The Apple Cup should be played in Seattle every year
Fig Jam
I’ve learned a lot about the finances of the Apple Cup the last few weeks. I’ve learned that when the University of Washington hosts the game that each school takes home around $1 million dollars, and when Washington State hosts the game that each school takes home a figure less than half of that. I’ve also learned that unlike every other rivalry game in the Pac 10, UW and WSU have contractually agreed to split the proceeds of the Apple Cup 50/50, meaning that every year each school splits the revenue generated from the game, no matter who is the home team.
Recently UW and WSU also discussed a plan to play the Apple Cup in Seattle’s Qwest Field every year, allowing for each institution to realize even more revenue from the game. That plan didn’t work because the alumni from each school was uncomfortable with the notion of playing the Apple Cup on a ‘neutral’ field.
However, learning about the revenue of the Apple Cup and reading about the proposal to have the game in Qwest field every year, the one thing that has become perfectly clear is that WSU should never… ever… host the Apple Cup in Pullman. Bluntly stated: it isn’t worth it. No matter how you do the math, when the teams play their annual rivalry game in Pullman, millions of dollars are lost.
As I see it, the only equitable solution to this problem is for WSU to ‘host’ the Apple Cup in Qwest Field every other year. This will drastically increase the amount of money that is generated from their ‘home’ game and put them on the level with UW in terms of how much each school pays the other during a host year. I would imagine that WSU fans are not going to like this proposal very much, but that’s too damn bad. If you want to be treated as an equal, act like an equal. Step up and do a little better than a $443,371 payout when you host the Apple Cup (which was what UW received for the 2008 Apple Cup in Pullman. In contrast, WSU received $1,094,630 from UW for the Husky Stadium Apple Cup of 2007). Once WSU is generating their fare share of revenue, we can revisit the issue of being treated as equals (early polls indicate that’s still going to be a ‘no’).
Also, I am aware that the two schools recently broke off talks to have the Apple Cup in Qwest Field every season. I am also aware that the group promoting that idea had promised both Universities ungodly amounts of money for each game played. If that figure was accurate (which I doubt) and a WSU hosted Apple Cup in Qwest Field resulted in a much larger payout to UW than the $1 million WSU received in 2007, I would agree that UW should then also host the Apple Cup in Qwest Field. I just don’t believe the numbers that were floated (I want to say it was like $2 million per team, every year). That seems to me to be a ridiculously agressive projection and I feel like ticket prices for that game would have to be astronomical in order to generate that much money (ie- not the ticket prices that the Universities charge for games normally). Maybe I’m wrong about that though. If WSU were truly ‘hosting’ at Qwest Field, using WSU football ticket prices, I’m nearly certain that the projected revenue would be lower than $4 million. But because Qwest holds almost what Husky Stadium holds in terms of capacity, I’m also pretty sure that the revenues from that game would be dramatically increased over what is generated at Martin Stadium in Pullman, and both teams would benefit financially.
Anyways, the bottom line here is that playing the Apple Cup in Pullman is a waste of money. So long as the schools are splitting revenue 50/50 WSU should come up with a way to increase the money generated during their home game. Moving their home game to Qwest accomplishes that.
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agreed, but you need to post this on Sheepfucker and friends or 50% of the decision makers won’t see it.
Its not about the money; its about the experience. Any Husky fan who was at the 2002 Apple Cup in Pullman will tell you that you could never duplicate that experience in Qwest. The Qwest model would raise the ticket prices, limit the number of student tickets and restrict tailgating. The next step would be to move all the Husky games to Qwest and use Husky Stadium as the cite for an expanded UW Hospital. If you want to give our Athletic Department more money, write them a check. Don’t give them ant more of my money; they haven’t earned it. Who are you anyway? Woodmert’s pimp?
This does kinda seem like it might have been ghost written by someone from the UW athletic department. I will take unrestricted tailgating and coeds over athletic department funding any day.
I don’t much care for the ‘experience’ in Pullman because I am a Husky. Also, I am legitimately confused as to what you are talking about with the whole, “don’t give them any more of my money,” bit.
And if I was Woodward’s pimp, he’d be out working right now to raise funds for the stadium remodel.
The UW Athletic Department needs to dramatically upgrade its management before it further expands its fundraising efforts. Donors want value for their money. The various products on the fields of play are generally acceptable, but the Athletic Department doesn’t get that they are selling a broader experience than just watching the game. Mens’ Basketball for example: Arrive an hour before the game and the restrooms are already trashed; everyone working the concessions gets there on the short bus, which is reflected in the product, and it often takes 30-45 minutes to exit the Montlake lot after the game. When you call these and similar issues to the Athletic Director’s attention, you don’t even get a response. They are running a business out there and upper management doesn’t have a clue when it comes to marketing or customer service. On second thought, a move to Qwest would likely upgrade the game day experience inside the stadium, as it would likely be managed by other than the UW Athletic Department.
How much do we pay Woodward? How much are we paying a football coach that hasn’t won even one game for us? And how about his d-coordinator? What about the soccer coaches? If the athletic department wanted to cut cost (i.e. so they wouldn’t even need to consider playing at Quest), they could cut administrative salaries. They could also cut some of the costs incurred to keep the UW athletes “competitive,” like buying each player in every sport two pairs of sweatpants instead of 52 pairs. Of course, this would only work if the rest of the schools in the NCAA also decided to ease up (for lack of a better term) and stop spending so much god damn money on sports. After all, aren’t collegiate athletics supposed to be about fairness and good natured competition? Aren’t sports at this level still supposed to be about “the love of the game?” Maybe we should just nationalize college sports…
1. UW marketing is a joke. No argument there.
2. I’m not sure what the solution for getting out of Montlake faster is. I would imagine it would involve the city of Seattle.
3. UW is actually really good at a fair # of sports…. it’s just sports that nobody really cares about like Volleyball, softball, cross country, golf, crew, etc. Combine that with the basketball team’s success over the past few years and the Athletic Program as a whole has been fairly healthy. Problem is…. football is the only sport that really matters from a revenue standpoint and the handling of that program has been embarassing. Woodward just made his first real hire on that program though, so I guess we’ll see how it turns out.
4. The people who run concessions at basketball games are youth teams who are doing fundraisers. They are definitely slow though.
As Hotdog can attest to, some things are more important than money, especially for budding UW fans outside the Seattle area. Things like seeing Drew Bledsoe get destroyed 55-10 on his home turf, and things like the experience of driving home on a frozen palouse highway, kept warm only by the adrenaline of another UW win. Things that would be a lot less special if they occured under the guise of a Faux road game played not for sport, but for money.
At least Dixie’s BBQ stopped running out of hotlinks and pulled pork before halftime this year.