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Post by purplehaze on May 27, 2020 9:43:24 GMT -5
This article released this morning is suggesting that UConn will soon announce the elimination of 1/3 of their programs (from 24 to 16) - It's a scathing piece that points the finger at all of the administrative malpractice over the last decade and beyond. What a mess ! www.si.com/college/2020/05/26/uconn-football-sports-cuts |
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Post by Sons of Vaval on May 27, 2020 9:55:28 GMT -5
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Post by longsuffering on May 27, 2020 10:07:00 GMT -5
I'm ready to chain myself to the Linden Lane Gate if HC announces the elimination of any varsity sports. If it's a nice day. Keep the character and identity of Holy Cross intact and cut overhead in Athletic Administration instead. Our sports are lean enough and our administration is fat enough to accomplish that where big time schools may not be able to.
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Post by rf1 on May 27, 2020 10:19:16 GMT -5
The financial model at UConn was never long term sustainable. In spite of this, the school upgraded football to FBS and added varsity hockey programs playing in one of the top (and most expensive) hockey leagues. It then decided to change conferences which cost it tens of millions. This financial mess is all of its own doing.
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Post by HC92 on May 27, 2020 11:25:25 GMT -5
To say UConn and the state of CT have not made good decisions with regard to its athletic department over the last nearly 20 years would be an understatement. Many of the problems can be traced back to getting left out of the first rounds of conference realignment when they were hot and then-AG Blumbethal’s decision to sue Boston College in 2003 for its decision to leave the Big East. Things have continued to deteriorate over the last 17 years. Now they’re a football independent trying to compete in Storrs, CT. If my family wasn’t here, I probably wouldn’t still be a resident of CT. Tragically poor leadership for a long time.
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Post by purplehaze on May 27, 2020 12:14:16 GMT -5
As the article points out one big football negative that can't be overcome is the 30 mile trek from Storrs to East Hartford for students. And the environment around the stadium has an industrial look which
does not make for a typical college tailgate feel - It's gonna be a long haul to restore football and get people back in the stands.
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Post by HC92 on May 27, 2020 13:33:42 GMT -5
As the article points out one big football negative that can't be overcome is the 30 mile trek from Storrs to East Hartford for students. And the environment around the stadium has an industrial look which does not make for a typical college tailgate feel - It's gonna be a long haul to restore football and get people back in the stands. Very true. Of course, playing games in Storrs would have the problem with the people with the money not wanting to make the trek. Not that many people lives within 20 miles of Storrs. Lots of people live within 20 miles of East Hartford. For a very good basketball team, 10k people will trek to Storrs. Different story for crappy football where you need a lot more fans to try to break even. |
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Post by rf1 on May 27, 2020 13:55:18 GMT -5
Part of the allure to going to college football games for alums is returning to campus. That is lost when the games are 30 miles from the school. UConn has one of the most unusual setups of any college athletic department playing so many of its games (football, men & women's basketball, and men's hockey) so far from its campus.
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Post by timholycross on May 27, 2020 15:11:29 GMT -5
...and in the same vein, UMass decided it would leave campus for 2-3 years and play at Gillette while they did some work on McGuirk (which, for the fans, was no work at all). A disastah. Triple the distance from the school compared to UConn and a worse team.
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Post by rf1 on May 27, 2020 15:26:06 GMT -5
...and in the same vein, UMass decided it would leave campus for 2-3 years and play at Gillette while they did some work on McGuirk (which, for the fans, was no work at all). A disastah. Triple the distance from the school compared to UConn and a worse team. At least UMass came to realize it and pretty much ended playing games there. |
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Post by A Clock Tower Purple on May 27, 2020 15:41:24 GMT -5
UMess AD Ryan Bamford, whose done an OK job given the difficult FB circumstances, got Mizzou to come to McGuirk in 2024 as part of a H&H.
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Post by longsuffering on May 27, 2020 18:34:27 GMT -5
The bar has been set for Blossom to get an FCS equivalent of Mizzou to come to Fitton. He's got a much more successful FCS football program to work with than Bamford has in the FBS.
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Post by nycrusader2010 on May 27, 2020 19:16:23 GMT -5
UMess AD Ryan Bamford, whose done an OK job given the difficult FB circumstances, got Mizzou to come to McGuirk in 2024 as part of a H&H. They managed to get BYU to come last year too. Not that UMASS fans or the local Mormon contingent really gave a rat's rump. The game BARELY outdrew HC-Georgetown at Fitton the same afternoon. |
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Post by A Clock Tower Purple on May 27, 2020 19:42:27 GMT -5
What's your point?
My point was their AD got an SEC school to come to one of the worst 1A's campus. Short of ND that's a LOT different than another 1A indy coming to Amherst.
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Post by bfoley82 on May 27, 2020 22:10:35 GMT -5
What's your point? My point was their AD got an SEC school to come to one of the worst 1A's campus. Short of ND that's a LOT different than another 1A indy coming to Amherst. BYU is a pretty large draw though. I would put their following on par with Missouri or even higher. There was a HUGE issue with the UMass/BYU game not being on BYUTV that weekend. www.cougarboard.com/board/message.html?id=22684018 |
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Post by bfoley82 on May 27, 2020 22:12:26 GMT -5
UMess AD Ryan Bamford, whose done an OK job given the difficult FB circumstances, got Mizzou to come to McGuirk in 2024 as part of a H&H. They also have Army coming in during 2020! Might not be a Power 5 school but still a school that can pick anyone to play in the country. |
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Post by HC92 on May 27, 2020 23:10:25 GMT -5
UMess AD Ryan Bamford, whose done an OK job given the difficult FB circumstances, got Mizzou to come to McGuirk in 2024 as part of a H&H. They also have Army coming in during 2020! Might not be a Power 5 school but still a school that can pick anyone to play in the country. Whether Army can pick anyone to play or not, they are picking schools who they can beat with a smattering of good teams with name recognition mixed in. Over the next several years, they are traveling to UMass, UConn, Tulane, Ball State, Miami (OH), Rice, Georgia State, Wisconsin, Liberty, Coastal Carolina, Tennessee, Wake Forest, Troy, Louisiana-Monroe, Texas-San Antonio and LSU. |
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Post by bfoley82 on May 28, 2020 0:34:04 GMT -5
They also have Army coming in during 2020! Might not be a Power 5 school but still a school that can pick anyone to play in the country. Whether Army can pick anyone to play or not, they are picking schools who they can beat with a smattering of good teams with name recognition mixed in. Over the next several years, they are traveling to UMass, UConn, Tulane, Ball State, Miami (OH), Rice, Georgia State, Wisconsin, Liberty, Coastal Carolina, Tennessee, Wake Forest, Troy, Louisiana-Monroe, Texas-San Antonio and LSU. They host Oklahoma this fall which is a return trip from 2018 in coming years they have BC, Wake Forest and Syracuse all coming in! |
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Post by HC92 on May 28, 2020 7:06:57 GMT -5
Whether Army can pick anyone to play or not, they are picking schools who they can beat with a smattering of good teams with name recognition mixed in. Over the next several years, they are traveling to UMass, UConn, Tulane, Ball State, Miami (OH), Rice, Georgia State, Wisconsin, Liberty, Coastal Carolina, Tennessee, Wake Forest, Troy, Louisiana-Monroe, Texas-San Antonio and LSU. They host Oklahoma this fall which is a return trip from 2018 in coming years they have BC, Wake Forest and Syracuse all coming in! You made it sound like an accomplishment that UMass is getting Army to come to UMass. It’s a good game for UMass but my point was that Army travels to lots of crappy football teams that they can beat which is why I listed the schools they are traveling to over the next couple of years.. They also sprinkle in some big names. The road games they currently have scheduled through 2029 that I don’t have on my original list are Syracuse, BC, Buffalo, North Texas, Tulsa, Marshall, Kansas State, UNLV and Air Force. . The UMass series alternates between McGuirk and Michie every year through 2028. The UConn deal is similar but has a couple of off years. |
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Post by Tom on May 28, 2020 7:44:21 GMT -5
...and in the same vein, UMass decided it would leave campus for 2-3 years and play at Gillette while they did some work on McGuirk (which, for the fans, was no work at all). A disastah. Triple the distance from the school compared to UConn and a worse team. At least UMass came to realize it and pretty much ended playing games there. It's different if there is a planned timeline for a renovation. That first game in Gillette, everyone knew UMass would be returning to campus on a specific date. UConn is basically a permanent arrangement |
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Post by alum on May 28, 2020 8:02:17 GMT -5
When the general public was going to Rentschler for games, UConn students were going, too. There were plenty of buses filled with students. I would assume that the partying started before they left Storrs. When the program collapsed and the general public stopped going, so did the students.
The SI article was harsh but not unfair. I actually don't agree with the Courant writer quoted in the article who opined that eight teams will get cut. I have no inside info, but I think a more reasonable number would be three or four (men's and women's swimming, men's golf plus women's rowing if they can do it without Title IX implications.)
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Post by timholycross on May 28, 2020 8:09:37 GMT -5
I wonder how much of UConn's stadium mess was avoidable.
That stadium (or one that would have been built a mile or two away) was supposed to be for the Patriots. They backed out of the deal, yet someone (or a lot of someones) went ahead with a scaled down plan.
Stadium-wise, UMass might be in a better position even though the capacity is very small. If they decide to scale down or get rid of football, McGuirk will still have a function. W/o Uconn football, The Rent might as well meet The Wrecking Ball. And it's not cost-effective if they play 5 or 6 games there a year and draw 100K total or less.
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Post by longsuffering on May 28, 2020 9:07:02 GMT -5
I wonder how much of UConn's stadium mess was avoidable. That stadium (or one that would have been built a mile or two away) was supposed to be for the Patriots. They backed out of the deal, yet someone (or a lot of someones) went ahead with a scaled down plan. Stadium-wise, UMass might be in a better position even though the capacity is very small. If they decide to scale down or get rid of football, McGuirk will still have a function. W/o Uconn football, The Rent might as well meet The Wrecking Ball. And it's not cost-effective if they play 5 or 6 games there a year and draw 100K total or less. Dan Shaughnessey had this one right. When everything pointed to the Pats moving to Hartford he kept insisting that Brookline Bob Kraft would never move the team to "Yahooville" as Dan called it. I thought it was a done deal but Shaughnessey ended up being right. |
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Post by A Clock Tower Purple on May 28, 2020 9:15:39 GMT -5
The patsies were never moving to Hartford, and everyone knew this except the chumps in CT who got played like fools.
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Post by rf1 on May 28, 2020 10:22:06 GMT -5
I wonder how much of UConn's stadium mess was avoidable. That stadium (or one that would have been built a mile or two away) was supposed to be for the Patriots. They backed out of the deal, yet someone (or a lot of someones) went ahead with a scaled down plan. Stadium-wise, UMass might be in a better position even though the capacity is very small. If they decide to scale down or get rid of football, McGuirk will still have a function. W/o Uconn football, The Rent might as well meet The Wrecking Ball. And it's not cost-effective if they play 5 or 6 games there a year and draw 100K total or less.
There was an article a year ago lamenting the fact Renschler Field was getting no where near the projected bookings of events outside UConn football. It was expected to host many concerts each year but hasn't had one in over a decade. Expected development in and around the stadium never really materialized. Its main use for the 15+ years since its opening has been mostly limited to six UConn football games per year. Even these football games are greatly missing the mark as attendance has plummeted in recent years with an average of just 18,216 this past year in a stadium with a capacity of 40,642.
Empty promises and empty seats: After 15 years, Rentschler Field struggles to match expectations |
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