OK, I get that this decision was forced on us financially, thanks to the incredible stupidity of our school and athletic administration in giving Diablo a contract extension worthy of Lombardi, but it has the potential to turn into a media disaster.
We get 22,000 of the 39,000 available tickets. BC gets 7,000 and Fenway gets 10,000, so in effect thats 17,000 tickets that BC fans will end up with right from the start.
What's going to happen with our allotment may largely depend on whether or not we're having any kind of success next season. We only have a 17,000 or 18,000 season ticket base as it currently is. Maybe we improve on that or maybe not, but they're not all going to show for this game. Maybe we get up to 10,000 of the hardcore fans. That leaves about 12,000 or more seats from our allotment up for grabs. If we have a losing record going in and the game is meaningless from a bowl qualification standpoint, I see most of those tickets ending up on the open market for BC fans to buy. They'll outnumber us by at least 2 to 1 in that case. Throw in another humiliating blowout loss, and as a practical matter the whole thing turns into a media disaster for us on national TV.
The flip side is we have a winning record going in, mostly sell out our allotment and we get about a 50/50 or better crowd. If we at least give them a game, win or lose, that's about the best I can see it turning out. I suppose the best case scenario for us could be if we have to win the game to become bowl eligible, making it very meaningful to our fanbase.
The other big question mark is the weather. At that time of year, anything is possible weather wise. Bad weather could turn it into a sparsely attended embarrassment.
I have grave doubts about the whole thing, because we get embarrassed again in a high profile game by a garbage program like BC and it just sets our whole program even further back in terms of national perception. I hope that risk is worth the million dollar payday award.
I'd rather see us play in State College. Everybody would expect us to get hammered, so losing by a big score means nothing, and you can get a similar guaranteed paycheck out of it, plus it's not so far that a fair number of our fans can make the trip. Losing big to BC again is nationally devastating.
I hope I'm wrong and it turns out to be a financial and competitive success for us.
