I started thinking about the empty seats in Memorial Stadium. Currently, it holds 60,670. According to the University the home attendance for 2016 & 2017 were as follows:
2016 - 319,505 or 45,644 average per game
2017 - 276,003 or 39,429 average per game
That means that over the two years there were 253,872 empty seats for U of I football games. The average ticket price for 2018 was between $20 and $55 per seat. That said, how much money are we losing week in and week out? Using 2016 & 2017 numbers and an average ticket price of $28 (just picked a number), over the those two seasons Illinois lost a minimum of 7.1 million dollars. This is just from ticket prices. How much more have they lost from concessions and merchandise?
If JW wants to get rid of Lovie, I think that at this point it's a wash. Pay him his buy out our keep him until the end of his contract. Keeping him will cost this university more money in the long run from missed opportunities.
2016 - 319,505 or 45,644 average per game
2017 - 276,003 or 39,429 average per game
That means that over the two years there were 253,872 empty seats for U of I football games. The average ticket price for 2018 was between $20 and $55 per seat. That said, how much money are we losing week in and week out? Using 2016 & 2017 numbers and an average ticket price of $28 (just picked a number), over the those two seasons Illinois lost a minimum of 7.1 million dollars. This is just from ticket prices. How much more have they lost from concessions and merchandise?
If JW wants to get rid of Lovie, I think that at this point it's a wash. Pay him his buy out our keep him until the end of his contract. Keeping him will cost this university more money in the long run from missed opportunities.
