I agree Danny is most likely driving some of this and that’s a coach’s role. Dave’s job IMO is to sit him down and say we need to make good financial decisions to pay your salary.
2024-2025 Schedule to be Released Today
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I agree and this is coming from a XL hater
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AD Dave spoke about the split between XL and Gampel on the CT Scoreboard Podcast. Nothing we didn't know already but I am happy enough to see he didn't duck the question. Big East gives us a schedule that we can't control in terms of dates and opponents. XL schedules events ahead of time, though UConn tries to block out dates where we envision having games. Dave acknowledges it is important that XL books other events because they need to do well financially to warrant the improvements we need in the arena. Says UConn tries to schedule XL games over winter break. They try to balance it but doesn't always work out exactly as fans want.
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As an XL season-ticket holder, Dave’s answers on the podcast do little to make this situation better.
+ He starts by saying “not to cop out” then cops out by blaming the Big East giving us dates plus the XL Center (though he understands why) needing to book a year in advance.
So let’s get this straight: For decades this venue split has existed and this level of disparity has never occurred but this time, it just so happens they could not make even a single marquee Big East matchup work in Hartford.
+ He then glosses over how even after knowing the Big East schedule at XL is clearly considerably worse, they still made the decision to put the premier non-conference game at Gampel and give XL ticket holders an extra KenPom 300+ game.
+ He admits it is fair to say the schedule is unbalanced — an understatement, to say the least — but that things change from preseason projections (Sure, Dave maybe we’ll all look back and have a good laugh when G’Town, DePaul and a KenPom 300 outperform Baylor, Creighton and St. John’s this season) and offers that maybe the schedule has been unbalanced like this before.
As I said earlier in this thread, I have run numbers by venue when the split is announced and it has not looked anything like this in either direction.
Dave runs a major college athletic dept., this information should already be on hand and it would take an intern an hour or two to look into that instead of just offering it up as a maybe sorta could be fact.
+ He then adds a “Well, this is a great chance to see UConn go undefeated at the XL, haha.”
This is the back-to-back national champions, not some plucky mid-major, we expect to see them win. We got to see them go undefeated at XL last season while playing a representative schedule including dominating the Marquette showdown, destroying Xavier and Pitino’s St. John’s trip in.
We put our money down with an expectation of a fair value when the split comes out. The AD is admitting that did not happen this time.
+ Which leads to the most important point: Where is the make-good attempt? If you run a business and you disappoint your customers, you make it up to them.
It wouldn’t take a whole lot to admit this was a blunder and offer something to show you care. A signed basketball, tickets to a women’s or football game, anything that says “We know we let you down and this is a program that has championship standards in every aspect, so we are doing the best we can to live up to that.”
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Waquoit
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It's not. I don't get why they are intent on sticking it to their most loyal fans.
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This could be the funniest thing I've read on the Boneyard in a decade
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UConn has offered free tickets to women's basketball, football and hockey as a thank you/small perk to basketball season-ticket holders regularly over the years along for specific sports of interest during donor rep convos. It's a very simple way to take likely unused inventory and make donors feel like they are getting something of value.
I have an honest question so please do not take this as an attack. What do you define as a "most loyal fan?"
Most of the state lives south and west of Hartford. I know many people that only buy Hartford seats because Storrs is too inconvenient. I would say someone willing to drive an extra 40 minutes to Gampel might be considered most loyal.
How about fans that have seats at both locations? They go to twice as many games. If you have seats at both locations, the schedule split is actually favorable, as many of the GP games are on the weekend.
What about fans that faithfully watch on tv because they cannot go to live games? GP is unquestionably a better venue when it comes to tv. It is brighter. Cameras are closer to the court. Picture quality is better. Regardless of the actual environment, GP gives the appearance of a livelier crowd when watching on tv.
Can financial support be part of loyalty? Lower bowl season ticket holders spend 9 - 10 times as much on tickets as value package fans. My unscientific observation is that many, dare I say most, lower bowl holders in Hartford also have GP seats. Many also pony up for football seats. I have chairbacks at Rentschler at roughly $100/seat per game after the seat donation. The same seats are on sale at Costco for $25.
I think the funny part is actually expecting Benedict to admit fault. When they really screwed over long time season ticket holders by essentially eliminating the priority point system in favor of the seat donation model, he was wholly unapologetic, as he was when he raised the seat donation requirement literally as soon as he possibly could.
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What would be nice is if they would release the TIMES of the games. I have several conflicts for game days but without knowing the times I don't know if it is a problem or not. Any ideas as to when the times will be released? Its a little over a month away. They must have this info by now. I just emailed the ticket office asking this same question.
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Last season they announced the full schedule together with times, venues, and TV information on September 27. So since they just released the full schedule with venues but without the times and TV information this year, I'm assuming they're waiting for the broadcasters (i.e. Fox) to tell the Big East what times they want to televise games.
Waquoit
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Hartford fans have been there from the beginning. They packed the place when Dom Perno was the coach. They were there during the dark days. Look at the early and pre-Hurley Gampel games. The lower bowl was rarely more than 50% full, especially weeknights. And those tickets were sold. Fans that go to games even when they are not world-beaters are the most loyal fans, imo.