• The KillerFrogs

Houston Chronicle: Big 12 explores playing games in Mexico

Ron Swanson

Full Member
Thinking outside the box now in college sport might be leading in somehow reining things in as a group, and not making it all about competition between conferences and its money, but rather the betterment of the whole of amateur college athletics and its fans who are the people that it is suppose to matter. But I guess that is more difficult—look at Washington, DC.
Yeah let’s ask the SEC and B1G real nicely if they’ll stop making more money than us for the betterment of the game as a whole… that should work real well.
 

Wexahu

Full Member
Yormark is trying to do whatever he can to grow the Big 12 brand and add more money for future TV contracts.

I don’t know if this will work but it seems like a decent “think outside the box” idea to me. We probably aren’t going to start getting exponentially more eyeballs from random fans across the US who just decide they’re going to become fans of Big 12 teams all of the sudden, but I could see Mexico being the next logical potential fanbase to go after.

European soccer has come after America and it has worked pretty well. I understand the differences, but worth a shot IMO.
Don't follow soccer so I don't know what they are doing exactly, but when the NFL plays games in Europe or other places (I think they've maybe played in Mexico and Japan too?) they are almost always low profile games amongst small market teams. Never "marquee games" which supposedly is what these will be.

Will the Mexican fans really understand the difference between a "marquee" Big 12 matchup or a game between UCF and Texas Tech? Because the American fans will. Why use those games as the guinea pigs?
 

Eight

Member
Right, but the fact of the matter is that the Big 12 athletic programs are about to be getting HALF the money that the SEC and B1G are getting, and if we don’t do something to try and bridge that gap, we are going to have no chance to compete at the highest levels.

Complain all you want about the reality of the current college sports/conference landscape, but the reality is here and we need to do whatever we can to stay as competitive as possible. I don’t know if playing games in Mexico will help build the conference’s brand, but I don’t hate the idea of trying to find ways to do so.

don't disagree about the consequences of disparity in tv money contracts, but again, tv contracts are not the only reason for the athletic department budget disparities

ticket sales are a huge disparity and over the course of a season can result in easily result in 30M+ in revenue and we are even talking about annual foundation donations.

playing international games may expand the market, but you as long as the product is viewed as mediocre the interest is going to be tepid

big 12 teams in football must be competitive in the cfp to garner any level of credibility
 

YA

Active Member
agreed, we have seen the big 10 play games in ireland for some bizarre reason and while we are told they idea is to grow the potential tv market the truth is the college tv market is a fraction of the nfl market and they are two different models

the nfl dominates us tv ratings, it isn't even close, and the amount of money each team gets from the tv contracts is staggering

nfl teams do not have to sell tickets to run their organizations

college teams are dependent upon ticket sales and donations which are augmented by tv contracts.

besides the cowboys who conned the people in frisco and frisco isd, you don't see nfl teams asking people to pay for their practice facilities or locker rooms and that is the issue

college sports is dependent upon at this time the on campus experience and fan connection and this goes against that with what would appear to be marginal upside

the nfl
NFL teams all the time ask cities/counties to fund their practice facilities. Look at the Carolina panthers for the latest example.
 

Eight

Member
NFL teams all the time ask cities/counties to fund their facilities. Look at the Carolina panthers for the latest example.

are you talking stadium or practice facilities?

my understanding on the panthers project that imploded is tepper had pitched something similar to the frisco development where the practice facility was part of a bigger commercial development and that the city drew the line at what they were willing to take on
 
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BrewingFrog

Was I supposed to type something here?
NFL teams all the time ask cities/counties to fund their practice facilities. Look at the Carolina panthers for the latest example.
And Cities and Counties are stupid enough to do it. I fondly remember Houston telling Bud Adams to pound sand, then turning around just a few short years later and spending hundreds of millions to build a New Stadium for the Stupid Texans.

Imbeciles...
 

Eight

Member
And Cities and Counties are stupid enough to do it. I fondly remember Houston telling Bud Adams to pound sand, then turning around just a few short years later and spending hundreds of millions to build a New Stadium for the Stupid Texans.

Imbeciles...

harris county only agreed to pay for the new stadium when the rodeo got involved with the process

had the rodeo not gotten behind the project that vote would have gone the other way

whether that was a wise decision or not can be debated, but the economic impact of the rodeo and the offshore trade show is significant to the city and the county
 

Rifframbahzoo20

Active Member
I think I look upon the country of Mexico more favorably than many here might. Now don’t get me wrong I know how dangerous it is. With that said, I don’t think this makes much sense outside of college baseball. Although if this helps football and basketball become even more popular in Mexico, and helps the Big 12 make more money to help the conference succeed, I am all for it! I just hope nobody ends up getting hurt.
 

BrewingFrog

Was I supposed to type something here?
harris county only agreed to pay for the new stadium when the rodeo got involved with the process

had the rodeo not gotten behind the project that vote would have gone the other way

whether that was a wise decision or not can be debated, but the economic impact of the rodeo and the offshore trade show is significant to the city and the county
Good point. The Rodeo does bring in a whole lot more than the Stupid Texans.
 

Eight

Member
Good point. The Rodeo does bring in a whole lot more than the Stupid Texans.

the scholarship money alone is significant (they provided those even when shut down for covid) as we can personally attest for a daughter who benefited

a large number of the dollars that are spent at the rodeo and while in town for the rodeo are from people who don't live in harris or a connecting county

same with the money for the offshore trade conference which is going on this week
 

BrewingFrog

Was I supposed to type something here?
the scholarship money alone is significant (they provided those even when shut down for covid) as we can personally attest for a daughter who benefited

a large number of the dollars that are spent at the rodeo and while in town for the rodeo are from people who don't live in harris or a connecting county

same with the money for the offshore trade conference which is going on this week
I have a vague recollection of Leroy Schaffer explaining this to some TV person. He was pretty cut-and-dried on the numbers.

I thought OTC was at the Downtown Convention Center... Eh. I don't live there anymore.
 

East Coast

Tier 1
Yes, and this is a great example of the competitive capitalist system run amok for some to make money at the cost of the fans/us and the cost of the pleasures of the college game. Yormark has a task to compete compete compete and it is a personal goal and pleasure of his to be the best at it, to deliver. Blinded by the task at hand to compete for money even while detracting and bending the entity—college sport and its fans. Heck, it’s not done blindly, but just self-centered on the task because that is how self interest and capitalism works.

And it is not thinking outside the box, but just following what others have already done, to keep up.
You can take the road I'm taking, and just don't go.
 
I think this is an awesome idea. I hope TCU plays in Mexico City .. Two of my close TCU College Friends were from Mexico City so we do have some alums over there. Imagine how many frog fans we can create that will be life lone frog fans because we where the first American Football Game they ever saw in person?! Exciting!
 

Eight

Member
I have a vague recollection of Leroy Schaffer explaining this to some TV person. He was pretty cut-and-dried on the numbers.

I thought OTC was at the Downtown Convention Center... Eh. I don't live there anymore.

last time i went to walk around with a friend who is in that business was the year before covid in the reliant convention facility that is used by the rodeo

need to go next year because some of the displays and equipment on hand are pretty mind blowing
 

BrewingFrog

Was I supposed to type something here?
need to go next year because some of the displays and equipment on hand are pretty mind blowing
The engineering involved in that line of work is brilliant. They ought to be taking Hight School kids interested in engineering to that show every year.
 

Eight

Member
The engineering involved in that line of work is brilliant. They ought to be taking Hight School kids interested in engineering to that show every year.

no doubt, there is a very good reason why engineers in the energy procurement/ creation business get paid what they do and you need to expose 7th and 8th graders to that show because a couple of years of algebra and geometry aren't going to get you into a college engineering program
 

Zubaz

Member
Don't follow soccer so I don't know what they are doing exactly, but when the NFL plays games in Europe or other places (I think they've maybe played in Mexico and Japan too?) they are almost always low profile games amongst small market teams. Never "marquee games" which supposedly is what these will be.

Will the Mexican fans really understand the difference between a "marquee" Big 12 matchup or a game between UCF and Texas Tech? Because the American fans will. Why use those games as the guinea pigs?
I'd be *shocked* if it was truly a "marquee" game, for the exact reason you allude too: The "marquee" teams (inasmuch as the Big 12 even still has any) aren't going to want to give up a home game for a neutral site game elsewhere. I'd guess it will be something like BYU or Houston giving up a home game to play a big-state conference opponent like Tech or Kansas State.
 

Wexahu

Full Member
I'd be *shocked* if it was truly a "marquee" game, for the exact reason you allude too: The "marquee" teams (inasmuch as the Big 12 even still has any) aren't going to want to give up a home game for a neutral site game elsewhere. I'd guess it will be something like BYU or Houston giving up a home game to play a big-state conference opponent like Tech or Kansas State.
Sadly, this crossed my mind as I was trying to think of "non-marquee" matchups. What are the marquee games? With UT and OU leaving, almost all of the big, national interest games left with them. It's just the way it is, and why I think people need to brace for about 10x the conference belittling that we've seen in the past decade, to whatever extent the belittling was real or imagined.

Trying to determine what the "big" matchups are going to be ahead of time will be tricky because literally about 12 of the 14 teams (heck, maybe all 14 of them) have a chance to be very competitive, at least initially.
 
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