Pregame: Illinois vs Purdue, Saturday, October 12th, 2:30pm CT, FS1

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#151      
Primarily the ability to be able to travel on demand with short notice (this is highly important to major programs...allows travel flexibility). I mean sure, you can probably get some pricing discount if you were traveling on a very large scale. However, cheapest pricing is not the primary reason for these agreements (from the buying side).

With such competition available and an everchanging environment for travel, I am sure that these exclusivity agreements will slowly go away.
It’s unclear to me why short notice travel is needed or how exclusivity enables it, unless it’s written into the contract.

Regarding scale, no football program has enough volume to move the needle. They’re roundoff errors on a carrier’s business statement. As someone who used to contract for transportation services, I’m not seeing meaningful leverage in a few football games. Add basketball and all other Illini sports and you get enough volume to get a carrier’s attention. Hopefully we’re contracting for all sports combined.
 
#152      
It’s unclear to me why short notice travel is needed or how exclusivity enables it, unless it’s written into the contract.

Regarding scale, no football program has enough volume to move the needle. They’re roundoff errors on a carrier’s business statement. As someone who used to contract for transportation services, I’m not seeing meaningful leverage in a few football games. Add basketball and all other Illini sports and you get enough volume to get a carrier’s attention. Hopefully we’re contracting for all sports combined.
Completely agree. The OP was suggesting that cheaper travel was the primary reasoning for exclusivity agreement from buyer's side. I was just suggesting some reasons to what you would have written in the contract that would be beneficial to buyer that was not purely cheaper travel (i.e., guaranteed arrangements for last minute travel changes, etc.). I would assume that any exclusivity agreement for the DIA would be for the entire program, otherwise the scale would be too small.
 
#153      
we only used bus charters for games with NW, Purdue & IU, correct ?!
Idk if they did it for every road game, but they at least sometimes sent out the buses ahead with the equipment truck so they could use Peoria Charter on the road. I know they for sure did for the 2022 Michigan game since the two Illini-branded buses plus a basic Peoria Charter bus were parked outside the tunnel after the game. And I imagine that wasn't the only time they did it.
 
#154      
I think that they even use charter busses for home games to bring the players from the team hotel over to the stadium.
 
#155      
IIRC from an article about the switch on one of the local news sites, the "official" reason athletics gave to Peoria Charter for ending the relationship and not renewing was DIA wanted fewer breakdowns (believe DIA gave a specific number) and Peoria Charter told them that it was impossible just do the nature of the buses. Anyone who's spent time on coach buses knows that breakdowns are just a fact of life, and it's not a question of if they will break down, but rather when they will. This is particularly true on long trips, ones that mainly affect non-revenue sports since basketball and football fly to road games. I think when the band and cheerleaders bused down to Tampa for the Reliaquest Bowl, they had at least 3 separate, unrelated breakdowns. Considering there were 9 buses in that group, only 3 breakdowns over a 2000-mile round trip is pretty good as far as coach buses go.

The point is, that's a terrible reason to not renew the contract Peoria Charter, and there has to be a different, internal reason to end a 25-year relationship out of nowhere like the DIA did. Whether that reason is as petty as it's been suggested as being mad they'd take a contract with Purdue or something more legitimate that hasn't been mentioned publically. It could easily be as simple as this Iowa company just undercut Peoria Charter, and being a public institution, they the DIA had to go with them.
 
#156      
" I think when the band and cheerleaders bused down to Tampa for the Reliaquest Bowl, they had at least 3 separate, unrelated breakdowns. Considering there were 9 buses in that group, only 3 breakdowns over a 2000-mile round trip is pretty good as far as coach buses go. "

A 33% breakdown rate is horrible. If I was offered a contracted work in which I was told to expect that failure rate, I'd definitely be looking elsewhere.
 
#157      
I think when the band and cheerleaders bused down to Tampa for the Reliaquest Bowl, they had at least 3 separate, unrelated breakdowns. Considering there were 9 buses in that group, only 3 breakdowns over a 2000-mile round trip is pretty good as far as coach buses go.
if true, I don't know what to think. In a sleazy ad voice:

"Peoria Charter -- Travel from Champaign to Tampa. Only 33% chance of breaking down along the way."

Not sure I will be taking that service.
 
#158      
We’ll win big. This is not last year’s Purdue team nor last year’s Illinois.
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#162      
Updated Sellout Watch for Purdue. The tracker has just about reached 50,000. A couple hundred tickets seem to be selling every day so that is good with it still being 10 days out from the game. My early guess is that final attendance will land in the 53-55k range.

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I'm hopeful that the long wait between home games will boost attendance in the next week and a half ... our fans have not seen our guys play in Champaign since the CMU game (where we drew 51,498), and since then we have (A) beat #22 Nebraska on the road and (B) given #9 Penn State a good fight in an incredibly intimidating environment. My cautiously optimistic prediction is that a bye week with no Illini leads to a pretty significant rush of tickets next week, and we get over 55,000.
 
#163      
I'm hopeful that the long wait between home games will boost attendance in the next week and a half ... our fans have not seen our guys play in Champaign since the CMU game (where we drew 51,498), and since then we have (A) beat #22 Nebraska on the road and (B) given #9 Penn State a good fight in an incredibly intimidating environment. My cautiously optimistic prediction is that a bye week with no Illini leads to a pretty significant rush of tickets next week, and we get over 55,000.
If the current forecast of 80 degrees and sunny holds up (crazy for mid-October), then there could be some that make the decision to go the day of. I think 55,000+ is easily obtainable, if not higher.
 
#164      
If the current forecast of 80 degrees and sunny holds up (crazy for mid-October), then there could be some that make the decision to go the day of. I think 55,000+ is easily obtainable, if not higher.
I don't mean to go all Rain Man on you but for some reason I still have a vivid memory of the Purdue home game in mid-Oct. 1986, my junior year. Probably because my dad was visiting. Brilliant, warm, sunny day and (if the online weather records are correct) in the upper 70s. And we won! (Though ended 4-7 on the season.)

October's varied in the lower Midwest. One week it's 80 and then suddenly it doesn't get above 60 for a week.

Am hoping for 75 and broken clouds for everyone attending. That would be sweet: comfortable but not too warm. It was 80 in Ross Ade last September 30 with relentless sun. That was a bit toasty for me sitting in direct sun for two hours until it finally dipped behind the press box.
 
#173      
I'm hopeful that the long wait between home games will boost attendance in the next week and a half ... our fans have not seen our guys play in Champaign since the CMU game (where we drew 51,498), and since then we have (A) beat #22 Nebraska on the road and (B) given #9 Penn State a good fight in an incredibly intimidating environment. My cautiously optimistic prediction is that a bye week with no Illini leads to a pretty significant rush of tickets next week, and we get over 55,000.

Just for kicks, I'll predict an announced attendance of 56,200.
 
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