P12 football championship game on the move

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P12 football championship game on the move - Spiny_Norman - 01-25-2019

The 2019 P12 championship game will be the final one at Levi's Stadium.

Quote: The Pac-12 Conference and Levi’s Stadium have agreed to opt out of the final year (2020) of the agreement to hold the Pac-12 Championship Game at the venue.

Wilner speculates that the game will move to the new stadium in Las Vegas or the new stadium in LA.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/01/25/on-the-move-pac-12-football-championship-game-needs-a-new-home-las-vegas-and-los-angeles-are-prime-options/

RE: P12 football championship game on the move - bbm233 - 01-25-2019

I think it should move to the home stadium of the team with the best chance to make the playoffs. Those fans would show up.

RE: P12 football championship game on the move - ColoradoTree - 01-25-2019

(01-25-2019, 10:11 AM)bbm233 Wrote: I think it should move to the home stadium of the team with the best chance to make the playoffs. Those fans would show up.

Vegas is better than Santa Clara, but I really liked the team with the better record hosting. Now, if only the game were always held on Saturdays instead of Fridays during rush hour, and you would see full stadiums.

RE: P12 football championship game on the move - SamuelMcF - 01-25-2019

(01-25-2019, 10:18 AM)ColoradoTree Wrote: Now, if only the game were always held on Saturdays instead of Fridays during rush hour, and you would see full stadiums.

This is SO MUCH MORE IMPORTANT imo. As long as the venue is still west coast or local-ish (short flight), having Saturday for travel is key.

Last year the major conf champ games were at the following times (PST):
Big 12: 9am ABC
SEC: 1pm CBS
Big 10 and ACC: 5pm ESPN, ABC

Put our championship game on Saturday at 2pm on FOX and I will never complain again.

RE: P12 football championship game on the move - BostonCard - 01-25-2019

You have to realize that the goal of the scheduling of these games is not to fill up the stadium, but to have television viewers, and more viewers will watch the game unopposed on a Friday evening than they will on a Saturday, going up against other power 5 conferences, unless you want a Pac-12 after dark game at 8 PM Pacific (11 PM Eastern). The only reason to care about the audience is as a prop.

I'm waiting for the day they start playing sporting events in studios, without a live audience.

BC

RE: P12 football championship game on the move - terry - 01-25-2019

(01-25-2019, 11:02 AM)BostonCard Wrote: You have to realize that the goal of the scheduling of these games is not to fill up the stadium, but to have television viewers, and more viewers will watch the game unopposed on a Friday evening than they will on a Saturday, going up against other power 5 conferences, unless you want a Pac-12 after dark game at 8 PM Pacific (11 PM Eastern). The only reason to care about the audience is as a prop.

I'm waiting for the day they start playing sporting events in studios, without a live audience.

BC

Sad, but too true.

RE: P12 football championship game on the move - 82lsju - 01-25-2019

(01-25-2019, 11:02 AM)BostonCard Wrote: You have to realize that the goal of the scheduling of these games is not to fill up the stadium, but to have television viewers, and more viewers will watch the game unopposed on a Friday evening than they will on a Saturday, going up against other power 5 conferences, unless you want a Pac-12 after dark game at 8 PM Pacific (11 PM Eastern). The only reason to care about the audience is as a prop.

I'm waiting for the day they start playing sporting events in studios, without a live audience.

BC

which has made me wonder if the recent $2 billion stadiums will soon be white elephants.....

RE: P12 football championship game on the move - ColoradoTree - 01-25-2019

(01-25-2019, 11:02 AM)BostonCard Wrote: You have to realize that the goal of the scheduling of these games is not to fill up the stadium, but to have television viewers, and more viewers will watch the game unopposed on a Friday evening than they will on a Saturday, going up against other power 5 conferences, unless you want a Pac-12 after dark game at 8 PM Pacific (11 PM Eastern). The only reason to care about the audience is as a prop.

I'm waiting for the day they start playing sporting events in studios, without a live audience.

BC

I'd push back on the presumption that getting Friday to yourself is better than sharing Saturday with other conferences. The Pac-12 was the only Power 5 conference to have its championship game on a Friday this year. It got the fewest viewers.

SEC (Saturday, 4pm): ~ 17.5M
Big 12 (Saturday, 12pm): ~10.16M
Big Ten (Saturday, 8:15pm): ~8.66M
ACC (Saturday, 8pm): ~4.24M
Pac-12 (Friday, 8:20pm): ~4.06M

(Source: Sports Media Watch website)

Two games were even played at the same time, and each of them got more eyeballs than the Pac-12 game. I understand why we might think that a Friday night game is better--it makes sense! But that hypothesis hasn't yet been proven.

RE: P12 football championship game on the move - PalmTree - 01-25-2019

(01-25-2019, 11:02 AM)BostonCard Wrote: You have to realize that the goal of the scheduling of these games is not to fill up the stadium, but to have television viewers, and more viewers will watch the game unopposed on a Friday evening than they will on a Saturday, going up against other power 5 conferences, unless you want a Pac-12 after dark game at 8 PM Pacific (11 PM Eastern). The only reason to care about the audience is as a prop.

I'm waiting for the day they start playing sporting events in studios, without a live audience.

BC

You mean like the "moon landings"? :-)

RE: P12 football championship game on the move - 82lsju - 01-25-2019

(01-25-2019, 01:29 PM)ColoradoTree Wrote: I'd push back on the presumption that getting Friday to yourself is better than sharing Saturday with other conferences. The Pac-12 was the only Power 5 conference to have its championship game on a Friday this year. It got the fewest viewers.

SEC (Saturday, 4pm): ~ 17.5M
Big 12 (Saturday, 12pm): ~10.16M
Big Ten (Saturday, 8:15pm): ~8.66M
ACC (Saturday, 8pm): ~4.24M
Pac-12 (Friday, 8:20pm): ~4.06M

(Source: Sports Media Watch website)

Two games were even played at the same time, and each of them got more eyeballs than the Pac-12 game. I understand why we might think that a Friday night game is better--it makes sense! But that hypothesis hasn't yet been proven.

the Pac-12 Friday championship games pull better TV numbers.

- The best Sat rating was 1.6 with 2.6m homes

- The worst Fri rating was 2.3 with 3.7m homes

2012: Stanford 27, UCLA 24 - Network: FOX
Day: Friday - TV audience: 3.0 rating/4.9 million homes

2013: Stanford 38, Arizona State 14 - Network: ESPN
Day: Saturday - TV audience: 0.9 rating/1.45 million homes

2014: Oregon 51, Arizona 13 - Network: FOX
Day: Friday - TV audience: 3.7 rating/6 million homes

2015: Stanford 41, USC 22 - Network: ESPN
Day: Saturday - TV audience: 1.6 rating/2.6 million homes

2016: Washington 41, Colorado 10 - Network: FOX
Day: Friday - TV audience: 3.4 rating/5.7 million homes

2017: USC 31, Stanford 28 - Network: ESPN
Day: Friday - TV audience: 2.3 rating/3.7 million homes

https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/11/28/hotline-newsletter-why-the-pac-12-title-game-is-friday-night-millers-defiance-heltons-challenge-wsus-fall-from-rankings-grace/

RE: P12 football championship game on the move - ColoradoTree - 01-25-2019

Viewing those numbers through a different lens, the Pac-12 game does better on FOX than it does on ESPN. I wonder how the game would perform on FOX on a Saturday.

That said, it is truly depressing for Pac-12 football that no one wants to watch us, no matter which day. Those 2015 numbers are depressing. We had Christian freaking McCaffrey breaking records left and right, and we're playing the marquee program in the conference, and we can't do better than that? (We were opposite the Big Ten championship game, IIRC, because there was some flipping back and forth in our household.) I get that USC was down that year, but still!

RE: P12 football championship game on the move - 82lsju - 01-25-2019

(01-25-2019, 02:33 PM)ColoradoTree Wrote: Viewing those numbers through a different lens, the Pac-12 game does better on FOX than it does on ESPN. I wonder how the game would perform on FOX on a Saturday.

but 2 of the 3 games on ESPN were on Saturday, even for ESPN Friday does much better than Saturday, no obvious reason apparent to me to think that Fox would be different

2013: Stanford 38, Arizona State 14 - Network: ESPN
Day: Saturday - TV audience: 0.9 rating/1.45 million homes

2015: Stanford 41, USC 22 - Network: ESPN
Day: Saturday - TV audience: 1.6 rating/2.6 million homes

2017: USC 31, Stanford 28 - Network: ESPN
Day: Friday - TV audience: 2.3 rating/3.7 million homes

RE: P12 football championship game on the move - BostonCard - 01-25-2019

(01-25-2019, 01:29 PM)ColoradoTree Wrote:
(01-25-2019, 11:02 AM)BostonCard Wrote: You have to realize that the goal of the scheduling of these games is not to fill up the stadium, but to have television viewers, and more viewers will watch the game unopposed on a Friday evening than they will on a Saturday, going up against other power 5 conferences, unless you want a Pac-12 after dark game at 8 PM Pacific (11 PM Eastern). The only reason to care about the audience is as a prop.

I'm waiting for the day they start playing sporting events in studios, without a live audience.

BC

I'd push back on the presumption that getting Friday to yourself is better than sharing Saturday with other conferences. The Pac-12 was the only Power 5 conference to have its championship game on a Friday this year. It got the fewest viewers.

SEC (Saturday, 4pm): ~ 17.5M
Big 12 (Saturday, 12pm): ~10.16M
Big Ten (Saturday, 8:15pm): ~8.66M
ACC (Saturday, 8pm): ~4.24M
Pac-12 (Friday, 8:20pm): ~4.06M

(Source: Sports Media Watch website)

Two games were even played at the same time, and each of them got more eyeballs than the Pac-12 game. I understand why we might think that a Friday night game is better--it makes sense! But that hypothesis hasn't yet been proven.

The comparison is not to what other conferences do on a Saturday, but to what the Pac-12 game would have done had it been played on a Saturday. And I think based on historical data, the counterfactual probably would have done worse.

BC

RE: P12 football championship game on the move - winflop - 01-27-2019

Please please please put the game in Vegas
- December weather is MUCH better
- Friday vs. Saturday not as big an impact (traffic not as big a factor)
- MUCH lower cost for people to attend (airfare, hotel)

Having it in the Bay Area was always a stupid idea

RE: P12 football championship game on the move - hayaka - 01-27-2019

(01-27-2019, 05:46 AM)winflop Wrote: Please please please put the game in Vegas
- December weather is MUCH better
- Friday vs. Saturday not as big an impact (traffic not as big a factor)
- MUCH lower cost for people to attend (airfare, hotel)

Having it in the Bay Area was always a stupid idea

Actually, Vegas is a few degrees colder than the Peninsula in early December, and the wind chill is quite a bit worse. But the Vegas stadium will be a dome, so yes, the football game will be played in better conditions, if you don't mind watching a football game indoors.

RE: P12 football championship game on the move - CowboyIndian - 01-27-2019

Plus...you can stick around for the National Finals Rodeo.

RE: P12 football championship game on the move - magnus - 01-27-2019

(01-25-2019, 02:07 PM)82lsju Wrote: the Pac-12 Friday championship games pull better TV numbers.

- The best Sat rating was 1.6 with 2.6m homes

- The worst Fri rating was 2.3 with 3.7m homes

2012: Stanford 27, UCLA 24 - Network: FOX
Day: Friday - TV audience: 3.0 rating/4.9 million homes

2013: Stanford 38, Arizona State 14 - Network: ESPN
Day: Saturday - TV audience: 0.9 rating/1.45 million homes

2014: Oregon 51, Arizona 13 - Network: FOX
Day: Friday - TV audience: 3.7 rating/6 million homes

2015: Stanford 41, USC 22 - Network: ESPN
Day: Saturday - TV audience: 1.6 rating/2.6 million homes

2016: Washington 41, Colorado 10 - Network: FOX
Day: Friday - TV audience: 3.4 rating/5.7 million homes

2017: USC 31, Stanford 28 - Network: ESPN
Day: Friday - TV audience: 2.3 rating/3.7 million homes

https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/11/28/hotline-newsletter-why-the-pac-12-title-game-is-friday-night-millers-defiance-heltons-challenge-wsus-fall-from-rankings-grace/

It might unfortunately be pointed out that the three worst rated games all involved us.

RE: P12 football championship game on the move - Snorlax94 - 01-27-2019

I agree that Vegas could be beneficial for the conference. It’s fairly central, and often has reasonably-priced airfare. During the busy season, hotel rooms cost 2-3 times as much on weekends (so rooms may not be cheap), but people want to visit Vegas because there is stuff to do and see even in the winter.

I think the greatest potential benefit would be if a Vegas presence garnered more regional interest in Pac-12 sports. Vegas is a sports town. It’s a great place to watch a football or basketball game in a casino next to hundreds of other sports fans.

I do worry though what last-minute airfare and weekend hotel rates will be. And I will miss the convenience of Levi’s for Stanford fans. In Vegas, you’ll probably get more locals going to the game out of a general interest in football, but I worry many won’t cheer for Stanford, and a Friday kickoff will be a tricky for many people who work. One plus for LA is that at least a lot of fans and alums live there.

RE: P12 football championship game on the move - ColoradoTree - 01-28-2019

(01-25-2019, 02:43 PM)82lsju Wrote:
(01-25-2019, 02:33 PM)ColoradoTree Wrote: Viewing those numbers through a different lens, the Pac-12 game does better on FOX than it does on ESPN. I wonder how the game would perform on FOX on a Saturday.

but 2 of the 3 games on ESPN were on Saturday, even for ESPN Friday does much better than Saturday, no obvious reason apparent to me to think that Fox would be different

My reason for mentioning it is that there are approximately 120 million households with a working TV (per Nielsen), and only about 91 million households that get ESPN. That delta matters, and we can see in your delta that ESPN on Friday is significantly better than ESPN on Saturday. It stands to reason that a game with wider coverage on Saturday (Fox) might do better than a game with slightly narrower coverage (ESPN). It still might not measure up to Friday, of course, and it probably wouldn't, but we have FOX/Friday, ESPN/Friday, and ESPN/Saturday, so FOX/Saturday is the data point we're missing. I was just saying I'd be curious to see what that data point would look like. My guess would be a FOX game on Saturday would do better than ESPN on Saturday, but not quite as well as FOX on Friday, but that's why they play the games, as they say.

RE: P12 football championship game on the move - Hank 91 - 01-28-2019

I understand that the goal is getting more viewers -- Larry Scott says this over and over -- but the unspoken problem is that scheduling the championship game (or any other game, for that matter) on a Friday night perpetuates the idea that the Pac-12 really isn't a Power 5 conference. It's embarrassing. And when the marquee game of the year is routinely played in front of a sparsely populated stadium, even when the conference actually gives away tickets sometimes, it further demeans the entire conference. It's become a national joke. Optics are important. If last season's game had been held in Seattle on a Saturday, there likely would've been a brobdingnagian crowd and a great atmosphere. I think the conference decision makers probably would see that as a step backwards, an admission that this isn't the SEC, but guess what -- this ISN'T the SEC, and it's time they stop pretending that it is.

But of course, they don't care about the national image of the conference. They're okay with mediocre officiating, a compromised replay system, and a bungled TV contract. Why would they worry about this? To Larry Scott's way of thinking, it's okay that the Conference of Champions is universally mocked, just as long as there's money in the coffers. But what happens when this contract expires four years from now? Will the conference be more or less valuable than it was in 2011?