OT--CIAC exploring new venue for football championships

[kris1]

Norwich Bulletin

 

[EdgewoodNHV]

Bummer, but honestly, if you're looking at 5K people for these games, max, it really doesn't make sense to pay for The Rent. CCSU's field is a good fit for that big of an event, I'd say, and is pretty centrally located and easy to get to.

 

[freescooter]

I agree with this. Its a shame but on the other hand putting a couple of thousand in a venue designed for 40,000 is kind of silly. Central, Southern, UNH, even Trinity are all suitable venues, give kids the thrill of playing at College facilities. I know the Middletown and Xavier kids all get a thrill playing their thanksgiving day game at Wesleyan. New Haven's stadium seats 4500, Trinity seats 6500 Central holds around 5500. Jess Dow field at Southern holds 6000. all are college stadiums and all are more appropriately sized for this game. And all have turf fields so weather is less of a factor.

 

[huskyblooz]

I'm guessing Fairfield Ludlowe.

 

[dsturdy5]

Even high school teams won't play at the Rent. No chance of getting ND here now.

 

[Palatine]

What they should be exploring is how to up the attendance. Small minds.

 

[Bootsthemonkey]

And what exactly do you propose would drastically improve attendance numbers for a high school game?

 

[huskymedic]

And what exactly do you propose would drastically improve attendance numbers for a high school game?

Move it to Texas.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/hi...i-title-with-35-21-win-over-houston-lamar.ece

Love the Rent has a venue for the kids but it can't continue to be cost prohibitive.

 

[uconnbill]

I played my state championship game at Southington High many years ago. While it was a nice field it couldn't compare to running out on the field where UConn plays. It is a big deal for the players to play there and yet we are going backwards instead of thinking how to get more people into the games. Typical small time Connecticut thinking.

 

[huskyblooz]

where do the players want to play?
Most of em will never play another game in their life. A few of them will play D3 or D2 and maybe a handful play D1 (out of the 8 teams).

But the CIAC will always make the wrong decision for the players. Always!

 

[EdgewoodNHV]

where do the players want to play?
Most of em will never play another game in their life. A few of them will play D3 or D2 and maybe a handful play D1 (out of the 8 teams).

But the CIAC will always make the wrong decision for the players. Always!

The CIAC has to consider costs, too. I assume they do not have an unlimited budget. Every dollar spent on a mostly-empty stadium comes out of the pocket of something else. Our state barely has the football culture to fill the stadium for actual college football, nevermind high school games.

 

[freescooter]

The CIAC has to consider costs, too. I assume they do not have an unlimited budget. Every dollar spent on a mostly-empty stadium comes out of the pocket of something else. Our state barely has the football culture to fill the stadium for actual college football, nevermind high school games.

That is the point. And nobody is saying move the games to a parking lot behind Walmart, for heaven's sake. They are being moved to a recently upgraded facility on a college campus where a college team plays its games. Though if I recall way back in ancient history, when I was competing for a state championship in high school, I'd have done it in a parking lot behind the Walmart if that's where they held the thing.

 

[Dann]

What they should be exploring is how to up the attendance. Small minds.

i wish i could sit in a room with the ct sports ppl in charge and just smack the out of them. shotclocks, 75 not 50 point rule etc etc....change everything. but anyway

why can't some one with some balls in the convo say, well instead of killing a great event off slowly, lets try to build it? why can't we do that type of thing. let me 1st say, i have not attended the event. with that being said, we play a couple ship fball games for each class on the field and its a 1 ticket all games type deal right? and we seem to be getting north of 5k? ok so how do we curve that?

i feel thats its extemely important from multipe sides for this to be done the opposite way they are doing it. its in uconns best interest that this game is played at the rent. its also in the ciacs as its prime time opportunitys....

so curve the follwoing. how? i think the state and uconn need to work together on this one. what i'm thinking is some type of day set up for all sophs and frosh playing hs football in the state. of that # of thousands, realsitically only 100 would actually be playing fball that day at the most so i think this is a good idea as a start. what we should aim to do is get all those kids to the rent that day as a "early look day" at the college expierence. set up busses for teams from every hs and there families. make the tickets break even with the busses and the expierence for the day. let uconn ppl or rent/state ppl tour the rent and have thinsg set up by uconn and all other ct colleges about college football from d1 to d3 levels. make it educational and worthy while to every recruit. your talking about thousands of kids and there families. there is huge potential. along with this you have state championship games being played. what u are doing is breeding a culture of hs fball being important. you can set up big tailgates and other events also. small time thnking vs big time thinking. vision. leadership. i'm sure ppl can come up with better ideas and delivery then i can, but it pains me watching this state take backward steps.

 

[freescooter]

HFD,

I'm not sure how this is all that important to UConn, and I say that for a few reasons. First UConn doesn't even own the stadium. They are a tenant, so I'm not sure there is much they could do. But even assuming they can can use their influence, this is just too costly a facility to operate for 1500- 2500 people. It doesn't do the players any favors, nor the CIAC nor anyone. A couple of coaches get their jollies by getting to coach on a field that they'll never see, well few if any will get to coach at Central either. And that is a very nice facility. And if you bring 3500 to Central, where you are paying 1/10 the rent if that, it seems like a huge crown. At the Rent it is absurd. When you only have 1200, as you might for a class S game, it is almost vacant. When you're talking about these small schools from really small towns, it is tough. In other states where they have larger regional high schools that absolutely dwarf our larger schools, they can draw big crowds. But when the entire student body is a couple of hundred kids, you will never draw.

 

[Dann]

HFD,

I'm not sure how this is all that important to UConn, and I say that for a few reasons. First UConn doesn't even own the stadium. They are a tenant, so I'm not sure there is much they could do. But even assuming they can can use their influence, this is just too costly a facility to operate for 1500- 2500 people. It doesn't do the players any favors, nor the CIAC nor anyone. A couple of coaches get their jollies by getting to coach on a field that they'll never see, well few if any will get to coach at Central either. And that is a very nice facility. And if you bring 3500 to Central, where you are paying 1/10 the rent if that, it seems like a huge crown. At the Rent it is absurd. When you only have 1200, as you might for a class S game, it is almost vacant. When you're talking about these small schools from really small towns, it is tough. In other states where they have larger regional high schools that absolutely dwarf our larger schools, they can draw big crowds. But when the entire student body is a couple of hundred kids, you will never draw.

well thats all part of restructuring hs sports in CT. there needs to be a major overhaul of epic porportions. if uconn wa ssmart, they would find it in there best interest to help mold it. the amount of future athletes and students that uconn could effect should be worth it to the school to lead the charge.