I think the guess that this game will draw 6,000 at 11am vs. closer to 10,000 at 7pm tells the story. It's reasonable to assume attendance will drop 25-40% with an 11am tip vs.a 7pm.
I really doubt it would be that dramatic. There will be some who can come at 11 that wouldn't have at 7, there will be some the opposite way. There are students who will show up if they know a game is on TV and tell their family to look for them on TV -- it does generate hype in that regard. How many students who are still sleeping off their Friday hangover at 11am would be unwilling to postpone getting ready for their Saturday night partying until after 9pm? Who knows.
11 A.M. oh lordy, I hope i'm out of bed in time. We couldn't at least get ESPN2? I don't know how much more this will get us coverage as I bet people in California are just dying to see us play at 8 in the morning....
These time slots are allocated well prior to the beginning of the season, so, no, we couldn't get ESPN2. This time slot has been marked for a MAC game on this network all season. We really only have 3 shots at ESPN2 all season on our own merit (not playing a power-conference team OOC) -- Bracketbuster, 7pm on March 8 (which has been Akron v. Kent for several years), and the Championship game.
What was silly by our athletic department was posting a start time instead of leaving games with the potential to be picked up as "TBA". The people I feel for are ones like Oz, who had plans made to attend under the impression that the tip time was set in stone at 7pm, when in fact it never was.
I can also tell you right now that our game on March 2 at Bowling Green, which is listed for 2pm, could move to either noon or 6pm for STO, and our game against Miami could be played March 8 on ESPN2 at 7pm, or March 9th at noon, 2pm, or 4pm for STO (despite the fact that our site lists the Saturday version at 2pm).
Just like our Kent State game being moved to 6pm, nobody bothered to change our website until the last minute, leading to confusion. At least if you leave the time TBA until it is truly announced, people will keep checking back instead of relying on faulty information.
I got hooked on the Syracuse/Nova 11am game on ESPNU Saturday, and glad I did. It turned out to be a great game. It's a good slot, and with the bottom feeders in the MAC this year we need to accomodate ESPN/STO to get the better teams televised as much as possible.
The interesting thing about this slot is that you're the only game in town for the first hour. If you play as competitive and entertaining a first half as we did against Kent Saturday, there will be some folks who stick around for the second half who otherwise wouldn't have if the game started at noon head-to-head with the power conference games.
I know most of you overlook this because you still live in the Eastern Time Zone, but for me this is now a 10am tip. 9am for Mountain time, and 8am Pacific.
This makes it hard on alumni, but also if the idea is to get exposure maybe we shouldn't be playing games when half the country is still in bed.
Big Ten football kicks off at 9am Pacific every week. Power conference basketball does, as well. Does it hurt their exposure that much?
1/19 ESPNU VMI vs. Coastal Carolina 0.1 rating (94K households)
1/12 ESPN2 Georgetown vs. St. John's 0.1 rating (197K households)
A 0.1 rating...0.1?? Are you serious??
The fact that we're selling out to ESPN for a 0.1 rating is sad to say the least. We have absolutely sold our soul to TV. Give me a great atmosphere in the Convo with 10K screaming fans over an 11:00 am game watched by maybe 100K nationwide.
I wonder how many of that whopping 0.1 are already fans of the program, would have watched online, or whatever TV channel (i.e. STO), or Don't come to Athens (or down the street to the Convo) because it is on ESPN?????
I don't think you guys know how cable ratings work. They are always way lower than broadcast ratings. A 0.1 on cable during the daytime really isn't that bad. If you look at that link, the 11AM games outperformed some of the afternoon ESPNU games.
Just quoting this as a +1 -- .1 is quite a decent rating for a cable network that isn't on in every home. Also, if you look at the link Ted posted, you'll find that despite the difference in your mind between 2 and U, the ratings on Saturday aren't that different. The big drop-off is ESPN/CBS to everything else.