte is, so they are use to it.   

Also, it would only have taken $800,000 or so for the game to be a sellout this year.  If CLT were presented with the same situation, it is hard to believe that the corporate titans of CLT wouldn't have split the tab, bought the tickets and given them to their employees.  Losing Barnett Banks, Independent Life, Gulf Life, AHL, etc. takes a toll that shows up in situations such as this. 

While the SEC is the strongest football conference year-to-year, both ACC and ACC had off years this year.   Tampa is no doubt out of the picture.

I agree that Charlotte is more centrally located to the ACC schools, but there are only 40,000 living Wake Forest alumni and BC only 100,000 living alumni.  With the SEC, the University of Florida for example has 50,000 students alone with hundreds of thousands of living alumni many of whom are very avid football fans.  The main problem with the ACC game is, aside from VA Tech, Miami and FSU, the ACC is a basketball conference with little winning football tradition.

BTW, weather in Charlotte today is a balmy high of 56 with the temps dropping into the 40s tonight and a chance of rain.  I dont know how many Charlotteans would sit through an average game with teams they dont care about in bad weather.  Even if BOA steps up and buys all of the unsold tickets, there would still be a lot of empty seats in Charlotte.  I just think the ACC needs to be a little more realistic as to the football passion in their conference.