Money question

By David Gale, ksl.com Contributor



So when a struggling Portland squad hosted BYU on February 4, it was little surprise the crowd was largely a sea of blue-and-white-clad fans. Portland charged twice as much for the game and still saw attendance double. With more cash in their registers, Portland was happy to give the fans what they wanted – an extended “meet and greet” for the visiting Cougars after they were done dismantling the home team.

Anybody know how much they normally charge and how much the BYU game was? I find it interesting that each of these schools are actually making money now from BYU's presence. Their TV contract even reflects it since they renegotiated it last year.

I figured they each earned about $50,000 extra on tickets. I don't know about parking and concessions.

Just about every WCC team doubles the cost of tickets when BYU rolls into town. In some cases it works, in others it doesn't.



I know for the SMC game, SMC released student tickets for sale the night before which went almost entirely to BYU fans. They were about 500 tickets and SMC sold them for $20 a piece (keep in mind they are bleacher seats). SMC usually only charges students $5/seat, so SMC made at least $7,500 off of BYU fans that they otherwise wouldn't have. Add in cars and consessions plus the other seats BYU fans bought at double the price and SMC made out alright.



While at the SMC game, a friend of mine and I calculated that SMC likely made 20k off of BYU fans.

Prior to January 4, Portland only sold BYU tickets as part of a three game package with a couple of less interesting games for about $75 a set. The Portland chapter of the Management Society set up a single ticket advance purchase option with UofP for about $30 for main seating and $15 or so for endzone bleachers - about 300 total. That is about double the regular game rate. After January 4 single game tickets were available for $30 and $15. The endzones were sold out prior to the game and there were about 500 unsold tickets total for the game.



UofP is very receptive to BYU and its fans. Catered a great pre-game party on campus for the Management Society/Cougar Club. Wants to do the same next year and also wants to promote ticket sales for the other BYU sporting events as much as possible.



Not parking cost. Concessions are pretty well put together there since they upgraded that part of the facility.