In a little Virginia Tech media news today:
Hoping to sell courtside seats at Cassell, across from team bench, #Hokies announce they're moving media seating up into the stands.— Mike Barber (@RTD_MikeBarber) May 8, 2015
I've complimented Whit Babcock and company for finding extra and often creative ways to increase revenue, and really should have seen this coming. NBA teams started to do this years ago in a similar effort to make more money by selling expensive courtside seats.
I know this won't really make much of a difference to readers, because theoretically nothing changes. Media will still be in the building and still have access to coaches and players after the game, so the stories coming out of Cassell should be relatively the same.
Personally, I hate it. The best thing about covering a Tech basketball game was that you still get to sit on the floor, which gives you ample opportunity to notice things that people sitting in the stands (even just a few rows back) cannot.
Now, we have a great opportunity to sit "above the team tunnel in sections 16, 17 and 18 to a newly constructed and expanded area"! Translation: we get to sit in the parts of the coliseum that are the toughest to sell! And why are they the toughest to sell? Because the seats are terrible!
But what can you do? Tech just recently passed the "Pylons of Promise", which includes funding for the recently approved cost of attendance measures passed by the NCAA.
That means more money going out, which has to be made up on the back end. And this is definitely one way to do that.
Comments
I appreciate how you took all sides into account instead of complaining about it. Good to see your perspective on it as a member of the media but also in the context of what Whit is trying to do for the program.
#journalism
just like #chivalry, it is only mostly dead...not completely dead.
I can't wait for Berman's response. I don't Twitter, so maybe it's already out there, but I'm sure it's going to be gold.
Also, the plans for this are in the pdf in the Torian Gray and Whit Babcock thread.
Now that Berman won't have an unobstructed view he will not be able to see the game over the people in front of him so maybe he will stop covering games?
No, he'll just ask for a booster seat, just like we had to do for Mike Patrick. He'll never go away...at least it doesn't seem that way.
I imagine this is Berman in Whit's office today.
He can call it the "Basketball ignorant columnist" Blog.
Methinks this deserves a new thread, one devoted solely to coming up with a new name/graphic for Mr. Berman's basketball blog.
"Booster Seat Blues"
Take a look at the one person who favorited this tweet. Ultimate troll on Berman? Or, actually really likes Berman snarky response? hmm...
Hmm... I have all kinds of weird feelings about this.
It's smart in terms of generating revenue - but I'm always annoyed to see people courtside who seemingly care very little about the game at hand, and would rather just be seen.
I feel for the media guys who will now be behind the basket - and I hope that the administration plans to make the new media area a nice amenity and not just an afterthought. In theory, if designed intelligently it could be a unique space, but I have no idea if that's how Whit envisions it.
Seemed inevitable though. On one hand I like the out of the box thinking, but then the traditionalist in me is annoyed.
I'm 100% with Brian on this one. No one likes to hear the media complain about their free seats getting moved, but moving the seats not only gives them less access to the game action, but also to the other big wigs on the floor, Whit included.
It was certainly easier for us to coordinate with, for example, the sports information people about other events going on that we were covering/who we wanted to interview when we were all on the floor together. I suspect that won't be the case now.
It's hardly the worst outcome - JPJ has a similar setup, and it works reasonably well - but don't be surprised at all to see similar complaints coming from Berman and the like. For once, I can say I agree with him.
These are all excellent points and ones that I would think were considered, but with a pretty simple move Whit just created an extra $280,000 of annual revenue plus the cost of season tickets (56 tickets * $x). As an AD you'd be hard pressed not to take that deal when in reality it doesn't negatively effect the atmosphere.
My buddy who's a sportswriter will hate me for saying this but...
Cheers to Wit.
The atmosphere can only get better. The media CANNOT cheer for either team. So even if a bunch of rich donors want to sit there and politely golf clap one, thats still more energy than we were getting before.
Media cannot cheer for a team?
Got emmm. Also, Phyllis sucks. She's neither funny nor articulate.
There's a profound difference between "media" and "homer who fell bass ackwards into a radio show." If Finebaum was just starting out these days, he'd be a podcast at best.
Disagree. PAWWWWLLLL is an Alabama homer and SEC mouthpiece, but he's damn good at his job.
if the reporters want to stay courtside, they could always buy season tickets there (yes I realize this is unrealistic, but everyone else wins with this)
BUT MOM I WANT MY FREE COURT SIDE SEATS!!!!!!
This pays for roughly 6 weeks of Buzz's salary that otherwise had to come from something else.
I couldn't care less that the media are no longer at courtside as a result.
Brilliant move, I wonder why any teams still have press row on the court. Too much money to be made from the big-time donors who want to be right near the action
I don't see a downside to this (for the non-media, at least).
If I've learned anything from Bitter and McFarling, it's that as long as there is free food available , the sportswriters will eventually be happy.
I think that this could be an opportunity. If the new location for the media gets "re-done" in a manner that makes their jobs easier/better (I'm thinking lots of free food, ergonomic writing surfaces, outlets for laptops, phones, etc. wi-fi for stats research and posting articles to meet deadlines, comfortable seats, free VT pens, etc) then some media member's opinions of Cassell could be improved and that would be a good thing for VT in general.
If you're gonna give them outlets why not hardwire them to the Internet? Leave the ethernet cable there. That's gotta be better than WiFi
If you're gonna give them outlets why not hardwire them to the Internet? Leave the ethernet cable there. That's gotta be better than WiFi
So....let's just try to make sure those fancy new seats actually have a fan sitting in them, eh?
How does Berman report this change?
"Virginia Tech to move wheelchair-using fans to give donors courtside seats"
prick
http://www.roanoke.com/sports/colleges/va_tech/blog-virginia-tech-to-move-wheelchair-using-fans-to-give/article_351af274-f595-11e4-bc7f-f78dccb705ca.html
Oh my god it's real.
Fuck this guy. Like. More than before.
I second this motion.
I think this motion will carry unanimously. He is such a POS for writing "media AND fans who use wheelchairs". Berman we know who you actually are pissed about being moved, don't use people with real disabilities because your short ass has to be in the stands.
I actually can't believe this is a thing. It deserves to be mentioned, but the headline pretty much sensationalizes it. Berman himself wrote, "Tech says the number of wheelchair-accessible seats will more than double." It's not as if Whit didn't consider folks in wheelchairs before he announced this plan. He did, and thought of a reasonable solution. I would imagine if they want to pony up $20,000 for the courtside luxury seats, they'll be able to sit courtside like any other fan.
I wonder if Berman wrote the headline or an editor did to grab a few extra pageviews?
It's more than reasonable, it's better! A friend of mine had those seats a couple years ago, and she was wedged in a corner and could barely see the game. Yeah, it was cool to be so close, but the novelty definitely wore off after a while and then it was super difficult for her to get to food or a bathroom or anything. Now, handicapped seating is gonna have a solid viewing experience as well as access to the concourse. Not a bad gig at all, if you ask me.
Anyone have a suggestion as to why I can't view embedded tweets on my Mac any more? Tried both Safari and Chrome and they just show up as the italicized font. Thanks
Mine sometimes does that while everything loads and usually changes over to the tweet itself after a minute or two. I'd try clearing your cache.
Maybe they are doing this so the alumni that sit behind the benches can have courtside seats and be happy, and they open up those areas behind the bench for students?
This was a long time coming. Every time I looked at that sideline I thought why aren't those courtside seats? the area there is just asking for it.
Although I wish it was students getting better seats, I'm glad they moved the media. At least now we will make some money from that space.
Don't care what they do or how they do it, but we just have to get butts in the seats, and not just courtside.
#BUTTS
Also, my butt will be in a seat as many times as I can attend a game. Student season tickets are great
It has begun.
Still more people in those seats, than at a LOLUVA spring game.
This is a great move. Has anyone noticed how EMPTY those press row seats are most games? What a wasted opportunity.
To be fair, the last couple years we haven't mattered in a regional or national sense.
that should change going forward.
It's not like ESPN is showing up unless a ranked team, Duke, or UNC are at the Cassell. At least that's what I assume will happen in the future.
http://awfulannouncing.com/2015/yes-espn-experimenting-studio-announcers...
I think this happened to us one time already last. I'm not certain since I saw all the home games live last year.