(Tucson, AZ) With Covid-19 still causing havoc in the sports world, it is unclear if the Pac-12 and the NCAA will have a full 2020-2021 football season. What will the fan experience look like? How will the Pac-12, along with the rest of the conferences ensure fan health and safety? These are just a few of the questions facing NCAA and the conferences that they oversee.
Football is the money maker at most universities from Division 1 to the FCS schools. Without football revenue, non revenue sports including Title IX sports would not receive their normal funding, creating a negative domino effect in every athletic department.
Even though some consider the University of Arizona a “basketball” school, the revenue that football generates from ticket sales, television, concessions, alcohol, parking and fan gear, far outweighs the money basketball brings in.
The Pac-12 had a teleconference meeting last week to discuss the status of the football season and the possibility of starting the season on schedule the latter part of August.
Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott met with the Athletic Directors, Coaches and some faculty personnel from all conference schools. During the call he outlined different scenarios that could be put into place for all Fall sports, including football. One of the scenarios being discussed is having a football season with only conference games which would create a shortened schedule.
Pac-12 teams missed out on Spring Football practices and games, so even though every team nationwide is basically starting from scratch, how much a team can come together and be as ready as possible for their opening game will vary.
Stadium attendance figures were also discussed. The most likely scenario would be a 50% capacity cap for fan attendance. This would help the schools stay in line with the CDC guidelines for social distancing.
For some schools like Oregon, Washington, Utah and Colorado which normally sell around 98% of their stadium’s capacity, the lost revenue would affect them more than other schools like Arizona, UCLA, Cal, Oregon State and Stanford which bring up the rear in conference attendance.
The fan disinterest in the Arizona football program has been a growing issue for Athletic Director Dave Heeke. The departure of Rich Rodriguez and the hiring of Kevin Sumlin hasn’t brought the increase in fan participation that the school saw during the Larry Smith and Dick Tomey eras. There has been a drop in season ticket sales and “walk-up” sales on game day.
Winning solves a lot of issues and the Wildcat football team has been spiraling downward since their PAC-12 South Championship in 2014.
Stadium upgrades and improvements in concessions have not had the results the athletic department hoped for. The multi-million dollar indoor football facility, although nice, hasn’t made an impact in recruiting to date. Arizona finished dead last out of the twelve conference schools in recruiting for 2020.
Unlike other sports freshman rarely make an immediate impact in football. Poor recruiting for past several years has not only affected the Wildcats in the NFL Draft, but also places a huge disparity of talent between the starters and the backups.
The television package that Commissioner Larry Scott negotiated is one of the worst among Power 5 Conferences. Fans have not been receptive to later game start times which leads to lack of national recognition because of those later times.
Games on network and cable television have also had a huge part in lower attendance at some conference schools, although the better programs seem to be less affected. Fans now can go to their favorite sports bars and restaurants and be more comfortable, eat better food and at a much better value for their money.
With the COVID-19 situation and the tens of thousands of unemployed Southern Arizonans, money for essentials is a top priority and leaves money for athletic tickets far down on the list.
The economy in a recession, the lack of production on the football field in the last few years and the inability to recruit at a high level doesn’t paint an attractive picture for Arizona football. It remains to be seen if the Pac-12 decides to move ahead with only conference games this season.
Editorial was co-written by Lori Burkhart and Bill McCulloch
