The Bobcat Nation

On the Sports Nuts this afternoon Dean Alexander provided some interesting numbers on the size of all the Big Sky school's markets. I don't recall the exact numbers but I'm pretty close to what he said:

1. PSU-over 1 million
2. Sac-over 1 million
3. Weber-over 1 million (Ogden, Salt Lake City)
4. EWU-about 500K (Spokane)
5. UNC-about 300K (Greely-Ft. Collins)
6. NAU-about 200K (Flagstaff-Prescott)
7. ISU-130K
8. um-120K
9. MSU-64K

I don't know how large geographic area was used, but it is interesting that the two smallest markets in the Big Sky (Missoula and Bozeman) routinely are at the top of the league in attendance in the major sports, and that MSU is in the smallest market in the Big Sky by far.

BelgradeBobcat wrote:On the Sports Nuts this afternoon Dean Alexander provided some interesting numbers on the size of all the Big Sky school's markets. I don't recall the exact numbers but I'm pretty close to what he said:

1. PSU-over 1 million
2. Sac-over 1 million
3. Weber-over 1 million (Ogden, Salt Lake City)
4. EWU-about 500K (Spokane)
5. UNC-about 300K (Greely-Ft. Collins)
6. NAU-about 200K (Flagstaff-Prescott)
7. ISU-130K
8. um-120K
9. MSU-64K

I don't know how large geographic area was used, but it is interesting that the two smallest markets in the Big Sky (Missoula and Bozeman) routinely are at the top of the league in attendance in the major sports, and that MSU is in the smallest market in the Big Sky by far.

Do these represent surrounding cities as well? I know Missoula is not 120k. If they do include surrounding cities, what is included in um?

We (the two Montana schools) have a fairly captive market, whereas the other BSC schools are competing with other larger schools.



I know that you know that, I'm just sayin'

wow Bozeman has more than doubled in size since 1993 when i moved there. i didn't know it was over 50K.

my guess on MSU and UM is that it represents surrounding area. The only question I have on this is that I thought the greater Bozeman area was closer to 90K and that Bozeman itself was around 40K.

UM & MSU - there are no other competing college programs nearby.

Weber, Sac, PSU, UNC and EWU all compete with regional teams, mostly 1A teams with bigger fan bases. ISU and NAU are in areas that are a little bit isolated, but are also within a decent distance to other successful 1A programs.

If you're a college football fan that moves to a new area, you would probably rather buy Utah, Washington St, or Oregon football tickets than Weber, Eastern or PSU. No offense to those guys but I think thats where most football fans would lean.

Now if you move to Montana, whats your choice, for the most part, UM or MSU.

According to the Bozeman Chamber the population of Bozeman is 29,459 and Gallatin County is 71,206. I don't think these figures count most of the 12K-13K students at MSU.

The numbers were read off by Dean. I'm sure they reflect market size (surrounding area) and not just the city's population. Right now the City of Bozeman is right at 30K and I think Missoula is right around 60K.

I think the moral of the story is media market size means nothing at our level.

I do think the numbers show that we draw very well in Bobcatland considering the population of the immediate area. Though I'm not saying we can't do better.

I agree, you need to take into consideration all the other D1 schools around Sac. Schools within 3 hours are many.

Let's see how many I can come up with!

Sac State
UC Davis
St. Mary's
Pacific
Fresno State
Cal
Stanford
Nevada
San Jose State
Santa Clara
USF

rtb wrote:According to the Bozeman Chamber the population of Bozeman is 29,459 and Gallatin County is 71,206. I don't think these figures count most of the 12K-13K students at MSU.

Simiar figures from the US Census Bureau:

Gallatin County

2004 estimate 75,637

2000 67,831

Bozeman

2003 estimate 30,753

2000 27,509

Also, it lists Missoula county as having a population of almost 100K, so the figures from wherever dean was getting them from are a little skewed. However, it has been discussed that the counties surrounding Missoula are more populated than those that surround Bozeman.

I seem to recall that the "market area" is based on miles or time it takes to drive to the point of interest (maybe, like 1 hour or something).