Jump to content
Buffalo Bulls - UB Fan Forum

Are the Bulls a hot enough ticket to fill Key Bank Center?


Recommended Posts

Let's say UB is still unbeaten in MAC play late in the season. There have been several sellouts at Alumni already. ADMA needs to raise revenue for another Oats extension after the season. Would it make sense to play a game or two at Key Bank Center in hopes of getting 8-10 even 12K attendance? More fans, more revenue, maybe an indication to Nate Oats that Buffalo basketball can reach the next level of community support and be worth sticking around for?

Edited by promotherobot
Link to comment
Share on other sites

They would need a big game. 

Students need to be around (we know they don't come when they aren't in school).

That would mean it would have to be a MAC game late in the year. I just don't know that Kent/Ohio in Feb would draw enough, even though it certianlly should for a $15 ticket to see a top 20 team. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Kevin said:

They would need a big game. 

Students need to be around (we know they don't come when they aren't in school).

That would mean it would have to be a MAC game late in the year. I just don't know that Kent/Ohio in Feb would draw enough, even though it certainly should for a $15 ticket to see a top 20 team. 

That's what I'm thinking. Next year we may not be this good so doing it now while interest is rising needs to happen. No idea how much it would cost to use KBC or if the Pegulas would do UB a favor and work something out. 

Should be easy enough to put people who already bought tickets at Alumni in good seats at KBC. How about making all of the 300 seats $10 GA?

Edited by promotherobot
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, promotherobot said:

Let's say UB is still unbeaten in MAC play late in the season. There have been several sellouts at Alumni already. ADMA needs to raise revenue for another Oats extension after the season. Would it make sense to play a game or two at Key Bank Center in hopes of getting 8-10 even 12K attendance? More fans, more revenue, maybe an indication to Nate Oats that Buffalo basketball can reach the next level of community support and be worth sticking around for?

More expenses.  UB is not going top get the Crossroads Marine Midland Arena HSBC Arena First Niagara Arena Key Bank Arena for free.  What is the deal on concessions? What about parking (if the arena has its own parking facility)?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, BrooklynBull said:

More expenses.  UB is not going top get the Crossroads Marine Midland Arena HSBC Arena First Niagara Arena Key Bank Arena for free.  What is the deal on concessions? What about parking (if the arena has its own parking facility)?

Key Bank is a Center now.  Parking is $2 an hour on Saturdays downtown now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This would be a neat idea. I think Alnutt and the university should sell the idea to the Pegula's and devise a Big 4/Big 4 related college tournament in the arena, bring in some other New York schools maybe, or bring in teams from the north east region. It would certainly help build college basketball culture here.

As of right now, there are 22 D-1 basketball schools in NYS. The battle of NY. Something along those lines. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, mikescherrer8 said:

devise a Big 4/Big 4 related college tournament in the arena

When we tried that it was awful.  Need to get a national power in for fans.  Syracuse won't play OOC games outside of the dome so count them out.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, rma said:

When we tried that it was awful.  Need to get a national power in for fans.  Syracuse won't play OOC games outside of the dome so count them out.

I was at the last Big 4 event and it drew 5K maybe. (We lost to Canisius that day.) A tournament would be great but it would need some marquee programs to get people excited. But who can predict when you'll be as good as we are now?  That's why I'm asking aloud if something could be put together now. And @BrooklynBull I know the building isn't free but was hoping the Pegulas could offer a one-time deal to test the waters. UB gets admission, Pegulas get parking/concessions. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Before we think hosting a tournament, how about we do one singular game. If the students don’t come out then shame on them. With our student population and 5k community support there’s no reason we can’t get at least 10k. Obviously there’s added expenses and challenges but for one game for this team and coach there’s gotta be a way. 

Imagine a late season conference game against Kent St (I’m thinking conference game that way we don’t have to buy a game) and we draw 10k fans, plus a few hundred  KSU fans unfortunately. I think something like that could work. Gotta start small set the standard then grow.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd think you'd have to nearly sell the place out to make up for the cost of renting the arena compared to using the free one on campus.  Also, i'm not sure what the atmosphere would be like w/ 10k people.  while a lot of ppl, it could feel dead bc the building is so much bigger

Also, I do wonder how much the pegulas would embrace it.  They are very supportive of UB athletics, but there is a limit to that support - at the end of the day we are competition for them. 

Edited by 01bull
Link to comment
Share on other sites

An old guide to the (it will always be Air Canada) Centre in Toronto sets minimum rental rate for public events at Air Canada Centre is $25,000 or 18 percent of the net ticket proceeds (whichever is higher). Tack on 42k in estimated expenses.

Capacity is 19,800. If you sold out with $30 CAD tickets:

Ticket Revenue =       594,000
Rental rate 18% =       106,920
Expenses =                   42,000
Confetti clean up fee = 4,000 (lets treat ourselves)
Parking concessions etc = 0 (house keeps it)

UB profit =                  441,080 CAD = 332,407 USD

If the baseline was to make 200k USD, you'd have to either sellout (19,800) @ $19 CAD OR sell at least 12,500 at $30 CAD both seem do-able. I'd imagine Keybank rental rates are similar...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pegula is not a basketball guy and he's only interested if theres enough profit in it for him. Despite what he said when he bought the Sabres he doesnt even operate the Sabres or Bills without making a profit. I know making a profit is his right I'm just saying it's in contrast to when he said only winning matters and if he wanted to make a profit he'd dig another well.

Edited by pottier25
Link to comment
Share on other sites

32 minutes ago, bull_trojan said:

An old guide to the (it will always be Air Canada) Centre in Toronto sets minimum rental rate for public events at Air Canada Centre is $25,000 or 18 percent of the net ticket proceeds (whichever is higher). Tack on 42k in estimated expenses.

Capacity is 19,800. If you sold out with $30 CAD tickets:

Ticket Revenue =       594,000
Rental rate 18% =       106,920
Expenses =                   42,000
Confetti clean up fee = 4,000 (lets treat ourselves)
Parking concessions etc = 0 (house keeps it)

UB profit =                  441,080 CAD = 332,407 USD

If the baseline was to make 200k USD, you'd have to either sellout (19,800) @ $19 CAD OR sell at least 12,500 at $30 CAD both seem do-able. I'd imagine Keybank rental rates are similar...

Great insight. Obviously comes down to turnout. We can’t do this and draw 5k. 

So maybe it becomes a one time experiment in which you budget for and plan ahead for. Set aside funds for it. Obviously when the time comes you promote and market the heck out of it. And deal with the expenses as they are and profit (if there is one). I just think for one night it can be done. And if it yields positive results then perhaps it’s something that we can do once or twice a year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Key Bank Center is antiseptic, sterile, and if only 7 or 8 thousand show up, it will look and feel deserted as well. I can’t see a big enough draw for any MAC opponent this year. I don’t know squat about the financial ramifications, but would hope that AA would be SRO for the rest of this year. You’ve got a top 20 team, for crying out loud! If this program doesn’t regress, I can even see the UB townies starting to jump on the bandwagon. The BN is starting to finally give a little bit better press. The key is retaining Oats and crew, and continuing to nurture interest amongst the students. This is getting HUGE AH!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I got an idea. This is long overdue. They should promote a Buffalo Braves night and it will be centered around finally putting up banners of players jerseys and divison championships. Keybank center has no banners from Buffalo’s pro basketball team. What a way to honor them, plus showcase Buffalo’s current best basketball team UB.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, MKBullsfan said:

I got an idea. This is long overdue. They should promote a Buffalo Braves night and it will be centered around finally putting up banners of players jerseys and divison championships. Keybank center has no banners from Buffalo’s pro basketball team. What a way to honor them, plus showcase Buffalo’s current best basketball team UB.

The banners from all of their division championships are already hanging.  They never won one.

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do not think the local fan support and hype around this program this year is enough to sell more than 10,000 seats at KeyBank with UB being the marquee team in a match-up. I do think that UB basketball is working their way towards gaining the support of the casual basketball fans in Western New York, but it is still very much a work in progress. A deep tournament run this year would do wonders for local fan support as that is when most casual sports fans really begin to pay attention to college basketball.

Another thing that affects UB is lack of program history. This is a team that did not post a winning D1 basketball season from 1931 to 1994. They don't have the luxury of having multiple generations of fans who grew up watching high-level UB basketball. Every season recently has been a building block to build local fan support and this season is a huge one with the Bulls consistently in the Top 20.

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...