Tucson's poor support for sporting events (Phoenix, Tempe: sales, condos, college) - Arizona (AZ) - City-Data Forum

PNG12977 · 12-28-2013, 02:43 PM

I know this is a college sports town, but how is it we lost all our spring training teams, have no minor league baseball team and don't even have a college football bowl game with how nice our winter weather is? The city of Phoenix and it's suburbs seem to be bending over backwards to build new stadiums/complexes. We can't just build ONE really nice staduim/complex for 2 teams to share? How is it that Mobile, AL, Boise, ID and Detroit of all places have college bowl games but Tucson doesn't?

borregokid · 12-28-2013, 06:52 PM

As far as the cactus league Phoenix has a much larger population of retirees that follow their teams. Tucson isnt even a great snowbird city compared to Phoenix, Yuma and Palm Springs. Phoenix is made up of about 5 pretty good sized cities and Tucson is Tucson..thats it. Economically it makes sense for travel and also attendance that all the teams be in one area.

As far as football the U of A is trying but even with fairly reasonable ticket prices they cant even sell out a game. Tucson is the Pullman of the south and when you consider how remote Pullman is I think an argument can be made that Tucson is the least supportive of the Pac-12 teams. For Tucson to have a bowl game an existing bowl game would have to re-locate here. Tucson is really remote and doesnt have the fan base to support teams from other areas. The Fight Hunger Bowl in San Francisco had 35,000 fans yesterday. Thats with two teams that had a fan base that could drive in one day to SF. SF also has a huge population base within 50 miles. I am not sure if Tucson could do half that. You would probably have to give tickets away.

Another part about Bowl Games some of the cities have major sponsors for the games. Tucson has Raytheon and thats about it. Bowl games if they are lucky they break even. They need sponsors with deep pockets.

Jukesgrrl · 12-29-2013, 04:36 AM

I agree with BK. There's not enough corporate sponsorship here to generate the cash needed to host a bowl game. Most have sub-sponsors, in addition to the name sponsor. Also, keep in mind that 25% of Pima County's population falls below the Federal poverty line. Even people with jobs often don't have the expendable income for live sporting events. NCAA football bowl games are rather accessible since, depending on location, some have trouble filling the stands. But that's only once a year.

Ticket sales to regular sporting events, and especially concerts, is so crooked. Ticketmaster has a monopoly. They say "tickets are on sale at 10 a.m." You are online waiting before then, you click "buy tickets" at 30 seconds after the hour and you are told they are sold out. No, they aren't sold out, they have just been sold to re-seller like StubHub, which then jacks up the already high price. Every time the grandchildren of Congressional reps can't get tickets to see some kid candy like Justin Beiber or Taylor Swift, they threaten to investigate. Then in a few weeks (probably after a "campaign contribution" changes hands) their interest in the problem disappears.

PNG12977 · 12-29-2013, 01:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jukesgrrl

I agree with BK. There's not enough corporate sponsorship here to generate the cash needed to host a bowl game. Most have sub-sponsors, in addition to the name sponsor. Also, keep in mind that 25% of Pima County's population falls below the Federal poverty line. Even people with jobs often don't have the expendable income for live sporting events. NCAA football bowl games are rather accessible since, depending on location, some have trouble filling the stands. But that's only once a year.

Ticket sales to regular sporting events, and especially concerts, is so crooked. Ticketmaster has a monopoly. They say "tickets are on sale at 10 a.m." You are online waiting before then, you click "buy tickets" at 30 seconds after the hour and you are told they are sold out. No, they aren't sold out, they have just been sold to re-seller like StubHub, which then jacks up the already high price. Every time the grandchildren of Congressional reps can't get tickets to see some kid candy like Justin Beiber or Taylor Swift, they threaten to investigate. Then in a few weeks (probably after a "campaign contribution" changes hands) their interest in the problem disappears.

I am fairly new to Tucson (2years), but why did local legislators let 5 MLB teams walk away from spring training here? We couldn't muster up enough $$ to build one state of the art spring training facility? As far as bowl games go, the sponsor doesn't have to be headquartered in that city. Buffalo Wild Wings is not headquartered in Tempe, Tostitos isn't headquartered in Phoenix, Discover Card is not headquartered in Miami. I know there is no way Tucson can support an NFL, MLB, NBA franchise, but I find it hard to believe we can't have one MLB team have spring training here or a minor league baseball team?

borregokid · 12-29-2013, 11:57 PM

I have been to games in Peoria and Tucson. This year Tucson wont even have minor league baseball. Peoria compared to South Tucson is loaded with money and more importantly retirees, lots of them. They can support Kansas City, Texas, Seattle, and San Diego within a couple of miles because of Sun City, Sun City West, and Sun City Grand. Thats almost 100,000 people right there in just one corner of Phoenix. On a Friday night in Peoria in the spring you cant even get into a restaurant. Everything is a 45 minute wait. We have a lot of people here from the upper mid-west but most are younger believe it or not and wouldnt be going to a lot of the spring games. The SF Giants had a heck of a facility in Casa Grande and they left that for Phoenix. I think building the stadium in the south end of town was a mistake. Right now I think Tucson needs to attract businesses and build the downtown business core.

Jukesgrrl · 12-30-2013, 01:35 AM

The baseball teams themselves were rather vocal about the fact that the players didn't like Tucson. They said there "wasn't enough to do." In a way I see the point. Tucson is geared to college kids and retirees. Ballplayers might be single guys or have young families with them, living in rented condos. But in either case they are 20-35-year-olds in town for a couple of months a year and looking for a good time when they aren't working. Many of them play golf even after a day of practice but I don't think most of them are into the traditional Tucson activities of biking and hiking. They have far more down time than football players have at training camp. I honestly don't think I'd have been too enchanted with Tucson either when I was in my late twenties.