Whit Babcock on with Mo Egger at 5:00 pm today

[jcraigmoore]

I don't have any solutions to offer. I wonder where UL would be without Papa Johns and KFC YUM? Their fan base has always been more supportive than UC's, for as long as I've been an alum of UC (72).

I was from the Dayton area and when I first set foot on the UC campus; I couldn't get over how people in my classes clung to their high schools. It was like a closed society to people from outside the city.

Never setting foot on the UL campus I can't state whether it is the same. They do however have enormous corporate support.

[CaptainProbasco]

I'm just curious if any of you might be willing to lay out a few bullet points of what exactly you would do if you were the AD or university president and specifically detail how you would pay for whatever proposals you're suggesting.

I've reviewed the university's finances on several occassions over the last two or three years and I can't see how they pay for all the wish list items that are being casually suggested on these boards but I'm all ears if someone can explain otherwise.

Here's one idea: better OOC schedules for football and basketball. Don't pay D-1aa teams hundreds of thousands of dollars to come to play at a half-empty Nippert or 5/3. Create made-for TV matchups and sell them to the highest bidder.

So UK and OSU won't play us home-and-home? Cry me a river. Schedule NC State, not NC A&T. Schedule Arkansas, not Arkansas-Little Rock. Schedule Missouri, not Southeast Missouri State. There are plenty of good programs who would want to play us, particularly in basketball.

The fans WILL come to watch good opponents, and we'll save money if we don't have to pay a bribe to the visiting team.

[RedRocker]

I don't have any solutions to offer. I wonder where UL would be without Papa Johns and KFC YUM? Their fan base has always been more supportive than UC's, for as long as I've been an alum of UC (72).

I was from the Dayton area and when I first set foot on the UC campus; I couldn't get over how people in my classes clung to their high schools. It was like a closed society to people from outside the city.

Never setting foot on the UL campus I can't state whether it is the same. They do however have enormous corporate support.

Being the only game in town certainly doesn't hurt whereas UC has to compete for ad dollars and corporate support with the Reds, Bengals, Xavier and to a much lesser extent the Cyclones, Miami and now NKU.

While UL is the primary tenant of KFC Yum Center, they do not own it just like Freedom Hall. It must be nice for the city to build an arena for you and give you a sweet lease. I guess Mike Brown would know all about this.

[Bearcat Otto]

Here's one idea: better OOC schedules for football and basketball. Don't pay D-1aa teams hundreds of thousands of dollars to come to play at a half-empty Nippert or 5/3. Create made-for TV matchups and sell them to the highest bidder.

So UK and OSU won't play us home-and-home? Cry me a river. Schedule NC State, not NC A&T. Schedule Arkansas, not Arkansas-Little Rock. Schedule Missouri, not Southeast Missouri State. There are plenty of good programs who would want to play us, particularly in basketball.

The fans WILL come to watch good opponents, and we'll save money if we don't have to pay a bribe to the visiting team.

There is an article in the Enquirer today listing the amounts of money that NKU will receive for playing teams like OSU and Purdue. That is for NKU. Immagine the dollar amounts you would see for teams that don't want to travel. It would swamp and already challenged Athletic department budget.

Arkansas or NCST will not come into the Shoe for any amount of money because they don't have to. They will do what every other university does and pay for the cupcakes to come into their revenue gathering arena. Why go on the road, period. But even more importantly, why go on the road and risk a loss.

College baskball scheduling will not change until there is a fundamental change in the structure of sharing revenue. Just the way it is. And I do not anticipate that change coming soon.

[Bearcat1996]

I like the idea of a basketball arena in the Burnett Woods area - this would allow the construction of a state of the art arena - located at one of the main entrances to the university - while still playing on campus at the Shoe. With all of the corporations in this city, one needs to step up big. Kroger, Fifth Third, PG, Cincinnati Financial, Great American Insurance, someone.

Nippert is historic. It needs tweeks - luxury boxes and 10-20,00 additional seats. A significant renovation to Nip can be done for way less than building a new facility. The practice bubble deal was done in short order. UC means far to much to this community and made far too many strides in the last couple decades to go in reverse.

[coach]

i think if you look into it, the cost of the varsity village is quite a bit less than new arenas, not to mention the other uses for that varsity village, ie. it's not an either/or scenario. the bigger issue here on the revenue side is that we are not being realistic about drawing fans. it has less to do about where the game is being held, and more to do about fan apathy. obviously, we can draw 35k to nippert as we've done it. spending 200mm or so on a new fball stadium when for reasons other than the facility itself we likely will not fill that place is bad businesss. same for bball. this fan base(term used lightly) does not have enough hard core devoted members. unless than changes, your kind of kidding yourself that "they will come" with new arenas. all you have to do is look at a lot of high drawing schools. the stadiums are spartan, uncomfortable, and do not even serve beer. they are not drawing those crowds because of the stadium. go to tennessee, ndame, osu, et. al worse than nippert for comfort easily. obviously, we are not going to win a beauty contest with louisville, we knew that going in, but there situation is somewhat unique in that they have two new stadiums. we do as well, there just for pro teams.

[Bearcat Otto]

I like the idea of a basketball arena in the Burnett Woods area - this would allow the construction of a state of the art arena - located at one of the main entrances to the university - while still playing on campus at the Shoe. With all of the corporations in this city, one needs to step up big. Kroger, Fifth Third, PG, Cincinnati Financial, Great American Insurance, someone.

Nippert is historic. It needs tweeks - luxury boxes and 10-20,00 additional seats. A significant renovation to Nip can be done for way less than building a new facility. The practice bubble deal was done in short order. UC means far to much to this community and made far too many strides in the last couple decades to go in reverse.

You're pretty good at spending corporations money. Some of them already contribute in some form.

One other thing you forgot...the city has no intention of selling or giving away Burnett Woods.

[Major ----de Coverley]

You're pretty good at spending corporations money. Some of them already contribute in some form.

One other thing you forgot...the city has no intention of selling or giving away Burnett Woods.

The city also never had any intention of being on the road to insolvency, and
yet currently they are in the high speed lane. Too bad UC will be in no position in the near or intermediate term to come up with the funds if the opportunity arose.

[dbernie41]

You're pretty good at spending corporations money. Some of them already contribute in some form.

One other thing you forgot...the city has no intention of selling or giving away Burnett Woods.

Is there any room for that kind of expansion on Nippert though? I love the stadium and location... but there just really isn't much room.

[Bearcat1996]

You're pretty good at spending corporations money. Some of them already contribute in some form.

One other thing you forgot...the city has no intention of selling or giving away Burnett Woods.

Corporations are a legitimate possible avenue for funding (worked for Louisville). Keep in mind Cincinnati residents support these businesses quite well. Are you sure the city has no intention of selling, leasing or giving some of Burnet Woods?

Does Otto have any good ideas?

[Rational Cat]

Corporations are a legitimate possible avenue for funding (worked for Louisville). Keep in mind Cincinnati residents support these businesses quite well.

Those Louisville corporations are what make UL so strong, in addition to their much more interested, involved and larger fan base.

Cincinnati is a bigger town, but also a pro town, and many of those corporate dollars go to the Reds, Bengals and yes even Xavier, too.

So, UC gets the watered down corporate support, though the corporations that do support UC are great (Sheakley, the Lindner family, CBTS, 5/3, Skyline, etc). There's just not enough of them.

What we need is P&G Stadium, home of the football Bearcats, and Kroger Arena, home of the basketball Bearcats. That would be analogous to Papa John Stadium and the Yum Center in Louisville.

[Fear the Binturong]

Those Louisville corporations are what make UL so strong, in addition to their much more interested, involved and larger fan base.

Cincinnati is a bigger town, but also a pro town, and many of those corporate dollars go to the Reds, Bengals and yes even Xavier, too.

So, UC gets the watered down corporate support, though the corporations that do support UC are great (Sheakley, the Lindner family, CBTS, 5/3, Skyline, etc). There's just not enough of them.

What we need is P&G Stadium, home of the football Bearcats, and Kroger Arena, home of the basketball Bearcats. That would be analogous to Papa John Stadium and the Yum Center in Louisville.

Nailed it!

[Bearcat Otto]

Corporations are a legitimate possible avenue for funding (worked for Louisville). Keep in mind Cincinnati residents support these businesses quite well. Are you sure the city has no intention of selling, leasing or giving some of Burnet Woods?

Does Otto have any good ideas?

I have lots of ideas...not good ones though.

The only space on or near campus that probably could not even handle room for a new FB stadium is Sigma Sigma Commons.

That area combined with the area that is the parking garage and the three (now two) high rise residence halls might be big enough. But, they are in the process of remodeling one tower and I assume the second is to follow.

[Binturong05]

Here's one idea: better OOC schedules for football and basketball. Don't pay D-1aa teams hundreds of thousands of dollars to come to play at a half-empty Nippert or 5/3. Create made-for TV matchups and sell them to the highest bidder.

So UK and OSU won't play us home-and-home? Cry me a river. Schedule NC State, not NC A&T. Schedule Arkansas, not Arkansas-Little Rock. Schedule Missouri, not Southeast Missouri State. There are plenty of good programs who would want to play us, particularly in basketball.

The fans WILL come to watch good opponents, and we'll save money if we don't have to pay a bribe to the visiting team.

This year had an unsual number of lesser quality opponents because of the West Virginia departure from the Big East which screwed up the Ohio State matchup as well (from what I hear from OSU fans though I'm certain it would have been reschedule/postponed anyway). And from what I hear in the media there aren't a whole lot of teams banging on UC's door to play in Nippert and give up their revenue at home. This is one reason Ohio State bought out the 2012 matchup - they make way too much money at $70/ticket X 100,000 fans per game at Ohio Stadium. UC's best alternative is PBS and they have to pay Mike Brown for its use. It's just a crummy situation and makes one wonder if this isn't a chicken-or-the-egg situation. In order for fans to show up you say we need more high profile opponents but in order to attract high profile opponents we need better facilities and vice versa. I don't see UC justifying an expansion or new construction when they don't sell out Nippert as is. So which comes first? I don't have that answer.

As for mens bball, the schedule so far this year is much better than last year at this point in the season. I hope last year was an aberation but still, not a lot of teams want to come into The Shoe and risk a loss for many of the reason Bearcat Otto said. Would I love to see it? You bet. But I just don't see the likes of UK, IU, or Duke traveling to UC for a non-conference game. Entering a tournament is the best bet we have at getting a shot at a high profile team.

Those Louisville corporations are what make UL so strong, in addition to their much more interested, involved and larger fan base.

Cincinnati is a bigger town, but also a pro town, and many of those corporate dollars go to the Reds, Bengals and yes even Xavier, too.

So, UC gets the watered down corporate support, though the corporations that do support UC are great (Sheakley, the Lindner family, CBTS, 5/3, Skyline, etc). There's just not enough of them.

What we need is P&G Stadium, home of the football Bearcats, and Kroger Arena, home of the basketball Bearcats. That would be analogous to Papa John Stadium and the Yum Center in Louisville.

Is your last paragraph a hypothetical or are those specifically the corporate sponsors you would target? I ask because P&G isn't going to put their name on any UC facilities; they're a consumer products global brand. They historically have not sold the parent company so much as they have sold their individual brands such as Old Spice (Nascar), Tide (Nascar), Crest, Charmin, Pampers etc. There are millions of people that don't associate these brands with P&G, they just know the brands themselves and associate them with quality. I don't see P&G viewing "P&G field" as a good return on investment in a local market when they are a global company. Also factor in Nippert Stadium is named after P&G heir Jimmy Nippert and I don't see P&G upsetting that legacy. Maybe another corporation might challenge the naming rights but not P&G themselves. Add to it sports is male dominated and women tend to be the buyers of P&G's household products.

Kroger, on the other hand, might see a benefit to local exposure and has always been my top target when I pontificate about this topic. I also wonder how the naming rights might conflict with loyalty clauses because banks would be an ideal target for naming rights. 5/3 already sponsors the bball arena but would it violate any agreements for UC to accept naming rights for other facilities from Huntington or Key Bank which are both Ohio banks with a local presence? Fidelity has large operations in Northern Kentucky and is in a service based industry where brand awareness matters. But again, as a national company how willing are they to sponsor something largely local eyeballs are going to see? Western & Southern as well as Cincinnati Financial also fit the mold of largely local or regional and benefitting from name awareness though I question if the latter is large enough to fork over the cash necessary for naming rights. Maybe UDF is one that might work?

I think in the end the national audience is not large enough to warrant a national firm slapping their name on a building and the truly local or regional players that would benefit are already involved (5/3) or don't have the cash flow to pull it off. Perhaps this is a project for marketing students or MBA students presently enrolled at UC - to increase the corporate involvement with UC athletics?

[Helicopter]

The big brands I would go after are Western-Southern, Johnson & Johnson, and Macy's.

Maybe Rumpke can sponsor the old 5/3 arena and call it "the dump."