Why is Marquette hoops playing multiple games in Chicago next season? Here's what the AD said
The Marquette men's basketball team will play two non-conference games in Chicago next season.
The Golden Eagles will face Indiana at the United Center on Nov. 9 and then Oklahoma on Nov. 28 at Credit Union 1 Arena on the University of Illinois-Chicago campus.
Why is that? Let MU athletic director Mike Broeker explain.
"I would say it’s a couple things," Broeker said in a lengthy Q&A with the Journal Sentinel. "One, we have a massive alumni base and season-ticket base in Chicago. So the opportunity to play there and the response we’ve gotten the last few years when we’ve played down there has been incredible.
"And I think it’s also a way scheduling is going to change with revenue-sharing and the opportunity to create some more value for yourself outside of your own market."
College basketball teams are going away from the multi-team events in far-flung places that don't create much revenue. But Broeker isn't closing the door completely on going back to tournaments like the Maui Invitational.
"I’ve had this conversation with (MU head coach) Shaka (Smart) a lot, where I would like to as much as we can preserve the opportunity to build a schedule that best prepares our team to play in March," Broeker said. "In how everything is changing, can we do that and use the opportunity to create some value out of market for us?
"So partnering with a promoter and changing the financial structure of a purely-expensed trip to a place to play two games, to now a real revenue opportunity for us. One in the form of a guarantee and then, two, in the way we might be able to share in the revenue we’re able to create by playing in the building."
But more MU games in Chicago are likely.
"We think that legislation is going to pass where you can play a 32nd game," Broeker said. "So how does that factor in what (the schedule) looks like. Do we play another home game? Do we play another neutral-site game? Maybe based on everything with how we’ve budgeted and how we feel about revenues and expenses in a given year, maybe we do go back to playing in that traditional MTE.
"I would say, and Shaka and I have talked about this, we’d love to play a game in Chicago every year. To take a game to that market, who many of them come up here as season-ticket holders. To do something like that for them, that would be pretty cool."
Read the full conversation with Broeker here.