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Message: [QUOTE="TheOrangeBuddha, post: 350490, member: 157"] I understand Gross said the Met Life game was worth 70% of SU Football budget (mea culpa was off by 5% in original post), but how does he get to this number? Assuming SU Football's budget is in the $10M-$12M range (which is being extremely conservative), that would mean SU earned approximately $7M-$8.4M for this game. Per 2009 article, SU's football budget was roughly $15M for the 2009 season - ([url]http://blog.syracuse.com/orangefootball/2010/12/syracuse_university_football_m_1.html[/url]). Even using my extremely conservative numbers, let alone numbers from 2009, I do not see how this statement ("USC game at Met Life is worth 70% of SU Football budget") is accurate. I don't see how this is possible without accounting trickery. Keep in mind, the SU Football 2012 budget is necessarily bigger because of the game in Met Life Stadium (extra travel costs, more expensive hotel for Friday night and other expenses associated with playing a game in New Jersey as opposed to Syracuse). Assume 40K (actual attendance was slightly lower) at Met Life at average ticket price of $100 (being generous here - have no idea how money from Groupon or LivingSocial coupons are distributed) equals $4.0M. It is highly unlikely that Syracuse kept any of the concessions from Met Life, but an estimate of concessions earned during the game would be no more than $500K (overestimating $25 per fan and customary 40%-50% take of gross receipts for "owner"). ([url]http://athleticbusiness.com/articles/article.aspx?articleid=1838&zoneid=37[/url]). Mind you, it is highly unlikely that Met Life gave all the concessions to SU. As for television revenue - there is no way this game isn't televised by ABC in the national slot no matter its location. Because it was a Big East game, it was going to be shown on the ABC/ESPN platform. If there are any revenue differences between being shown on ABC v. ESPN v. ESPN2 v. ESPNU, I am not aware of them. I think we can all agree that the television money was going to be the same or very near similar no matter where the game was played. The same thing can be said for every remaining game that is played at Met Life Stadium over the next ten years. I suppose Met Life Stadium owners could have paid Syracuse an appearance fee for moving the game from Syracuse to New Jersey. We can obviously agree that any fee would be paid with the mindset that Met Life Stadium owners would intend on seeing a return on that appearance fee. This further cements that point that at most only a very small percentage of concessions flowed back to SU, if any at all. It is highly doubtful that any appearance fee was substantial enough to push the revenue from this game towards the 70% mark. So how does this compute? If you want to rationalize why certain games are being moved to New Jersey, do it. But do it accurately. Explain that you are 100% in on the SU Football is New York's Team, explain that you want to give the alums in the Greater New York City Tri-State area an opportunity to see the team without a trip back to campus which will hopefully lead to larger donations etc., explain that it is part of the plan to recruit the Tri-State area harder and harder insuring that at least 2-3 times during a recruits career he will play in front of hometown fans. [/QUOTE]

Verification: What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?