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Post by sader1970 on Jan 8, 2023 20:58:45 GMT -5
While that was my initial gut reaction as well, I think I understand the thinking. No question we'd get more people in the stands at Fitton, my educated guess is that TPTB are making efforts to get more Worcesterites to the game and more would probably come to a game in Polar Park than Fitton even if fewer overall. I also think that the game this past season was not a sell out and they want those EBW games to be SRO. Though we don't know the time of the game, it will unquestionably be under the lights which we can't/won't do at Fitton.
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Post by HC92 on Jan 9, 2023 7:51:28 GMT -5
With Harvard at Polar Park, I suspect this means Homecoming and Family Weekend are Sept 23 and Oct 21. Not sure which will be which.
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Post by hchoops on Jan 9, 2023 10:05:52 GMT -5
Doesn’t Homecoming usually come first ? Sept 23 would be pretty early for parents to return after the late August drop off
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Post by HC92 on Jan 9, 2023 12:09:48 GMT -5
Doesn’t Homecoming usually come first ? Sept 23 would be pretty early for parents to return after the late August drop off That would be my guess. Students are also home for a week in early October.
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Post by hchoops on Jan 9, 2023 12:27:28 GMT -5
Would love to have 6, rather than 5 home games, but at least there is no home game during that October break.
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Post by nycrusader2010 on Jan 9, 2023 13:46:34 GMT -5
The more I think about it, the more I'm all about having Harvard be the Polar Park game on October 14th. The novelty of the event is eventually going to start to wear off at some point and we can't keep holding up our end of the deal with the Woo Sox if we schedule this game around the likes of Bucknell or Lafayette every year -- teams that people in Worcester don't care about. Harvard should be a slam dunk sellout (9500) and will be a raucous atmosphere under the lights. Harvard typically draws between 11K and 14K at Fitton but that's very often been Fall Homecoming as well. I think the fall schedule lines up for another solid round of attendance figures, assuming decent weather and a team that contends for another title.
Merrimack 9/2 -- home opener always draws fairly well and I expect Merrimack to bring our biggest road crowd of the season to Worcester =>10-11K Colgate 9/23 -- should be Homecoming => 11-12K Harvard 9/30 -- Polar Park sellout => 9500 Lafayette 10/21 -- Family Weekend; Is it considered a revenge game if we didn't actually lose last year? => 7K - 10K Georgetown 11/18 -- Hopefully we'll have already clinched -- otherwise this might be a "must-win and hope for help" type of game; Sr. day for Dobbs => 5K - 8K
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Post by longsuffering on Jan 9, 2023 14:24:50 GMT -5
The more I think about it, the more I'm all about having Harvard be the Polar Park game on October 14th. The novelty of the event is eventually going to start to wear off at some point and we can't keep holding up our end of the deal with the Woo Sox if we schedule this game around the likes of Bucknell or Lafayette every year -- teams that people in Worcester don't care about. Harvard should be a slam dunk sellout (9500) and will be a raucous atmosphere under the lights. Harvard typically draws between 11K and 14K at Fitton but that's very often been Fall Homecoming as well. I think the fall schedule lines up for another solid round of attendance figures, assuming decent weather and a team that contends for another title. Merrimack 9/2 -- home opener always draws fairly well and I expect Merrimack to bring our biggest road crowd of the season to Worcester =>10-11K Colgate 9/23 -- should be Homecoming => 11-12K Harvard 9/30 -- Polar Park sellout => 9500 Lafayette 10/21 -- Family Weekend; Is it considered a revenge game if we didn't actually lose last year? => 7K - 10K Georgetown 11/18 -- Hopefully we'll have already clinched -- otherwise this might be a "must-win and hope for help" type of game; Sr. day for Dobbs => 5K - 8K That will be Senior Day for Sluka, too. I would love to have him slithering in purple for five years but I don't see the logic of it. After his PG prep school year that would make him wait through six academic years after high school for his bachelor degree.
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Post by nycrusader2010 on Jan 9, 2023 14:30:35 GMT -5
I think Sluka comes back for a fifth year...unless it's so obvious after next season that he could enter the portal and be guaranteed the starting job at an FBS program.
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Post by KY Crusader 75 on Jan 9, 2023 14:31:47 GMT -5
Wouldn’t it be nice, a watershed moment, to see scalpers hawking HC-Harvard tickets at a nice markup outside Polar Park!
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Post by cmo on Jan 9, 2023 18:38:50 GMT -5
One change I’d like to see : Merrimack game moved to Thursday 8/31 at night at fitton.
Time to have another night game there.
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Post by sader1970 on Jan 9, 2023 18:42:58 GMT -5
Pretty sure one of the reasons, maybe not the #1 reason, we play at Polar Park is to have a game at night without having to rent lighting at Fitton.
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Post by HC92 on Jan 9, 2023 21:52:27 GMT -5
One change I’d like to see : Merrimack game moved to Thursday 8/31 at night at fitton. Time to have another night game there. Thought the same thing. I know we have Polar Park too but a night game at Fitton is special and should add a few thousand to the crowd.
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Post by efg72 on Jan 10, 2023 15:41:01 GMT -5
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Post by nycrusader2010 on Jan 10, 2023 15:52:13 GMT -5
One change I’d like to see : Merrimack game moved to Thursday 8/31 at night at fitton. Time to have another night game there. Thought the same thing. I know we have Polar Park too but a night game at Fitton is special and should add a few thousand to the crowd. And gives us 2 extra days to prep for BC, recover from minor injuries, etc.
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Post by cmo on Jan 10, 2023 16:54:28 GMT -5
When do students return to campus from summer vacation ?
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Post by bfoley82 on Jan 10, 2023 17:04:31 GMT -5
Why is this even posted in here? I didn't know Holy Cross joined the CAA. URI and UNH both have two flights this year. Maine on the other hand has five including trips to FIU and NDSU.
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Post by nycrusader2010 on Jan 10, 2023 17:15:49 GMT -5
When do students return to campus from summer vacation ? Usually freshman move-in day is the Saturday a week ahead of Labor Day Weekend. So my guess is it would be Saturday August 24th this year with classes starting Wednesday August 28th.
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Post by efg72 on Jan 10, 2023 17:22:47 GMT -5
Why is this even posted in here? I didn't know Holy Cross joined the CAA. URI and UNH both have two flights this year. Maine on the other hand has five including trips to FIU and NDSU. As I used to tell my children, I did it because I wanted to do it The CAA scheduling tells us as a community what we need to do moving forward if we want to satisfy the ncaa FCS committee. In most cases we are ahead of our CAA competition with our FBS games-unfortunately it is unknown or more likely we are just a NE school playing their game
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Post by bfoley82 on Jan 10, 2023 17:42:53 GMT -5
Why is this even posted in here? I didn't know Holy Cross joined the CAA. URI and UNH both have two flights this year. Maine on the other hand has five including trips to FIU and NDSU. As I used to tell my children, I did it because I wanted to do it The CAA scheduling tells us as a community what we need to do moving forward if we want to satisfy the ncaa FCS committee. In most cases we are ahead of our CAA competition with our FBS games-unfortunately it is unknown or more likely we are just a NE school playing their game I might be missing some but I only see five PL vs CAA games with Villanova playing Lehigh and Colgate while Fordham plays Albany and Stony Brook. The other game is Monmouth and Lafayette.
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Post by longsuffering on Jan 10, 2023 17:44:38 GMT -5
Why is this even posted in here? I didn't know Holy Cross joined the CAA. URI and UNH both have two flights this year. Maine on the other hand has five including trips to FIU and NDSU. As I used to tell my children, I did it because I wanted to do it The CAA scheduling tells us as a community what we need to do moving forward if we want to satisfy the ncaa FCS committee. In most cases we are ahead of our CAA competition with our FBS games-unfortunately it is unknown or more likely we are just a NE school playing their game Two games in one season against who would be the top two teams on my and perhaps many HC fans FBS wish list is almost too good to be true. Cultivating scheduling relationships with the small group of desired FBS opponents is important also. Which would you rate as better for HC if you had to choose between a desired FBS opponent or a CAA member to fill out the last available game in an upcoming HC FB season?
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Post by longsuffering on Jan 10, 2023 17:48:48 GMT -5
As I used to tell my children, I did it because I wanted to do it The CAA scheduling tells us as a community what we need to do moving forward if we want to satisfy the ncaa FCS committee. In most cases we are ahead of our CAA competition with our FBS games-unfortunately it is unknown or more likely we are just a NE school playing their game I might be missing some but I only see five PL vs CAA games with Villanova playing Lehigh and Colgate while Fordham plays Albany and Stony Brook. The other game is Monmouth and Lafayette. Do the New England CAA teams not want to play PL teams or do the PL teams not want to play them, or just a scheduling quirk that none of the three NE CAA teams play a PL team in this particular season?
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Post by nycrusader2010 on Jan 10, 2023 17:56:53 GMT -5
I might be missing some but I only see five PL vs CAA games with Villanova playing Lehigh and Colgate while Fordham plays Albany and Stony Brook. The other game is Monmouth and Lafayette. Do the New England CAA teams not want to play PL teams or do the PL teams not want to play them, or just a scheduling quirk that none of the three NE CAA teams play a PL team in this particular season? Maine -- no one wants to play them home and home because of the travel -- even HC. Which is why the Black Bears usually have to either schedule two FBS games, an FCS road guarantee game or host a DII in Orono. UNH - has obviously played Holy Cross a bunch of times in the regular season. URI - Playing HC home and home in 2024 and 2025.
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Post by longsuffering on Jan 10, 2023 18:23:05 GMT -5
Many dislike HC playing Merrimack and Bryant but those two football programs appear to be ascending to me. Sure, 'Nova, Delaware and W&M have more cachet now, but our neighboring FCS teams aren't tomato cans.
Google says Worcester to Orono is 273 mi and four hours and ten minutes driving while Worcester to Lewisburg is 336 miles and five hours and thirty-one minutes driving.
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Post by nycrusader2010 on Jan 10, 2023 19:05:25 GMT -5
Many dislike HC playing Merrimack and Bryant but those two football programs appear to be ascending to me. Sure, 'Nova, Delaware and W&M have more cachet now, but our neighboring FCS teams aren't tomato cans. Google says Worcester to Orono is 273 mi and four hours and ten minutes driving while Worcester to Lewisburg is 336 miles and five hours and thirty-one minutes driving. Difference being we have to play Bucknell because they're in our conference. Unfortunately for Maine, we have too many non-conference options within a much shorter driving distance. I personally would actually love a 4-game series with Maine -- 1 at Polar Park, 1 in Portland (the city football stadium behind the Seadogs stadium), 1 at Fitton, 1 in Orono. And I'm a big fan of playing Merrimack in all sports. Those against playing "lowly" Merrimack and Bryant are stuck in the past. Merrimack will bring more fans to Worcester than any other opponent in 2023.
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Post by sader1970 on Jan 10, 2023 19:58:13 GMT -5
I'm sure that's true because having been at games against Merrimack, home and away, they have great school spirit and pretty close by. That said, I'm a bit more interested in packing our place with Holy Cross fans, not opponents' fans. Might be just me.
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