The Annual HCGM's WSU Future

[Tuscaloosa]

Question: If Alabama is unable to land Marshall, will heads "roll" as they say in Tuscaloosa?

Good question, and a fair one. It will depend on who we actually do hire. A lot of people view our current AD as a "temporary fix" - after the passing of long time AD Mal Moore. Bill Battle is a long time, extremely successful, business man who hasn't dealt much in athletics in a while. He started the NCAA Licensing company that you all are familiar with. The heat will definitely be on him if he fails to bring home a big name for the program. He was under A LOT of pressure late in the season, when it was revealed that there was no intention of firing Anthony Grant after the worst record in league play in decades and having only reached one NCAA tournament in 6 seasons. It was almost an overnight shift in attitudes in the AD - due in large part to the pressure placed on him by the fans and boosters to get it right.

[ShockBlue]

Good info, just seems really crazy the morning that they're supposedly to meet in Wichita, a flight lands from there this morning.

Saban had the department jet tied up so they sent the rental plane to try and recruit their next basketball coach.

[jocoshock]

No offense to you all, but that attendance number is complete BS. Alabama was an NIT team this year, and I watched many of its games because I wanted you guys to do well for our RPI... There was barely anyone there. We have nearly 10,000 every game in a CBI year. The fan support isn't even close basketball-wise. Now how much that matters to 3G, I have no idea. But I think it does ultimately matter quite a bit in how much success a school has in that sport.

OU is close to the same. I think the Sooners can be very good in certain years, but the fan support is not even close to being there.

Butts in the seats do matter to HCGM. We will see how much soon...

[Tuscaloosa]

Your program only made it past the sweet 16 once. Your average of 10k per game is tickets sold, actual attendance would be more like 5,000. Why would he go to Alabama when the basketball program would be overshadowed until February?

While we've only made it past the Sweet 16 once, we've made it to the Sweet 16 8 times, and until this year ranked behind only Kentucky (in the SEC) in overall wins - with more than 1500.

Also, in regards to attendance, there is a waiting list for season tickets to basketball games - in an arena that holds 15,000+, and 5000 empty seats looks pretty bad. Our announced attendance this year was over 10,000 per game. Last year attendance averaged 10,754, which was a drop in 3.4% from the previous year. These are the actual announced attendance, not ticket sales.

[RoyalShock]

Good question, and a fair one. It will depend on who we actually do hire. A lot of people view our current AD as a "temporary fix" - after the passing of long time AD Mal Moore. Bill Battle is a long time, extremely successful, business man who hasn't dealt much in athletics in a while. He started the NCAA Licensing company that you all are familiar with. The heat will definitely be on him if he fails to bring home a big name for the program. He was under A LOT of pressure late in the season, when it was revealed that there was no intention of firing Anthony Grant after the worst record in league play in decades and having only reached one NCAA tournament in 6 seasons. It was almost an overnight shift in attitudes in the AD - due in large part to the pressure placed on him by the fans and boosters to get it right.

He started CLC? The one I got a cease-and-desist letter from back around '02? I already can't stand him!

Kidding aside, do Bama fans get better football tickets if they also purchase basketball season tickets?

[Cdizzle]

While we've only made it past the Sweet 16 once, we've made it to the Sweet 16 8 times, and until this year ranked behind only Kentucky (in the SEC) in overall wins - with more than 1500.

Also, in regards to attendance, there is a waiting list for season tickets to basketball games - in an arena that holds 15,000+. Our announced attendance this year was over 10,000 per game. Last year attendance averaged 10,754, which was a drop in 3.4% from the previous year. These are the actual announced attendance, not ticket sales.

Then apparently you are one of the many who have not only not attended, but not even watched many Alabama basketball games on TV.

[shockerfan]

so far no news is good news I guess.

Maybe the story got scrapped because final negotiations fell through.

Hey I am trying to hold out hope.

Or maybe thus "breaking story" I was told about was just Battle coming to wichita...which will be messed up if true Since that was a given.

All I know is I can't change anything at this point. I DO think we will know for sure VERY soon. Just my own gut feeling for that one. Sooner the better

[Tuscaloosa]

He started CLC? The one I got a cease-and-desist letter from back around '02? I already can't stand him!

Kidding aside, do Bama fans get better football tickets if they also purchase basketball season tickets?

:eagerness:

It kinda works that way. There's a waiting list that's about 15 years long for football season tickets. Those that already have season tickets are allowed to move into better seats as they accrue "points" - which are awarded in part based on season tickets purchased in other sports. Those who are on the football waiting list move up the list with season ticket purchases in other sports.

[Tuscaloosa]

Then apparently you are one of the many who have not only not attended, but not even watched many Alabama basketball games on TV.

Season ticket holder for many years.

Attendance was certainly down this year later in the year - compared to previous years. Fans were trying to send a message, and it seemed to work.

[DUShock]

Season ticket holder for many years.

Me too!

[ShockerExpress]

While we've only made it past the Sweet 16 once, we've made it to the Sweet 16 8 times, and until this year ranked behind only Kentucky (in the SEC) in overall wins - with more than 1500.

Also, in regards to attendance, there is a waiting list for season tickets to basketball games - in an arena that holds 15,000+, and 5000 empty seats looks pretty bad. Our announced attendance this year was over 10,000 per game. Last year attendance averaged 10,754, which was a drop in 3.4% from the previous year. These are the actual announced attendance, not ticket sales.

I believe you, but at the same time, do not at all. I watched 3 or 4 SEC games where the thing didn't look half full. I am not making this up.

[WuDrWu]

Also, in regards to attendance, there is a waiting list for season tickets to basketball games - in an arena that holds 15,000+, and 5000 empty seats looks pretty bad. Our announced attendance this year was over 10,000 per game. Last year attendance averaged 10,754, which was a drop in 3.4% from the previous year. These are the actual announced attendance, not ticket sales.

Not for nothing, and honestly as much as I care about our program I am not wringing my hands over this at all, but my bs meter is going off HUGELY right now. The ONLY way you have a waiting list is because some bizarre points metric scale on upgrading football preference is skewed based on purchasing basketball tickets. There wasn't a single game on tv this season that didn't feature THOUSANDS of Bama fans disguised as empty seats.

I just reset the bs meter and it immediately started wailing yet again.

[WuShock16]

Tuscaloosa, first of all, you seem like a level-headed person, so we do appreciate your input. You'd be surprised (or maybe not) with the garbage we hear from opposing fans who come to our board. So you've got that going for you, which is nice.

Serious question, you obviously don't have numbers for this, so give me a ballpark idea on this. How many season ticket people for 'Bama basketball buy their basketball tickets because they really, really care about the product...and how many buy to help them accrue priority points for football? I have always wondered that dynamic for some of the major programs with big-time football.

[SHOCKvalue]

I know there's a stigma out there about Bama football and how it overshadows everything - because it does. But we do care about basketball, and we've experienced success before. We've never made it to the Final Four, but we have made numerous Sweet 16, and more than 20 NCAA Tournament appearances. Forbes ranked it the 14th most valuable basketball program in the country, and our attendance averaged more than 10,000 per game - in a year in which the fans had grown tired of watching bad basketball.

We do not have an Elite basketball program, but I think we could with the right coach. There's no reason a "football school" can't expect tremendous basketball success. See Florida, Ohio State, Oklahoma, etc...

That Forbes list as all about profitability - revenues minus expenses; the bigger the gap, the better the ranking on their list. Unfortunately, college basketball is not really a business in the traditional sense with shareholders or stakeholders looking to maximize ROI. If you are on that Forbes list, yet have a middling, non-blue blood MBB program, it is simply an indication that you are siphoning money away from your MBB program in a parasitic manner to fund other things (likely football). In spite of all the money Alabama likes to talk about having, you are only spending (not quite) 30% more on MBB than WSU. Let that sink in for a minute - it is $6.6M versus $5.1M. SEC big boy versus little ol' MVC school.

In Alabama's case, your sweet revenues of $14.8M are nothing more than an AD mirage, because you are only returning about a third of that back to the actual program. The reason you make $14.8M in the first place is likely due to mandatory MBB season ticket purchase in order to gain access to football seasons tickets. Our friends (okay, not really) to the north KU do this exact same thing, but in the opposite manner.

[blitzkrieg]

While we've only made it past the Sweet 16 once, we've made it to the Sweet 16 8 times, and until this year ranked behind only Kentucky (in the SEC) in overall wins - with more than 1500.

Also, in regards to attendance, there is a waiting list for season tickets to basketball games - in an arena that holds 15,000+, and 5000 empty seats looks pretty bad. Our announced attendance this year was over 10,000 per game. Last year attendance averaged 10,754, which was a drop in 3.4% from the previous year. These are the actual announced attendance, not ticket sales.

Only because your program was one of the first to start (1912). Take for instance Arkansas, they didn't start a basketball program until 1923. The same thing with many other schools in the SEC.