2019 University Cup (Lethbridge, AB)

[RED ARMY EAST]

Very surprised that teams were on the hook for all of those costs.

 

[AUS Fan]

Any idea on what the averages were from?
Waterloo/Kitch 2001-2
Lakehead 2009-10
Lethbridge 2019

Looking back to Kitchener both years, I can only say abysmal. Literally empty rink. I've seen more fans at a TimBit game than showed up there. Lakehead was pretty good when the host played and (I'll say) decent for other games. Somewhere on this page is a breakdown of game-by-game attendance for Lethbridge.

Regarding the funding, I heard the same from a team coach the 1st day I was there. After the initial pickup in Calgary, they were on the hook for the rest of the time.

Edit:

Sask vs Guelph - 2177
Alberta vs Leth - 2539
UNB vs Carl - 793
St FX vs Queens - 870
Alberta vs Sask - 1100
UNB vs St FX - 1021
St FX vs Sask - 923
UNB vs Alberta - 1593

For a grand total of: 11016

 

[MiamiHockey]

Adding into Answer to #2 question
Lethbridge as host supplied literally nothing this year: No hotel rooms, No Meals, No transportation allowance etc...
Teams were on the hook for 100% of the cost + additional event costs (accreditations, tickets etc...)
USports does not provide any financial comp to any team attending the event.

Avg costs per team this year:
UNB & StFX @ $120k + each
Queens, Carlton, Guelph @ $105-110k + each
Alberta & Sask @ $75k + each

Teams even had to pay for bus transportation to and from practices on Monday and Tuesday... which were school buses!

I was not aware that Lethbridge covered so few costs, but that tells you everything you need to know about the viability of the University Cup. It's a guaranteed money loser.

The ONLY reason to have a University Cup in one location is for television. That is foolish beyond all belief given the costs.

We know that USports gets zero money from Sportsnet for broadcast rights, so the only POSSIBLE reason to have a single-location 8-team University Cup is to hope/pray that the TV viewership has some positive impact on USports.

Let's do the math ... three games were broadcast nationally this year. We know that each game gets fewer than 60,000 viewers. Let's assume 30,000 per game, for argument's sake, although I suspect that Saturday's games probably had 10,000 or fewer each.

So, to get 90,000 views (many of whom were the same from game-to-game ... meaning possibly 60,000 independent viewers) USports teams are paying somewhere between $800,000 and $1 Million.

Flip that number around, and it is costing USports $10-15 per viewer.

Who are these viewers? And what possible benefit could there be from having them watch the University Cup?

I'd foster a guess there is really zero benefit. These are alumni and existing USports fans. Most of them will not spend another dime at the U of A or UNB.

 

[FreddyFoyle]

Bumped into a couple of UNB players in line at Tim Horton's this morning.

They confirmed what we heard - the ice was really soft in Lethbridge, so not really conducive to their style of play (conspiracy theory!)

So another issue with hosting 8 teams at the UCup - all those morning practice times, plus afternoon and evening games really put a burden on the ice surface.

 

[timbitca]

Even if the host committee doesn't pony up the cash to pay for expenses, it costs a lot of money to host.

Here is the bid book (it's public) for the 2021 Men's Hockey Championship. Give a quick look to page 7 section 1 and 2.

https://usports.ca/uploads/hq/Bid_Books/2021/USports_BidBooks19_Hockey_M_EN_DIGITAL.pdf

 

[UNB Bruins Fan]

Even if the host committee doesn't pony up the cash to pay for expenses, it costs a lot of money to host.

Here is the bid book (it's public) for the 2021 Men's Hockey Championship. Give a quick look to page 7 section 1 and 2.

https://usports.ca/uploads/hq/Bid_Books/2021/USports_BidBooks19_Hockey_M_EN_DIGITAL.pdf

Do you think Moncton will be looking to host again in the near future?

 

[AUS Fan]

Interesting read. Thanks for posting that.

 

[RED ARMY EAST]

Although Lethbridge may not have had success at the gate, I like the fact that it went out west this year. As long as it is followed up by proven host (Saskatoon, Edmonton,Halifax,Fredericton,Moncton).
You don't want back to back years with attendance disasters, so 1 year for an unproven host.

 

[UNB Bruins Fan]

Interesting read. Thanks for posting that.

It was interesting. Really makes you appreciate just how much work goes into hosting one of these tournaments.

 

[Drummer]

Interesting read. Thanks for posting that.

Interesting indeed.
- Just for one season - 2021 only, not a two-year bid
- No mention of 50/50 this time. In the last bid round they took half of the profits from 50/50.
- The $125K guarantee is high - I can see that scaring a lot of groups away
- Deadline is June, which is pretty short notice given the bid book has only been out for a week
- No announcement date, which is nice, because they've never stuck to their announcement dates in the past.