BOCA RATON – FAU athletic director Pat Chun’s plan to compensate for decreased television revenue centers around a premise that Owls fans will will surely embrace – winning.
Like most schools in Conference USA, FAU expected revenue generated from the conference’s television deals to be cut in half. But instead of dropping from about $1 million to about $500,000 per school each season, a depressed television market prompted that number to fall to $200,000.
Chun believes FAU can help make up for that expected shortfall with increased attendance on game days.
Winning football, Chun believes, is one of the factors that will drive an attendance increase this season. Early victories over the likes of FCS opponent Southern Illinois in the Sept. 3 season-opener and Ball St. at home three weeks later would give FAU momentum heading into Conference USA play – something the Owls have never experienced.
FAU is banking on the idea that momentum will translate into dollars.
“We’re excited to see what competitive football in our stadium does to impact our local marketplace in the last half of our season,” Chun said.
It is also hoped that later start times will lead to increased attendance.
Gone are the early-to-rise-and-cook-in-the-sun noon starts. FAU’s home games will kickoff at either 3:30 p.m. or 6 p.m.
“Having more evening games is going to help us with students because, not just Florida Atlantic University but also across this country, the noon game is struggling for attendance,” Chun said.
Later kick-offs are expected to continue a trend of increased student attendance.
“Our biggest piece of optimism is, the biggest driver for college football games are college kids coming,” Chun said. “For the third year in a row we had an uptick in student attendance – I don’t know how many schools in the country can say that. As long as our students come they provide the environment that makes it really fun and festive. I’m interested to see, I think a lot of us are interested to see, the impact of playing really competitive football in that month of November.” Chun said.
Some of last year’s student attendance increase can be attributed to the sold out game against Miami, so the Owls’ ability to continue the increased student attendance trend without a marquee opponent poses a challenge.
An athletic department spokesman said the university does not know how much revenue the average attending fan brings to FAU, be it a student or someone else from the community, making it difficult to determine how many extra fans need to attend FAU games over the course of the season to make up for the lost television revenue.
One positive factor for the FAU budget is that the Owls completed their buy-in to Conference USA last fiscal year, removing a $500,000 obligation from the books for this year.
Still, the Owls will have to see whether they can play winning football in Boca Raton, and if they do win it, will fans come?
“The combination of better kickoff times, the quality of football program that we’ll field, our students coming out creating the atmosphere that we need – our team needs and that makes it more entertaining for our fans and families to come watch us – should create an interesting November for us,” Chun said.BOCA RATON – FAU athletic director Pat Chun’s plan to compensate for decreased television revenue centers around a premise that Owls fans will will surely embrace – winning.
Like most schools in Conference USA, FAU expected revenue generated from the conference’s television deals to be cut in half. But instead of dropping from about $1 million to about $500,000 per school each season, a depressed television market prompted that number to fall to $200,000.
Chun believes FAU can help make up for that expected shortfall with increased attendance on game days.
Winning football, Chun believes, is one of the factors that will drive an attendance increase this season. Early victories over the likes of FCS opponent Southern Illinois in the Sept. 3 season-opener and Ball St. at home three weeks later would give FAU momentum heading into Conference USA play – something the Owls have never experienced.
FAU is banking on the idea that momentum will translate into dollars.
“We’re excited to see what competitive football in our stadium does to impact our local marketplace in the last half of our season,” Chun said.
It is also hoped that later start times will lead to increased attendance.
Gone are the early-to-rise-and-cook-in-the-sun noon starts. FAU’s home games will kickoff at either 3:30 p.m. or 6 p.m.
“Having more evening games is going to help us with students because, not just Florida Atlantic University but also across this country, the noon game is struggling for attendance,” Chun said.
Later kick-offs are expected to continue a trend of increased student attendance.
“Our biggest piece of optimism is, the biggest driver for college football games are college kids coming,” Chun said. “For the third year in a row we had an uptick in student attendance – I don’t know how many schools in the country can say that. As long as our students come they provide the environment that makes it really fun and festive. I’m interested to see, I think a lot of us are interested to see, the impact of playing really competitive football in that month of November.” Chun said.
Some of last year’s student attendance increase can be attributed to the sold out game against Miami, so the Owls’ ability to continue the increased student attendance trend without a marquee opponent poses a challenge.
An athletic department spokesman said the university does not know how much revenue the average attending fan brings to FAU, be it a student or someone else from the community, making it difficult to determine how many extra fans need to attend FAU games over the course of the season to make up for the lost television revenue. FAU averaged an announced attendance of 17,617 during it six home games last season.
One positive factor for the FAU budget is that the Owls completed their buy-in to Conference USA last fiscal year, removing a $500,000 obligation from the books for this year.
Still, the Owls will have to see whether they can play winning football in Boca Raton, and if they do win it, will fans come?
“The combination of better kickoff times, the quality of football program that we’ll field, our students coming out creating the atmosphere that we need – our team needs and that makes it more entertaining for our fans and families to come watch us – should create an interesting November for us,” Chun said.
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