Montana, I think, is the leader in the clubhouse in this area which explains their 8 home games and no FBS. They have 47 suites (sold out) that start at $14k. Add on the revenue from sold out season tickets and 24k capacity stadium, and their revenue dwarfs the others.
I’m curious what market really is - percent of high-roller fans (or fan groups) vs business interests. My guess in Montana and Dakotas it is business expectation to be seen there. There are for sure big companies that have lucrative ties to our academic output, but is it a business expectation for Monsanto and Diamond Walnut to have suites? I don’t know. The other thing interesting about USD, is they pulled some of their suites down front field level. Florida State’s new stadium did the same thing, greater variety of types of premium seating and some of it lower than before.
There are 3 main categories: University partners (think Pepsi, Sodexo), football/athletic sponsors, and donors/fans. Davis has lots of parters in the first category but the central campus leadership has never leaned on this group to really jump in to athletics. Davis has very few of the second and third category that have expressed willingness to contribute the 25 to 50k that would be the going rate for suites. Montana has some cheap old boxes that aren’t terribly expensive. Davis will not be able to replicate that unless they want to tilt up some tents in one of the end zones.
my $10k is a low ball, hopefully it’s more in the $20k. That would be the equivalent to an increase of 2000-3000 tickets per game for a 6 game schedule. So I think we’d be comparing the cost of suites (and upgraded press and stadium room) with adding some 5000 seats if we thought we could add to our attendance.
It'd be nice if it was bring your own keg friendly in the Suites. Full bar? Food spread would be? If all these had options, man that'd be well organized and worthy of Aggie dollars.
Cache creek casino would be a deep pocket sponsor that already has significant ties to campus. The biggest problem is that the Chancellor’s office is very stingy about allowing other development offices to contact them. And our research partners run deep. Genentech, the various seed companies, Bayer, the start up incubator, wineries, dairy industry, race horse industry, the list goes on.
Right. But they don’t currently have demand for either 2,000 additional paying spectators or 20 suite tenants. The difference is the seats currently exist for 2,000 people that might be willing to buy tickets. The suites do not currently exist and will cost many millions of dollars versus a revenue stream of a couple hundred grand. The real trick is getting one group of donors to fund the stadium expansion and suites and another group to lease the space. They should be trying to cultivate both audiences.
just make it entertaining or luxury. People go to minor league games and usually don't care much about the score other than sort of wantimg the team to win.