I went there in time to catch a Missouri, Texas A&M game. They played Colorado and Nebraska on the road (lost 3/4 of those) before moving out. When 4 teams up and left the conference, the city knew it was losing millions of dollars in the double digits. Many that tailgate and go to game don't live in Lubbock, (save for a few), so the economy picks up nicely with games, graduation, haboob watching, prairie dog migration, etc.

http://redraiders.com/business/2011-08-30/am-departure-would-take-biennial-nip-out-lubbock-economy#

All local news outlets covered this (as well as the cow poop prank on the Aggies' team bus) fact that the CoC was scared to death at losing big $ from not having Nebraska, Texas A&M, Colorado, or Missouri come to town. They reckon that A&M series alone brought in $12 million to local businesses. I guess schools don't worry about their city but TTs non-con from 10-15 was basically, laughable (no offense Weber St) and hurt businesses. outside Arkansas series in 2015, exactly that, just awful.

Now, factor in that Baylor decided to move TT game to Dallas, and A&M tried to do the same. This article, from 2009, mentioned surveying 400 businesses (in a small town) that were opposed to moving games to Dallas. http://lubbockonline.com/stories/032609/loc_414626341.shtml#.V8J4_E0rLIU and yet, check out where Baylor game has been played ever since. A nice, fun, Buckee-stop, short drive for Baylor fans.
So, bigger teams don't want to play TT in their hometown (that's Baylor and A&M at the time). TT is the red-headed step child of the league, just in case y'all didn't get that. And yet, we hear from Hocutt such an attitude that's always irritated me, many media claim TT will vote pending whatever Texas tells them and TcU (who put up 80+ on them recently) what to do, I always felt that TT thinks they're the biggest brand west of Austin and so I don't get why they just roll for Texas. Every time they play Texas, TT always has little man's syndrome with lone start alternates, kind of reminds me of utah now thinking about it. Funny.

When 4 left and they added in 2 teams, TT traded blows with the replacements, getting beat down pretty badly, but ticket sales weren't exactly booming with WV fans and TcU doesn't travel outside of the inside of TcU campus, so the CoC could be happier.

Before I go on, let's talk basketball now for a bit. Of all the dozen games I went to, cheering against Marsha Henderson in my big BYU shirt was fun. He was on bench but red shirting so he had to stare at me when I was in the front. I showed up 10 minutes after tip, got in first row of the student section, caught a ton of free stuff from cheerleaders and free chick fil'a. Nobody else was there! USA had never been sold out in my 5 years there. Of all the athletes I worked with, the BB players were my fav, good students, patient, willing to try. They shared a lot of frustrations with Gillespie, hated his sand volleyball morning workouts, constant demeaning style. Anyways, Bubba was a good hire, but he just left.

While all of this is going on, Lubbock has a newish temple, the stake splits into 2, close to adding another building currently. It was like Utah when I left, in that I lived really close to a building, but had to drive past another building, to get to my ward's building. Drove me nuts. Church is strong, even if lots are students. The year I was in AD I tried to get series' going in FB/BB, to help their economy. I made the argument with assistants and Holmoe CC'd, he even responded twice. Lubbock is about 5-6 hours from Albuquerque and Dallas areas. TT would EASILY benefit in sales, and the city would DEFINITELY benefit from the economic boost. When I was there, I was constantly scoffed at, just nobody would believe it. I mean not even for basketball which is just crazy to me.

My last year, before graduation, BYU baseball came down and played a good TT team. It was a loss for us but in the middle of an afternoon, a school day, BYU fans were everywhere. Announced crowd was well under a couple thousand at best but I remember it was quicker to count the TT fans, and some were looking around confused. Not saying it was the TcU basketball game of 2011 where the TcU band was their only fan representation, but it was odd for the raiders, you could see it in their faces. Also, I arranged for the baseball team to have sacrament with us my first year there, they won that year at least. TT usually has a good team just to add.

Point is, if other Big12 towns are like this one (many are even smaller actually), they need BYU. Sure the schools are already paid nicely, but their city isn't. Their local businesses that sponsor them expect return on their investment. I'm sorry Texas Tech, you purposely avoided seeing the truth of it. You need BYU. And the rest of Big12, think of the value your own fans and visiting fans would bring if you added more intrigue and more teams with actual fan bases. If Swaim is right and TT voted for Houston, you still are ignoring the data, and it'll be an absolute pleasure in beating you on the field and court.