Yesterday, we posted that more detail had been added to the Regents’ agenda
for their meetings next week.* However, one item that remains without added
detail is the discussion of UCLA’s move to the Big Ten. As of this morning, when
you click on that topic, you get an error message – see above - rather than a
report.
Meanwhile, an article – also appearing yesterday – in the New York Times
suggests that the Regents don’t have a lot of wiggle room regarding this
matter. Basically, the athletics program at UCLA needs the added revenue. If
the Regents try to void the deal, or syphon off money to help Berkeley, they
create new problems. Excerpt from the Times:
…Crowds have continued to be so barren at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena,
Calif., that UCLA has averaged only 36,241 fans in six home games, despite the
university routinely giving away tens of thousands of tickets. The
embarrassment of so many empty seats has become so acute that six sections near
each end zone are covered by powder-blue tarps, tightening the 91,136-person
seating capacity by more than one-third.
…But UCLA’s struggle for football relevance has had consequences far beyond
crowd aesthetics. As college athletics are increasingly driven by billions in
football television rights, there may be no better example of how an athletic
department’s health is tied to the fortunes of its football team. Thus, even as
UCLA’s storied men’s basketball team has returned to national prominence, and
as a well-rounded athletic program with 119 team national championships has
continued its broad success, football’s shortcomings have torpedoed UCLA’s
athletic finances. By the end of the 2021 fiscal year, its shortfall had
exceeded $103.1 million, according to the school’s statement of revenues and
expenses.
…The financial fall for UCLA has been as swift as it has been steep. Just
eight years ago, with a top-10 preseason ranking and a Heisman Trophy candidate
at quarterback, Brett Hundley, the Bruins set an attendance record, averaging
76,650 and selling a school-record 46,617 season tickets. This year, season
tickets have fallen to 23,077, less than half that high-water mark. Ticket
revenue for football has also dived — falling from just under $20 million in
2014 to $9.2 million for the 2019 season. No fans were permitted in the 2020
season because of the pandemic and revenue figures for last season have not been
reported. Donations to the athletic program have declined for two consecutive
years, falling to $8.4 million for the 2021 fiscal year, which included the
2020 football season. In the 2019 fiscal year, donations were $16.4 million.
…Efforts in recent years to fill empty seats by giving away huge blocks of
free tickets haven’t worked. According to data released through a public
records request, the school gave away an average of nearly 25,000 free tickets
per game in 2019 and 2021. When UCLA drew 52,578 fans against Oklahoma in 2019,
it gave away 39,202 tickets for that game. And last season when the Bruins
upset Louisiana State before 68,123, it gave away 29,279 tickets. Those free
tickets show that even though UCLA’s attendance in 2019 and 2021 are the lowest
since moving to the Rose Bowl, the bottom line has been even worse: Tickets
sold accounted for less than 80 percent of the announced attendance in both
seasons.
…Attendance, and its impact on UCLA’s bottom line, is apparently a touchy
subject in the athletic department. Martin Jarmond, the athletic director, has
declined three interview requests from The New York Times in the last 15
months. In July, Jarmond declined an interview request to discuss the move to
the Big Ten because an athletic department spokesman, Scott Markley, said he
had already addressed the matter. Jarmond, who makes $1.4 million per year,
declined an interview request last week about football attendance because he
was “not interested in rehashing old news,” Markley said in a email, adding,
“perhaps we can make something happen later this winter.” Markley also declined
to make available athletic department marketing and ticketing officials for an
interview…
Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/11/sports/ncaafootball/ucla-football-game-attendance.html.
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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2022/11/more-detail-on-upcoming-regents-meeting.html.
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https://ia601402.us.archive.org/25/items/big-ten/no%20detail.mp3
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