"Neutral" Site Games

On BYU Sports Nation yesterday they talked about West Virginia game played at the "neutral" location of the Redskins stadium. The big screen video replays and PA announcer were all pro WV (from their school I believe). I had the same experience at the Mizzou game last season at the Chiefs stadium. They played extra loud music while BYU had 3rd downs but did not do the same for Mizzou. They did Mizzou cheers over the PA, but none for BYU. Despite very strong BYU support these games definitely have the feeling of being away games. Do others who have attended these "neutral" had similar experiences?



Does anyone else get upset about this or see it as unfair? Or are these "neutral" games really just away games at bigger stadiums? The only real upgrade to these from a true away game that I can think of is that they are in larger cities (Kansas City vs Columbia) which will generally have a larger LDS population and enable an easier method of getting to the games.



But, I really want neutral games to be treated as such. I suppose they need to be negotiated as such...

I was thinking the same thing and was going to start a similar thread.



I went to the WVU game, and it was definitely not neutral. One endzone said "West Virginia" and the other said "Mountaineers" all of the timeout entertainment was WVU, and showed fan shots from the WVU section of the crowd. The WVU band came and played during timeouts and did the halftime show. The loud PA music on BYU offensive 3rd downs was obnoxious. This despite BYU being 40-45% of the crowd (after halftime; it takes awhile for all the Mormons to show up).



As a fan, I came away feeling a little stiffed. I paid for a neutral site game. I got a WVU home game transplanted to FedEx field.

I figured it would be that way since both the Arizona game and the West Virginia game were relatively near their schools. Neutral site doesn't necessarily equal neutral production.

I attended the Arizona game and that one definitely felt neutral. They played our fight song after scores and had plenty of BYU videos during timeouts. They had BYU on one end zone too.

Like CrimsonCoug, I was at the WVU game, and it definitely had the feel of an away game. EVERYTHING was geared toward the mountaineers. Anyone would be hard pressed to say anything other than the location was neutral.



I haven't seen any other "neutral" games this year, even though they do seem to be more and more prevalent. Do other schools insist on more neutrality?



My thought, and question is: Does BYU have fewer bargaining chips without a conference insisting that one of its members be treated equally in neutral games?

Neutral site games are all about TV revenue. Broadcast rights contracts are tied to the stadium--for example BYU's contract with ESPN gives ESPN rights on all game in LES at certain rates, and ESPN can choose which games to pick up based on those rates.



Neutral site games give the schools opportunities to negotiate separate contracts for their marquee match-ups. Instead of WVU getting the same fee structure that was in place for their game against Youngstown State, they (and BYU) get to negotiate this game in isolation where it's at a neutral site. (BYU is unique in their contract with ESPN in that ESPN facilitates BYU in their neutral-site negotiations, but this game was negotiated before BYU partnered with ESPN).



All said and done? Each school got paid $2.25 million for last week's game alone. I think BYU is willing to let WVU get all those perks for that payout--nearly twice their usual bowl payout.



http://archive.sltrib.com/story.php?ref=/sltrib/blogsbyusports/50349398-65/byu-game-football-cougars.html.csp

They're better than true away games. I thought the Mizzou series was an amazing deal for BYU.

If we rake in $2M bucks and get to play some great teams, I'm all for it. We have to do something to keep generating money and stay relevant as independents.

The large fan showing to the game was as good of proof that BYU is a P5 conference quality school as anything too.

I would like to see Houston try something like that.

So what makes the difference in stadiums giving the games the FedEx treatment vs the UofPHX treatment? If it's in the negotiations, why do they go one way versus another? I wonder how much we got so that WVU could have that #neutralnotneutral game; how much would we have had to give up to make it truly neutral, more like the AZ experience?

When I look at my DVR I see that ESPN called it "West Virginia @ BYU". So I guess there's that........