Rentschler Stadium expansion

[UConnDan97]

Well to some of us, the notion that people would take a religion as seriously as I take my college football is equally as ridiculous.

The elitist attitude - because that's what it is - that us in the Northeast are so much more culturally refined and that's why we don't like college football as much is bogus too and pretty condescending. If some guy from Florida saw a drunken fight between some lunatic Yankees and Sox fans they may say the same about us.

But the Yankee fan won the fight, right? Yeah, I'm clearly refined...

 

[ConnHuskBask]

But the Yankee fan won the fight, right? Yeah, I'm clearly refined...

Of course! Went to the game Sat with my Dad (Yankee fan too) and cousin (Met fan). Needless to say we were talking smack all weekend haha!

 

[ZooCougar]

Everyone I have been to has been erector setish, including the rent

That would make sense, if erector sets were made out of concrete.

 

[Waquoit]

The elitist attitude - because that's what it is - that us in the Northeast are so much more culturally refined and that's why we don't like college football as much is bogus too and pretty condescending.

I didn't say or imply that those in the Northeast don't like college football. That's not true, I haven't missed a game in over a decade. What I did say is that the Northeast as a whole will ever have the same depth of feeling for the game as they have in other parts of the country so why worry about it?

 

[Chin Diesel]

Football is not a religion and I am glad I don't live in a place where it is treated as such. I like living in a place where football is a part of life, not folks entire life. That's never going to happen here and I'm not going to worry about it.

Don't knock it til you've tried it. lol.

It is re-assuring to know that none of your family, friends or co-workers is silly enough to schedule anything of significance during the fall without first checking the football schedule. It makes weekends so easy. Unrequited love of college football down here may be the best thing to happen to relationships since the DVR and pausing of live TV.

 

[Waquoit]

The elitist attitude - because that's what it is - that us in the Northeast are so much more culturally refined and that's why we don't like college football as much is bogus too and pretty condescending.

But I will tell you what's truly condecending and elitist. It's condecending for one program to try to get another program to move a game to a neutral site solely because they think the stadium capacity is beneath them. And it's elitest when some self-proclaimed UConn fan is fine with the insult saying things like "People that want to take some stance about UConn plays at the Rent only - get off your high horse." Talk about big-timing your fellow fans.

 

[thatguyed]

and greatly increase buses from campus to bring in the kids. As a freshman, my daughter could only get to one game thanks to buses filling up and/or leaving campus way too early for kids who can't gate.

 

[EdgewoodNHV]

Watch 20 seconds of this and you'll have your answer to "so '' what".

And you think a clip from a pre-game marching band performance against an FCS opponent that was delayed twice for emergency reasons is an acceptable representation of our attendance problems?

 

[Waquoit]

So what? I guess it's all about how UConn is perceived by the viewing public and the opinion makers.

When I went to the UM game, more people left the game early than can fit into The Rent. Nobody cared.

 

[huskymedic]

When I went to the UM game, more people left the game early than can fit into The Rent. Nobody cared.

They don't care because they can then spread out more on the benches and be comfortable watching the rest of the game. Christ - we could double the Rent capacity if we used the Michigan seat "backside" measurements!

 

[ConnHuskBask]

But I will tell you what's truly condecending and elitist. It's condecending for one program to try to get another program to move a game to a neutral site solely because they think the stadium capacity is beneath them. And it's elitest when some self-proclaimed UConn fan is fine with the insult saying things like "People that want to take some stance about UConn plays at the Rent only - get off your high horse." Talk about big-timing your fellow fans.

It has nothing to do with The Rent's capacity. Michigan doesn't want to play out of conference road games besides ND. Michigan stands to make money buy buying out UConn for $2M and scheduling a home game with directional Michigan. It's that simple.

If you want to play Toledo, be my guest. I'd rather suck it up and play Michigan anywhere, because it's better for the program.

 

[Pudge]

We should be at 55,000.

Rutgers did it ... and put together the financing with paper clips & rubber bands. Tom Jurich at Louisville pushed it through with strong sponsorship. Hathaway made a bunch of big mistakes ... and this is one. And, don't tell me you can only do one Capital Improvement at a time; that's BS. Do the Practice Facility; the Hockey East improvement; and keep Football tops. All now.

 

[Carl Spackler]

In September 2013, we will +10 years since the first game was played at Rentschler. The stadium, should be able to seat full originially designed capacity by then - regardless of what our schedule is that year.

It could have, should have been done by now, but the ball was dropped, but there's still time. We'll see what comes of it.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

In September 2013, we will +10 years since the first game was played at Rentschler. The stadium, should be able to seat full originially designed capacity by then - regardless of what our schedule is that year.

It could have, should have been done by now, but the ball was dropped, but there's still time. We'll see what comes of it.

The only ball that was dropped was by the fans who don't fill it up for every game. Until that happens, there is no reason to expand, and will make us look even worse. Having 15K empty seats per game in a larger stadium makes your program look bad on TV and in perception as opposed to having 100% capacity all the time in a smaller facility.

 

[Pudge]

The only ball that was dropped was by the fans who don't fill it up for every game. Until that happens, there is no reason to expand, and will make us look even worse. Having 15K empty seats per game in a larger stadium makes your program look bad on TV and in perception as opposed to having 100% capacity all the time in a smaller facility.

Wrong.

We are in a Arms Race. We made the investment to get to the highest levels of CFB; we simply need to keep that in focus. Capital Markets are a fluid thing ... we saw our peers move. Why do you think they did that? Were they also thinking about 15k empty seats? Perception? I think it was important to keep momentum with the UCONN football program ... and people just rationalized the opportunity away.

 

[FAIRTIDES]

The easiest way to guarantee 55K butts on most Saturdays is to be in a confernce where Penn St, Ohio St and Michigan will be playing every year against Uconn or Rutgers.

Uconn going to the B1G and being in a division that most likely would include most (or all) of PSU, Michigan, MSU, Ohio St, Purdue, Rutgers and Indiana is the easiest way to ensure 55K fans. All but Purdue and IU are probably easy sellouts.

Any other plan going forward is difficult for me to see adding up to 15K more fans than we regularly get now.

Right now, the only reason justifying expansion of 15K or 15K plus is a signed offer from another conference having expansion as a prerequisite.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Apparently, I wasn't clear enough.

So here goes again:

In September 2013, we will +10 years since the first game was played at Rentschler. The stadium, should be able to seat full originially designed capacity by then - regardless of what our schedule is that year... OR OUR CONFERENCE AFFILIATION in 2013.

It could have, should have been done by now, but the ball was dropped, but there's still time. We'll see what comes of it.

 

[BlueMAB]

Apparently, I wasn't clear enough.

So here goes again:

In September 2013, we will +10 years since the first game was played at Rentschler. The stadium, should be able to seat full originially designed capacity by then - regardless of what our schedule is that year... OR OUR CONFERENCE AFFILIATION in 2013.

It could have, should have been done by now, but the ball was dropped, but there's still time. We'll see what comes of it.

The caps don't make it any easier to understand, the first two sentences are simply incoherent.

I think we should expand the stadium, it will show the other conferences we are serious about our football upgrade, and are not going to let the fall of the Big East make our original investment a complete waste of money.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

The caps don't make it any easier to understand, the first two sentences are simply incoherent.

I think we should expand the stadium, it will show the other conferences we are serious about our football upgrade, and are not going to let the fall of the Big East make our original investment a complete waste of money.

Sure worked for ECU.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Stadium size won't me squat for getting into a conference.

UConn needs to win consistently and beat ranked / blue blood programs whenever we get the chance. No , right?

Those are the only things that are going to increase tv eyeballs for UConn games and ultimately that's the only thing that matters for conference expansion.

Not market. Not academics. Not stadium size. Not basketball. Not hockey. Not women's basketball.

TV eye-balls.

Win consistently and beat big names is the only way to improve our position which is why I'm beside myself that people would consider dropping a game with a likely ranked Michigan on ABC/ESPN team for Akron/Kent State/Directional Michigan on SNY/ESPN3.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Stadium size won't me squat for getting into a conference.

UConn needs to win consistently and beat ranked / blue blood programs whenever we get the chance. No , right?

Those are the only things that are going to increase tv eyeballs for UConn games and ultimately that's the only thing that matters for conference expansion.

Not market. Not academics. Not stadium size. Not basketball. Not hockey. Not women's basketball.

TV eye-balls.

Win consistently and beat big names is the only way to improve our position which is why I'm beside myself that people would consider dropping a game with a likely ranked Michigan on ABC/ESPN team for Akron/Kent State/Directional Michigan on SNY/ESPN3.

The flip side of the coin is that we won't be able to attract blue bloods to the Rent in the future if it doesn't expand.

 

[Waquoit]

The flip side of the coin is that we won't be able to attract blue bloods to the Rent in the future if it doesn't expand.

Or if we make it known that we will play home games in another state.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

The flip side of the coin is that we won't be able to attract blue bloods to the Rent in the future if it doesn't expand.

Stadium capacity has nothing to do with it. Why would Michigan care about UConn's home attendance? They receive nothing from our gate.

Or if we make it known that we will play home games in another state.

I can't tell if you're being difficult on purpose or just totally ignorant to the changing landscape of college football.

-Pac12, Big10, SEC, Big12 are all moving to 9 game conference schedules.
-Pac12, Big10 have a scheduling arrangement and many feel the SEC,Big12 will have a similar deal.
-So that leaves 2 games a year to schedule for the Big 4 conferences.
-The Big4 conferences will more than likely schedule a rival, fcs or a mac/sunbelt, fcs games at home. Pay out chump change to those teams and fill your 70,000+ seat stadium and make bank all while putting 2 wins in the bag.
-Our future OOC is going to look pretty bleak as it's going to be a lot of FCS, MAC, ACC because of this. (I realize we have Tennessee scheduled - that was before this. Also to note they come to The Rent first).
-Not only will scheduling OOC games vs. top tier programs be tough, but the bowl structure looks to be going through a face lift with no more BCS. The Big East Champ in most years would hope to play the ACC Champion.
-So, aside from the fact that the only teams that can command neutral sites games as return trips you can count on your hand, who is going to demand we play our games in Giants Stadium? Fcking Georgia Tech? This doesn't set a precedent because a) only a few teams have the national cache to pull it off, b) we're not going to be in a position to schedule those teams regularly anyway.

My bottom line as it's always been is this:

I want the game at The Rent - badly.

Is it worth it to scrap the game all together as a matter of principal or pride? No.

Signature wins define programs - where the do you see us playing a ranked national power on a stage as big as Giants Stadium after reading the above list?

 

[Waquoit]

We get your point, CHB. And I still disagree. Your bullet points are meaningless. If we set-up a neutral site game in the future, fine. But we did Michigan a favor, we lived up to our side of the deal and they can do the same. Principle is, in fact, more important than any one game. That's why if we capitulate, I ain't going. It will be the first "home" game I miss in the D-1 era.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Stadium capacity has nothing to do with it. Why would Michigan care about UConn's home attendance? They receive nothing from our gate.

Because much like Uconn treated games at Michigan and NDU, teams want their OOC games to be big draws for their fanbase.

It's not uncommon for schools to send 20K-30K to marquee away games. No visiting team is going to get more than 5K tickets to the Rent and that's not what most schools want for their OOC games.


Good job on the previous AD to secure games at the Rent against Michigan and Tennessee, but we haven't had any new high-level OOC games announced in a couple of years.