Dan Shaughnessy dismisses UConn.

[ivrytontusker]

Um, Rhode Island is in New England and the attendance in Providence has been just fine. URI had hundreds of people at the airport last night to welcome URI back from Pittsburgh. Not so simple...

Right, because it is a novelty. Whether we can say it "matters" depends on what things look like at URI even when the team stinks. It's not that they couldn't build that kind of fanbase, but it isn't there yet.

Of course Providence and BC have had success in the past. They don't today, and, in any case, do not have the statewide profile that UConn has. This map illustrates the situation: Connecticut looks more like Ohio, Wisconsin, Louisiana, etc., than the rest of New England. (Admittedly, that is about football, but the point stands.)

 

[Danzz]

College sports in Boston and (except for hockey if anybody cares) is non existent.

 

[FriarJ]

Right, because it is a novelty. Whether we can say it "matters" depends on what things look like at URI even when the team stinks. It's not that they couldn't build that kind of fanbase, but it isn't there yet.

Of course Providence and BC have had success in the past. They don't today, and, in any case, do not have the statewide profile that UConn has. This map illustrates the situation: Connecticut looks more like Ohio, Wisconsin, Louisiana, etc., than the rest of New England. (Admittedly, that is about football, but the point stands.)

You saying CT. is the only state in NE that cares about college sports is simply not true. RI cares plenty. PC's attendance numbers over the years confirm this. They have their own beat writers from 2 of the state's newspapers including another newspaper located in SE Mass. Only UConn beats this. RI absolutely cares about college sports. Not at the level that CT. cares about them but certainly to say they don't care about them is simply not true.