If we don't get close to a full house we got a problem

[pepband99]

Couldn't disagree more. UConn sports are a pastime, not an obligation. UConn football was sold as being part of the bigtime, not this joke of a home schedule. UConn screwed the pooch for football from Day 1. They did nothing to engender loyalty so the fans have responded in kind. The fannies in the are the core. Its up to UConn to build from there.

...then you're the problem. You can join nelson with the "drop the football" brigade, and watch UConn basketball turn into PC. Support in all sports will benefit basketball. It's really not that hard.

 

[NYUConn]

Couldn't disagree more. UConn sports are a pastime, not an obligation. UConn football was sold as being part of the bigtime, not this joke of a home schedule. UConn screwed the pooch for football from Day 1. They did nothing to engender loyalty so the fans have responded in kind. The fannies in the are the core. Its up to UConn to build from there.

That is such an absolutely absurd statement.

You're right we should have sold UConn football with expectations that we have today:

"UConn Football: come for the 3-win seasons, stay for ECU during homecoming."

 

[Duncan Idaho]

...then you're the problem. You can join nelson with the "drop the football" brigade, and watch UConn basketball turn into PC. Support in all sports will benefit basketball. It's really not that hard.

Nelson goes.

 

[Excalibur]

...then you're the problem. You can join nelson with the "drop the football" brigade, and watch UConn basketball turn into PC. Support in all sports will benefit basketball. It's really not that hard.

I think he's referring more to the pricing structure at the beginning and failure to modify it with the times as attendance started to dwindle. They didn't make it easy to stick around once the product started to deteriorate.

 

[Waquoit]

...then you're the problem.

No one on Earth has been to more UConn games in The Rent than I have. I'm responsible for the sale of about 300 or so tickets over years. And I'm the problem?

 

[pepband99]

I think he's referring more to the pricing structure at the beginning and failure to modify it with the times as attendance started to dwindle. They didn't make it easy to stick around once the product started to deteriorate.

...and yet worse ticket pricing schemes in basketball, which have been similarly impactful, go by the wayside (because it's a "pastime?").

I get it - our AD has sucked. However, our fanbase has sucked more. Blaming the AD is a copout.

 

[noeynox]

...then you're the problem. You can join nelson with the "drop the football" brigade, and watch UConn basketball turn into PC. Support in all sports will benefit basketball. It's really not that hard.

But he's not wrong that uconn football has effed up football at every turn. I've discussed here how they screwed my seats that I was in from day 1 of the rent, 3 years ago. That more than anything caused the last 2 guys with me to stop renewing. They have to stop screwing the pooch if they really want to build this,thing right.

 

[pepband99]

But he's not wrong that uconn football has effed up football at every turn. I've discussed here how they screwed my seats that I was in from day 1 of the rent, 3 years ago. That more than anything caused the last 2 guys with me to stop renewing. They have to stop screwing the pooch if they really want to build this,thing right.

No argument from me. We're certainly not helping ourselves.

 

[NYUConn]

But he's not wrong that uconn football has effed up football at every turn. I've discussed here how they screwed my seats that I was in from day 1 of the rent, 3 years ago. That more than anything caused the last 2 guys with me to stop renewing. They have to stop screwing the pooch if they really want to build this,thing right.

I agree you need to make adjustments as situations change, but to knock the program for selling it as top rate and competitive is ridiculous. That's what the situation was when we jumped to FBS. We were heading into a BCS conference with Miami, Virginia Tech and BC. I mean don't forget, Miami was coming off a run of success that was absurd including a National title and a 34-game winning streak. They were on the schedule.

The program was right to sell UConn football as big time from a factual standpoint, but also from a practical standpoint you don't ever market something as being "second best" it would have been insane to sell the program as making the jump to FBS and playing "pretty good" football.

A lot of awful decisions have been made since 2010, but it's unfair to claim that we were misled as to what we were getting from the beginning.

 

[Waquoit]

I've discussed here how they screwed my seats that I was in from day 1 of the rent, 3 years ago. That more than anything caused the last 2 guys with me to stop renewing. They have to stop screwing the pooch if they really want to build this,thing right.

You are far from alone. They've done that in hoops as well going back to Perkins. They've alienated great core fans, while courting shiny new ones. That works in good times, not so much in lean times when the bandwagon jumpers find new toys and the fans you pissed off are done with you.

 

[UMass]

My wife and I renewed our 2 ST's. We tailgate with 5 couples from her office at UConn and albeit a very small sample size, there is a ton of excitement and anticipation for this season from our group. I honestly believe UConn turns a corner this year and gets back on the right track. I can't guess a number of wins, but I am willing to bet they wins the games they are supposed to win and stay competitive in the others. Steal a couple of those and I don't think a 6 or 7 win season is out of the question.
Besides, we also have ST's to UMass and they have a bye in the first week and start out at Colorado. I can't make it until Sept. 19th without football...so I can't wait!!

 

[Jerry27]

Football is football. I enjoyed the d1aa days at Memorial as much as the d1a games at the Rent. I root for the Huskies no matter what. A good game is a good game and a bad game is a bad game no matter what the level and venue.

I'm with you, (bring back the fries in the dog bowl!!!) I not a fan because of who we play or how convenient it is for me or how drunk I can get (Fiesta Bowl is my peak in that regard, called Ole JR from WWE JB he corrected me and I said whatever let's take picture).

I very rarely miss a game, there is nothing better to do in the fall on a Saturday and I don't cave to others schedules, ask my wife and kids, they have dance or soccer, OK fine let me know how it went, I'll see if I can get a couple of people to go with me! And I also don't understand how people that only follow one team can't see it's to the detriment of the entire athletic department to not support the football program, mind numbingly stupid IMO.

 

[noeynox]

@NYUConn read @Waquoit reply to me. It gets to the heart of the matter. They effed me out of my seats, probably by human error, but effed me non the less. Sold my tickets to someone else and by the time the tickets arrived late that summer, it was too late to do anything other give me other seats. It wouldn't have killed them to comp me a few chair backs on the house to a game or two. They offered nothing but other seats and as a result lost two guys and 5 total season tickets. Screwed the pooch.

 

[NYUConn]

@noeynox Not defending that at all and you're far from alone when it comes to that. They have made any number of abysmal decisions that have ruined the game day experience for fans. Remember DJ Joey?

What I am taking issue with is this part of what @Waquoit 's initial post said:

UConn football was sold as being part of the bigtime, not this joke of a home schedule. UConn screwed the pooch for football from Day 1.

This is just not only factually incorrect, but it would have been an even bigger mistake by the school to not sell fans on the program being bigtime. I mean who wants to see "second rate" football?

The issue is that things changed and the school and program did nothing to adjust. That is where the real crime is IMO.

 

[HuskyHawk]

The bigger underlying problem (imo) is that a good majority of UConn Basketball fans are just that. They're not UCONN fans, simply UConn BBall fans and fail to crossover. That type of cherry picking which teams you root for needs to end. We need to support ALL sports.

Most UConn basketball fans know full well that the future of UConn hoops is linked to the football team. I confess that I didn't go to every football game from 84-88 while a student, although I missed close to zero home basketball games. It's not a majority. There are a few UConn basketball fans, a minority, that don't support the football team. But most fans of both types have lives that lead them toward watching on TV. Remember, even if every fan who goes to the XL goes to the Rent, you are less than 50% capacity.

 

[blue93]

Most UConn basketball fans know full well that the future of UConn hoops is linked to the football team. I confess that I didn't go to every football game from 84-88 while a student, although I missed close to zero home basketball games. It's not a majority. There are a few UConn basketball fans, a minority, that don't support the football team. But most fans of both types have lives that lead them toward watching on TV. Remember, even if every fan who goes to the XL goes to the Rent, you are less than 50% capacity.

You think it's the same fans at every game at XL? Tens of thousands (maybe even hundreds of thousands) of different people go to see our basketball teams play each year, mens and womens. If a bigger portion of them supported the football team by just going to a game or two per year, we'd be in much better shape than we are attendance wise.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Can we just let this argument die?

Here - for the last time:

The last sell out that happened because of a winning football team was the final home game of the 2010 season. We had just under 38,000 for opening night against UMASS in 2011 if I remember correctly. That's 4 seasons ago, and after Edsall had already skipped town after the Fiesta Bowl. As the draw of our regular conference opponents went away from 2011-2013, with the changing conferences thereafter combined with our tailspin downward and failure to maintain winning at home - attendance fell off the charts.

Shortly after the start of 2011 season, if memory serves - that was the fall that Syracuse, Pittsburgh, and West Virginia followed Miami's, Boston College's and Virginia Tech's footsteps out the Big East door after Villanova - the same Villanova we see in 48 hours - punted the upgrade offer to join the big east pathetically in the spring, after drawing out the deadline and upgrade offer for nearly 2 years or something since 2009-2010 when we nearly had TCU as aconference partner in addition to the Big East. The garbage that Villanova brought to the table that was supposed to make the Big East a 10 program league, with TCU as well, but was inexcusable, and the final straw, nail, whatever you want to call it. Syracuse and Pitt were in the ACC less than 4 months after Villanova brought that proposal.

We are 5-19 in the past 2 seasons.

If we have 15,000 people in the stadium for Thursday night, that's realistic for where we're at. If we can get 20,000+ through the gates (50% capacity) after the fall of the apst 4 seasons, that would be remarkable. There is absolutely no reason to be concerned about attendance, until we are back to where we were at in 2010 as a relevant competitive program. If we get back to that level of football, and the stadium is empty? That's just not going to happen. We aren't Boston College, or Syracuse. We are UCONN. The concern, is that if we continue to the bed, by October, Nov of every year - the stadium will be populated by friends and family and that's it. That's the culture we live in. Win, and you will be loved and followed. Lose, and it's good your mom and dad love you.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Just for kicks - I don't know if the number is accurate, but espn.com box score from the final game of 2012, a 34-17 sleepwalk of a game vs. Cincy when bowl eligibility was still on the line.

Attendanc efor that game was 33,112. Up until that time, I think we were still announcing actual gate counts. That changed for certain by the end of 2013. We had a number of 37,861 published for USF game in Oct of 2013, which might just be the last time they used actual gate counts. that's just a guess, but that was a beautiful day. We had a walk on senior TE drop a sure TD in the endzone. Ugg. Thinking of that is going to get me started again on Edsall and recruiting. Ick. We need to start winning games again.

BYU was well attended last year.

This season's ticket sales and attendance are simply going to be a reflection of the decision by the program coaches and athletic department administrators to treat last season as a throwaway season.

 

[Carl Spackler]

we had 22,000 and change for the Rutgers game in Nov. 2013, and 17,000 for the finale against Memphis. 2-9 team at the time on an interim head coach.

We legitimately have an issue here where we will draw the same, or less for the opener in 2015 than we had for the final in 2013.

If you want throw attendance problems around as an issue - it's not UCONN fans that are to blame. Something happened in 2014, that really turned off the fan base.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

...then you're the problem. You can join nelson with the "drop the football" brigade, and watch UConn basketball turn into PC. Support in all sports will benefit basketball. It's really not that hard.

That's right. The bad fans are the ones going to the games. Got it.

By the way, this year's "dream" home schedule is courtesy of the AAC proponents like you. We really need to be in a conference to get a schedule like this one?

 

[NYUConn]

Something happened in 2014, that really turned off the fan base.

2-10 record with a loss to Army in early November was the nail in the coffin. Diaco came in with a lot of hype and the team got worst. That's enough to turn casual fans off.

 

[sdhusky]

We really need to be in a conference to get a schedule like this one?

If you live in the real world? Yes.

If you think Stanley Robinson wasn't athletic enough for the BE, who knows???

 

[pepband99]

That's right. The bad fans are the ones going to the games. Got it.

By the way, this year's "dream" home schedule is courtesy of the AAC proponents like you. We really need to be in a conference to get a schedule like this one?

Not what I said, nor what I implied. Par for course with you.

I've been to ask many football games as just about anybody here, so you can park your high horse somewhere else.

Want to blame the game quality for someone not coming? Somewhat excuseable. Team quality moreso. But, the AD? Again, they've been just as inept everywhere else.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I didn't go to the SMU game last year, and I'm not alone among UCONN season ticket holders. Those that were there will tell you how many showed, and it wasn't much better than a high school football game. The performance on the field against Cincinnati last year was disgusting. The team struggled for life for 2 month, but as soon as the bowl game was gone after the Army game, it all went to , and for the first time in a long, long time that I can remember, we clearly regressed as a program, from beginning of season to end.

That's where we are coming from folks.

That's all in the past though, we got a new season and new team and a game to play. We'll see. I just get tired of these discussions about attendance. Attendance is going to reflect the quality of the product on the field - that's the way it works in CT.

 

[Waquoit]

What I am taking issue with is this part of what @Waquoit 's initial post said:

UConn football was sold as being part of the bigtime, not this joke of a home schedule. UConn screwed the pooch for football from Day 1.

This is just not only factually incorrect, but it would have been an even bigger mistake by the school to not sell fans on the program being bigtime. I mean who wants to see "second rate" football?

I was trying to figure out what your heartburn was and this post explains it. I combined two issues in my post. First, UConn sold big-time football upfront and now that it is no longer big-time it has lost the casual fan. Now this may not have been so bad if UConn had nurtured the growing fanbase from the start. Instead, UConn got piggy and wildly overcharged for the good seats. They didn't sell. Meanwhile, the preferred seats sold out in one day. The program started their D-1 journey in the hole. Having said that, it will come back if we get into a P-5 league. Nothing else will do. Not even winning the AAC. No one gives a crap about the AAC.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

I was trying to figure out what your heartburn was and this post explains it. I combined two issues in my post. First, UConn sold big-time football upfront and now that it is no longer big-time it has lost the casual fan. Now this may not have been so bad if UConn had nurtured the growing fanbase from the start. Instead, UConn got piggy and wildly overcharged for the good seats. They didn't sell. Meanwhile, the preferred seats sold out in one day. The program started their D-1 journey in the hole. Having said that, it will come back if we get into a P-5 league. Nothing else will do. Not even winning the AAC. No one gives a crap about the AAC.

Yep, the AAC was a step up for everybody but us and USF.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I was trying to figure out what your heartburn was and this post explains it. I combined two issues in my post. First, UConn sold big-time football upfront and now that it is no longer big-time it has lost the casual fan. Now this may not have been so bad if UConn had nurtured the growing fanbase from the start. Instead, UConn got piggy and wildly overcharged for the good seats. They didn't sell. Meanwhile, the preferred seats sold out in one day. The program started their D-1 journey in the hole. Having said that, it will come back if we get into a P-5 league. Nothing else will do. Not even winning the AAC. No one gives a crap about the AAC.

I disagree with one thing, I think that there enough people that care about a winning UCONN football team to sell out a 40,000 seat stadium, regardless of the conference opponents. We can control that, and I'm not going to conclude anything else about that, until it actually happens, that we have a winning team regularly, competiting for those spots in the top 25 nationally - and we DON"T have the attendance for a 40k stadium. I don't think that will happen. THe proof will be in the pudding. Gotta win and get there first.

The concept of expanding the stadium though? That's a tough one, and goes hand in hand with concept of being in a different conference, when it comes to things we can control. It's tough to justify the expenses to do that, when we're in the AAC, but if we had a 55,000 seat capacity? Maybe......IDK.

Catch-22. makes my head hurt.

I just want to beat Villanova. That's all.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Yep, the AAC was a step up for everybody but us and USF.

That team from ohio too.

 

[pepband99]

I was trying to figure out what your heartburn was and this post explains it. I combined two issues in my post. First, UConn sold big-time football upfront and now that it is no longer big-time it has lost the casual fan. Now this may not have been so bad if UConn had nurtured the growing fanbase from the start. Instead, UConn got piggy and wildly overcharged for the good seats. They didn't sell. Meanwhile, the preferred seats sold out in one day. The program started their D-1 journey in the hole. Having said that, it will come back if we get into a P-5 league. Nothing else will do. Not even winning the AAC. No one gives a crap about the AAC.

Agree with all this. Sorry if i jumped on your earlier post too, but the partisanship we see between the fanbase factions drives me nuts.

 

[WhiteDressWes]

I knew this board was filled with social misfits, but there are three posters in this thread admitting to going to football games by themselves. Good lord.

Make that 3+