SALT LAKE CITY — Shortly after the final curtain fell on the three-year Beehive Class at Vivint Arena Saturday, BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe stopped by the locker room to congratulate the Cougars on their 68-64 victory over Utah State.
Despite the celebration, there was a bittersweet feel to it. The nightcap of a doubleheader that began with Utah defeating Weber State 60-49 in the afternoon put an end to what was an annual gathering of the four schools at the downtown home of the NBA’s Utah Jazz.
The Beehive Classic is calling it quits.
“I liked it. If you look at this concluding game tonight it was a great, great game. Both teams played their hearts out,” said Holmoe, who added that the ball bounced BYU’s way in the end. “I like it. I think it brings everybody into the city. This is unique, though. In this day and age it’s hard to start up something like that.”
Holmoe noted that when the event was originally organized, participants spoke about the tradition-laden Big 5 City Series in Philadelphia featuring rivals Penn, La Salle, Saint Joseph’s, Temple and Villanova. The Utah event never drew such traction, not even close.
Attendance over the three years was less than stellar. In 2017, a doubleheader featuring Utah-Utah State and BYU-Weber State drew 7,729 fans. A BYU-Utah matchup headlined the 2018 gathering that also included a game between Utah State and Weber State. The announced crowd was 10,678.
A momentum shift never materialized. Last Saturday’s Beehive Classic was split into two sessions. Attendance at the Utah-Weber State game was just 4,092. The BYU-Utah State contest was announced at 10,291.
Earlier in the week, Frank Zang of the Larry H. Miller Group of Companies announced that 2019 would be the finale.
“Vivint Smart Home Arena has been proud to showcase college basketball in our state and host this round-robin doubleheader in downtown Salt Lake City at an NBA arena. We appreciate the scheduling flexibility of BYU, Utah, Utah State and Weber State and the support of our sponsors to make the Beehive Classic a reality the past three seasons,” Zang said. “With the end of the agreement in December 2019, a mutual decision has been made to discontinue the series of games, allowing the arena and universities to determine their own schedules in the future. The Beehive Classic has been a worthy effort that brought fans together to celebrate college basketball, raised funds for scholarships and provided a unique Utah experience.”
Zang estimates that more than $100,000 was donated to the university scholarship funds from event proceeds over the Beehive Classic’s three-year run.
“I thought we gave it a great try. The Jazz did a great job and Vivint Arena of trying to bring this together,” Holmoe said. “It’s hard. It’s super hard these days. This time of year people are starting to concentrate on other things.”
Holmoe added that the four teams are from different conferences and are gearing up for league play.
“Then you’ve got to come play this? We’ve got emotions and you’ve got in-state rivalries,” he said. “I love the rivalries and I‘d just say leave it at that. I love all the rivalries. I like it, but I just think everybody tried. We tried. Everybody did a good job.”
The Beehive Classic, Holmoe noted, wasn’t doomed. It was just complicated at times.
“Nowadays you need everybody to have the same thought process,” he said. “But we get in a room with four ADs — and that’s not even your four basketball coaches — early on and we’re trying ‘OK, give-and-take, give-and-take, and give-and-take.’ But in the end it’s hard.”
As for the event being revisited down the line, Holmoe isn’t sure.
“All I can say is I enjoyed it. I thought we gave it a good shot,” he said. “We had good success.”
BYU won all three games it played in the Beehive Classic. Utah was second at 2-1. The games were played just blocks away from the Utes’ home in the Huntsman Center.
Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak said that he was fairly neutral about the event.
“I think when you first hear about it you think that all the fans are going to come. It’s kind of like grab your popcorn at the state tournament and get to catch a couple of games,” he continued. “But here we are where they empty the arena and you’ve got to come back, so there’s not that same buzz. It’s like two individual games.”
“We’re going to continue playing in-state schools, which we’ve done. I think we’ve played a couple every year since we’ve been here. So it’s just going to be on home courts.” — Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak
Krystkowiak emphasized that he wasn’t involved with the politics of the Beehive Classic. However, he noted that the scheduling is hard.
“We’re going to continue playing in-state schools, which we’ve done. I think we’ve played a couple every year since we’ve been here,” Krystkowiak said. “So it’s just going to be on home courts. I think you get to some revenue issues and different things.”
Beehive Classic games have not been part of Utah’s season-ticket package and Krystkowiak thinks that gets a little complicated with fans.
“OK, I’m going to buck up for my season tickets but then I’ve got to pay for another game in Salt Lake,” he explained.
Some of those things, Krystkowiak acknowledged, have caused those involved to rethink it.
“I think it was a great idea at the time. But I think that’s all part of life,” he said. “You kind of go through it and maybe it didn’t have the same inertia that everybody kind of expected, so probably time to make a change.”
Krystkowiak summarized that you experiment, you come up with things and you evaluate it.
“Then you make a decision if it moves forward,” he concluded. “It’s not quite as vibrant as everyone was thinking initially.”
Even so, Weber State coach Randy Rahe was a fan of the Beehive Classic.
“For us, I love it. It’s great for us. We get to play the higher-level schools in our state — Utah, BYU, Utah State on a neutral court — and we make a little money on it,” he said. “We make enough money so I don’t have to go out and play another guarantee game like at Arizona or UCLA. So we come down here, we get to play in-state, we get to do it at the Jazz arena, and we make good money for us that helps our program out.”
As much as Rahe liked the Beehive Classic, he understands that if the powers that be say it’s done, then it’s done.
“Maybe they’ll bring it back someday. But like I said it was good for us,” Rahe added.
The lack of attendance is hard to explain. A reduction in ticket prices didn’t make much of. difference. Two-game prices in 2018 were $60 for the lower bowl, $20 for the upper bowl and $10 for students. Single-game tickets last weekend were $28 for the lower bowl and $8 for the upper bowl. Student tickets were $5 if purchased at the school or $8 at the arena.
“The attendance probably wasn’t where they wanted it to be and for whatever reason. I don’t know the marketing aspect. I’m not smart enough to know all that stuff,” Rahe said. “But that may be part of it. I don’t know. But for some reason it just wasn’t as well-attended.”
Adding to the mystery of sorts, he noted, is the Beehive Classic, brought four good programs together in one place. Although Utah State coach Craig Smith didn’t experience all three gatherings, he went into the final one with an appreciation for the event. He’s a history major, after all.
“I’m just a basketball fan and as a coach at Utah State from what I hear and what I feel and what I’ve seen, is I think it’s great for the state,” he said of the games between the local programs. “I think that’s something that the fans love to see and want to see.”
Smith explained that he’d love to see such things continue, noting that the Aggies have six-year contracts to continue playing BYU and Weber State.
“I love the fact that the Beehive brought these four schools (BYU, Utah, USU and Weber State) together and quite frankly I thought it would be cool to add two more schools to that and make it a six-team kind of round-robin deal, but obviously that’s not where it’s at,” Smith said. “Hopefully we can come together and have something. I think it’s awesome to be able to play home-and-homes and play on each others campuses. I think that’s become a lost bit in all of Division I.”