College basketball unleashes madness in the United States
The college Final Four has a following comparable to the NBA
A total of 8.4 million viewers on average on the first day of ‘March Madness’the American college basketball playoffs. They play a game. Even in NBA arenas. The resale of the Final Four reaches $8,000. Nearly 20 college coaches exceed the average $3.5 million earned by those in the NBA.
A good way to measure the attention you arouse is through the famous ‘brackets’, a simulation that each fan does about how they think the tournament will develop until the championpassing through the different rounds of the Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight and the Final Four.
The NCAA estimates that between seventy and one hundred million brackets are filled every March.
RECORD ATTENDANCES AND MILLIONAIRE AUDIENCES
The following of the tournament on television is very high, bringing together regular fans of college basketball with the curious who want to follow how their bracket evolves. On Thursday March 16, the first day of the tournament, lTurner’s channels averaged 8.4 million viewers2% more than last season, becoming the best ‘Opening Day’ of the last eight years.
This is related to the ‘boom’ at the beginning, but also to the fact that there are currently many more people working from home who have ‘more freedom’ to watch the games.
Universities move their fans en massecount their displacements by thousands, and the NCAA places huge pavilions as venues that are generally filled. For the first rounds, up to eight venues hosted the matches, and among the venues were the Nuggets Ball Arena in Denverhe Magic Amway Center in Orlando or the Kings’ Golden1 Center in Sacramento.
Even the women’s team, which has less following, registered this year, according to ESPN, an average audience of 257,000 viewers in the first round matches. Two of them, broadcast on national television through ABC, averaged 600,000 viewers.
In terms of attendance, they have broken, for the second consecutive season, the public record in the stands of the different pavilions with 231,677 spectators.
A ROUND BUSINESS FOR HEADQUARTERS AND TELEVISION
The fourteen venues that host the tournament during the second half of March come to the fore in television presence, and it is estimated that between travel by fans and the media, ticket sales, accommodation and other expenses, in these weeks a business of billions of dollars moves.
The smallest venue in the first round was Albany, in New York State, and it has experienced an impact of $3.5 million.. The figures skyrocket if we take into account the city of Houston, which will host the Final Four once again and that in the 2016 edition reached benefits of 250 million.
Ticket sales do not suffer despite the high prices, which are sold by blocks of two on two days of competition. Thus, having attended the first round supposes an expense of between 150 and 500 dollars.
The figure rises as the phases progressattend the Sweet Sixteen and to Elite Eight has an average of 450 dollars. When we talk about the Final Four the price range reaches more inaccessible limitscoming to be ordered for resale above 8,000 dollars.
The media want their share of the pie too. CBS and Turner signed an agreement in 2010 with the NCAA to offer the games on television: 14 seasons in exchange for 10.8 billion dollars.
An agreement that was extended for eight more years, until 2032, and that added an extra 8.8 billion to the coffers of the university sports entity.
Sponsors come hand in hand, there are three main ones such as Capital One, Coca-Cola and AT&T. Only the latter invested 66.1 million in the 2022 edition.
MILLIONAIRE SALARIES AND BUDGETS
Being a ‘Head Coach’ of a University is highly regarded within the group of coaches, even above directing teams from the NBA itself. Hence, many illustrious names like Coach K have never been interested in taking the leap despite having been tempted on numerous occasions.
The average salary of a coach in the NBA is $3.5 million.. If we take a look at the salaries of college basketball coaches, we find almost twenty that exceed this figure in the current 2022/2023 season.
john callipari (Kentucky), Bill Self (Kansas), Tom Izo (Michigan St.), Rick Barnes (Tennessee) and Bruce Pearl (Auburn) They make up the repóker of coaches who exceed five million a year on their payroll. Figures that can even increase if they reach certain sporting objectives.
To this must be added the prestige and respect of the entire campus, as well as the city itself., who has always accompanied the coaches of the university team. Far from, on many occasions, the pressure and criticism of leading the best basketball league in the world.