Letter to Jeff Jacobs after Twitter

[Pudge]

What you learn in real estate is that there is sooo much to putting together a project. A Stadium & mixed use development is exponentially beyond a basic suburban office building.

I have sat in meetings, recently, listening to parking & traffic (both surface roads & interstate) for a $100m development - and I won't say my involvement is expertise (there are three different staffed professional firms at the table) - so I think I can extrapolate. Today's development (versus getting Penn State fans to a stadium first expanded in the 1930s) would absolutely negate many of your solutions. You wouldn't get approval from many of the stakeholders in terms of access. I'm firmly stating that safety concerns, fire department, water & sewer (big concern in metropolitan Storrs), environmental, Etc. you'd not meet modern standards at all.

The Rent? Note how fast we can empty 40,000 people quick. Think about the full infrastructure. I'd say, for our Program, it makes it a STATE team. We need to reach & market that way. Students? Do a better job at getting them to games. Diaco? And the proposed mixed use nature? There's a problem. UT still has a big say.

 

[Ldandy]

This is very accurate. I've been so busy between, AAU tournaments, birthday parties, cheer competitions, music lessons, Mother's Day, Father's Day, etc. that I literally go through each day trying to figure out when exactly I am going to get a break. Even my upcoming vacation is full of entertaining and other bs.

I would love to spend a couple days dedicated to football games but I won't even have a chance to consider it for another 10 years. I know plenty of people that do (Gator fans), but they are either bad parents or they have lazy kids.

Not picking on you, as others in this thread have expressed similar sentiments to this post. That said in the end something is either important to you or it is not. The things yourself and others have notated as commitments are not unique to UCONN Fans. We all have kids, games, and other obligations competing for our time. If attending a number of home games is important to you, find a way to make it happen. If it is not all that important you can watch the highlights on your phone. UCONN needs to do a better job reaching out to both your alums and casual sports fans. With your proximity to NY, NJ, and MA you should be able to sell out your stadium every week regardless of who's on the schedule. Better opponents help attendance, but ultimately fans come back because of the overall experience.

 

[CL82]

It never ceases to amaze me how some posters come to the conclusion that the fact that no one is tailgating on campus after a football game is conclusive evidence that there is no demand for it. I may just be spit balling here but I suspect that the fact that there is no on campus stadium might just be contributing factor to that.

Again, let me say that I like the Rent. It's our stadium and we are fortunate to have it. But my experience going to games at other schools, not Nebraska, but Rutgers and Army, leads me to believe the traffic management issues are entirely 'doable.'

 

[whaler11]

Not picking on you, as others in this thread have expressed similar sentiments to this post. That said in the end something is either important to you or it is not. The things yourself and others have notated as commitments are not unique to UCONN Fans. We all have kids, games, and other obligations competing for our time. If attending a number of home games is important to you, find a way to make it happen. If it is not all that important you can watch the highlights on your phone. UCONN needs to do a better job reaching out to both your alums and casual sports fans. With your proximity to NY, NJ, and MA you should be able to sell out your stadium every week regardless of who's on the schedule. Better opponents help attendance, but ultimately fans come back because of the overall experience.

It's not about one person and their priorities. If you challenge the middle and upper middle class parents of Connecticut to choose between their kids and UConn football well let's put it this way it will be a landslide.

It's about understanding how much competition there is for people's time and making it as convienient for people to attend.

I've been to games at dozens of stadiums around the country. I've seen how a people decend on places like Michigan and Clemson and Florida State. Trying to replicate that in our lifetimes is impossible. The goal should be consistent incremental improvement - which UConn hasn't made - 2014 looks like it will be the smallest season ticket base since the Rent opened.

Things are changing elsewhere too - even SEC schools are working harder than ever to keep attendance up. The NFL is dealing with it too. Staying home is easy and television gives you dozens of games to choose from at a fraction of the cost and you get to schedule it on your terms.

 

[Hoophound]

Not picking on you, as others in this thread have expressed similar sentiments to this post. That said in the end something is either important to you or it is not. The things yourself and others have notated as commitments are not unique to UCONN Fans. We all have kids, games, and other obligations competing for our time. If attending a number of home games is important to you, find a way to make it happen. If it is not all that important you can watch the highlights on your phone. UCONN needs to do a better job reaching out to both your alums and casual sports fans. With your proximity to NY, NJ, and MA you should be able to sell out your stadium every week regardless of who's on the schedule. Better opponents help attendance, but ultimately fans come back because of the overall experience.

Sort of, but it is more complicated than that. In the northeast, many of the sports fans are a little more educated and they involve their kids in more complex and time consuming extra curricular activities. I am in a wealthy area of Florida and most of the kids activities involve weekend travel and when you have 2 or more kids, it is almost impossible to dedicate a weekend to a football game. I would love to, but it isn't about me. I won't be the guy that misses everything in my kids lives because of my interests. I miss enough due to work demands. I also won't have them spend the weekend watching me drink beer and eat like a pig in a parking lot in lieu of them getting exercise and making friends.

Many traditional southern and midwestern college sports fans are not college grads at all. There are just as many WWE/monster truck fans at a UF/Bama/UGA/ISU game as there are alums and students combined. It is a different mindset and UConn has a much smaller number of those fans. In CT, monster truck fans don't watch sports. Not sure why, but it is true. Sports and hillbilly culture don't intertwine in the northeast. They are completely separate.

 

[whaler11]

It never ceases to amaze me how some posters come to the conclusion that the fact that no one is tailgating on campus after a football game is conclusive evidence that there is no demand for it. I may just be spit balling here but I suspect that the fact that there is no on campus stadium might just be contributing factor to that.

Again, let me say that I like the Rent. It's our stadium and we are fortunate to have it. But my experience going to games at other schools, not Nebraska, but Rutgers and Army, leads me to believe the traffic management issues are entirely 'doable.'

CL - there are some people that would like to tailgate after the games. They are the same people in line at the Rent at 7:30.

Are you proposing there are thousands of people that don't attend games at Rentschler because they can't tailgate long enough? There is someone who says - I'd be in except for that?

Or are you saying there would be people who would go if the games were on a campus and don't because they are in a parking lot in East Hartford.

You are also proposing that those two populations are bigger than the people you'd lose by adding 2 hours to their round trip?

Traffic sucks at Army btw. It's terrible going there and it turns out your attendance looks better when you can compel people to go.

They can't get people in and out of Gampel half the time - with only 6-7k people coming from off campus. Make that 30/35k without infrastructure and good luck.

 

[Ldandy]

It's not about one person and their priorities. If you challenge the middle and upper middle class parents of Connecticut to choose between their kids and UConn football well let's put it this way it will be a landslide. That's fine, I believe it is good parenting to put the interests of your children before your own. That said regardless of the number of commitments one has, most people can find at least 1-2 Saturdays a year to attend a game. When you consider the fact that UCONN can be reasonably accessed by close to 40 million people coming from CT, MA, NY, and NJ there is no reason not to fill a 40000 seat stadium every week.

It's about understanding how much competition there is for people's time and making it as convienient for people to attend.
Clearly The UCONN AD is doing a terrible job of making your football game day a can't miss experience. I've never been to a CT Football Game, so I can't give my opinion on it, but they should be working hard to accommodate fans and make them want to return.

I've been to games at dozens of stadiums around the country. I've seen how a people decend on places like Michigan and Clemson and Florida State. Trying to replicate that in our lifetimes is impossible. The goal should be consistent incremental improvement - which UConn hasn't made - 2014 looks like it will be the smallest season ticket base since the Rent opened. I agree with you here. There is no magic switch to flip, other that winning on a major level, to grow support exponentially. Its unfortunate that your ticket base is down, but after a few rough years I can understand fans taking a wait and see approach. Hopefully an improved product on the field will motivate fans who might be on the fence.

Things are changing elsewhere too - even SEC schools are working harder than ever to keep attendance up. The NFL is dealing with it too. Staying home is easy and television gives you dozens of games to choose from at a fraction of the cost and you get to schedule it on your terms.

 

[Ldandy]

Sort of, but it is more complicated than that. In the northeast, many of the sports fans are a little more educated and they involve their kids in more complex and time consuming extra curricular activities. I am in a wealthy area of Florida and most of the kids activities involve weekend travel and when you have 2 or more kids, it is almost impossible to dedicate a weekend to a football game. I would love to, but it isn't about me. I won't be the guy that misses everything in my kids lives because of my interests. I miss enough due to work demands. I also won't have them spend the weekend watching me drink beer and eat like a pig in a parking lot in lieu of them getting exercise and making friends. I won't argue with your priorities as they are your own, however going to 1-2 football games a year should not constitute missing everything in your kids' lives. There is also no reason that you can't attend a game with your family and not drink yourself into a coma or eat like a pig. Tailgating can be a fun family experience. Most tailgate scenes are very welcoming and reasonably behaved.

Many traditional southern and midwestern college sports fans are not college grads at all. There are just as many WWE/monster truck fans at a UF/Bama/UGA/ISU game as there are alums and students combined. It is a different mindset and UConn has a much smaller number of those fans. In CT, monster truck fans don't watch sports. Not sure why, but it is true. Sports and hillbilly culture don't intertwine in the northeast. They are completely separate.This may be true in the South, as many of the states do not have professional teams to follow, and thus non affiliated persons attach themselves to various universities. The Midwest is different. I have visited the majority of B1G Stadiums, and have found equal parts alums and non alum supporters. It is unrealistic to believe that 100,000+ seat stadiums will be filled every week strictly by college graduates only. That does not make these fans uneducated, uncouth, or purveyors of "hillbilly culture."

 

[whaler11]

Ldandy I think what you are missing is that the concept of 'can't miss' with respect to spectator sports doesn't not really exist for the vast majority of the population here.

The idea that NY or NJ are viable for non-alumni attendance in East Hartford is a pipedream. They aren't any more viable than Rutgers is to attract people from Hartford.

There is a pretty overarching reason why things like soccer are growing and things like baseball and golf are shrinking: time.

This isn't the midwest or the south, college football is not engrained here. It was a late entry to a crowded landscape. Boston College does not want for nearby population and they don't do any better with a better conference affiliation.

 

[noeynox]

I have one rule when I bring people to games with my tickets. "We are not leaving early". You'd be surprised that if you don't announce that ahead of time, people actually ask as they see the building start emptying early. CT is uniqe. It really is amazing how early on, we packed the place. Some of the novelty has worn off with many, and the P hire was the absolute worst thing at the absolute worst time. It was like Hathaway really wanted to stick it to the school.

 

[upstater]

Can we please stop with other schools and what happens there.

At no time in the foreseeable future are UConn fans going to line up in traffic to go to football games.

They are not buying RVs and travelling around the country.

There is no pent up demand for endless tailgating outside of a few hundred people.

It drives some people crazy but UConn is a rare school who has a huge fanbase of non-alumni.

It takes generations to build what a Nebraska or Penn State have. It's 2014 and the world moves much more quickly than when Penn State and Nebraska fans built those traditions.

I don't know who people thinks are going to these games but people work so hard at getting in and out of them in a timely fashion because they have a ton of to do. Work, home, youth sports, boats, vacation properties, Giants/Pats, Yankees/Red Sox.

I had kids a bit late, but seemingly 90% of my peer group spends their entire weekend running between games and tournaments.

Nebraska has tens of thousands of people who plan their lives around the games. If you haven't built that by now - I don't see how any school anywhere can - there is just way too much competition for people's time.

It's a nice vision this concept of people wondering around campus checking out buildings or wondering around some co-op. It's not something 99% of people have time for or interest in.

Holy cow, how did you miss the part of my post that read 2,000 fans show up early. Where did I have 50k fans showing up like that?

 

[upstater]

I think Whaler is exactly right.

We don't need to replicate the Nebraska. PSU model to be successful. Properly developed, the Rent can be a wonderful venue to college football.

You're always going t run into the problem of not having 15k students there. And that's always going to be a problem. A pretty big one actually.

 

[upstater]

I think Whaler is exactly right.

We don't need to replicate the Nebraska. PSU model to be successful. Properly developed, the Rent can be a wonderful venue to college football.

Let's be clear about what I wrote. I had 2k getting there early. And then I wrote that many more fans have arrived at stadiums elsewhere on smaller roads, and it's not because 90,000 people descended on State College the night before. That has never happened. I do think you can bring 25k fans to Storrs on gameday. Combined with the students and the crowd that gets there earlier, you have a nice (and bigger) crowd.

 

[CL82]

CL - there are some people that would like to tailgate after the games. They are the same people in line at the Rent at 7:30. So you are saying that the experience at the Rent is identical to an on campus experience; that people who might go one would definitely attend the other and vice versa? I suspect that that might not be the case.

Are you proposing there are thousands of people that don't attend games at Rentschler because they can't tailgate long enough? There is someone who says - I'd be in except for that? No, I don't believe I propose say that.

Or are you saying there would be people who would go if the games were on a campus and don't because they are in a parking lot in East Hartford. No, I don't believe I did say that.

You are also proposing that those two populations are bigger than the people you'd lose by adding 2 hours to their round trip? No, I don't believe I proposed that.

Traffic sucks at Army btw. It's terrible going there and it turns out your attendance looks better when you can compel people to go. I've been to a lot of Army games. They move a lot of people in and out pretty efficiently. Of course my viewpoint may be skewed because I'm often a part of a pretty decent tailgate. So I get there early and leave after the crowd. See any linkage there?

They can't get people in and out of Gampel half the time - with only 6-7k people coming from off campus. Make that 30/35k without infrastructure and good luck. Mmm, you don't the absence of a tailgating experience is makes that an apples to oranges comparison?

Just curious Whaler, what part of the state do you live?

 

[Hoophound]

First of all, I love hillbilly culture. I seek it out several times per year for food, music and fun. However, it is positively true that in the Midwest and the South football, country music, BBQ, RVs and college sports go together. In the Northeast that is not true and it never has been. There is a divide in New England culture and it effects the style of tailgating you'll see there.

Second, going to a couple games isn't the issue. My comments were in regard to following the team around the country in RVs or making 2 and 3 day trips out of each game. I've spent a lot of time in all these places. Northeasterners just don't embrace all of this stuff the way others do. Neither do people on the west coast. They just go to the game and move on.

 

[whaler11]

Just curious Whaler, what part of the state do you live?

I live East of Hartford. The rent is a bit closer to me than campus.

I can give you a fairly easy project to learn what you are up against.

Buy a few extra season tickets this year and then try to find people to bring to the games. I've been buying 2-3 extra since the Rent opened. You'll quickly understand how difficult it is to get people to commit and how much people's schedules play into that.

 

[whaler11]

Just curious Whaler, what part of the state do you live?

For the vast majority of non-students having the game off campus is off campus is the same experience as on. So you parked next to Cabelas instead of a chemistry building... so what.

If you don't think being on campus would get more people to attend other than it being your personal preference why would that be a good thing? I can guarantee beyond a shadow of a doubt you'd lose people that don't have the time or desire to drive to Storrs.

Fairfield County everyone seems to agree is important - add two hours to their roundtrip? That's a good idea?

 

[noeynox]

I live East of Hartford. The rent is a bit closer to me than campus.

I can give you a fairly easy project to learn what you are up against.

Buy a few extra season tickets this year and then try to find people to bring to the games. I've been buying 2-3 extra since the Rent opened. You'll quickly understand how difficult it is to get people to commit and how much people's schedules play into that.

So True I started with a group of five guys. Lost another this past year due to the ticket office. I"m down to two me and my buddy each get one extra ticket. I started with three extra tickets, and while I appreciate the extra room, it's not worth an extra 3-600 a year for it. Were talking about giving tickets away not selling them, but usually someone has soccer or football with their own kids, or their working. Don't get me wrong, I've brought a lot of people over the years and at least two have bought season tickets themselves, but my experiment in trying to get people buy in hasn't gone as expected in all honesty.

Part of me preferring a wide open offense, is that at least gets the attention of the casual non alum fan. I remember after we lost to UNC 12-10, on a safety, the comments about how our offense "just sucks". Nothing about our defense being outstanding, just our offense sucked. Last two sentences totally off topic.

 

[Padutch5]

Can we please stop with other schools and what happens there.

At no time in the foreseeable future are UConn fans going to line up in traffic to go to football games.

They are not buying RVs and travelling around the country.

There is no pent up demand for endless tailgating outside of a few hundred people.

It drives some people crazy but UConn is a rare school who has a huge fanbase of non-alumni.

It takes generations to build what a Nebraska or Penn State have. It's 2014 and the world moves much more quickly than when Penn State and Nebraska fans built those traditions.

I don't know who people thinks are going to these games but people work so hard at getting in and out of them in a timely fashion because they have a ton of to do. Work, home, youth sports, boats, vacation properties, Giants/Pats, Yankees/Red Sox.

I had kids a bit late, but seemingly 90% of my peer group spends their entire weekend running between games and tournaments.

Nebraska has tens of thousands of people who plan their lives around the games. If you haven't built that by now - I don't see how any school anywhere can - there is just way too much competition for people's time.

It's a nice vision this concept of people wondering around campus checking out buildings or wondering around some co-op. It's not something 99% of people have time for or interest in.

OK, I can't resist commenting on this any more. I wonder how many on this board have actually been to Penn State football? The Rent is a far better place to watch a game. It is not the alumni that fill the place. PSU is Pennsylvania's team, not unlike Notre Dame in the midwest. Grads of many schools that don't have big time football adopt the PSU football. Also please stop talking about those who walk out of UCONN games early as an exception. I'd guess 25% leave Penn State games at half and another 25% at the fourth quarter except for the one or two real big games.
Next, I am so tired of hearing about a stadium in Storr's. Give it up and get behind
an effort to expand the Rent. It[s not going to move in our lifetime. Anyone who has really been to Storr's for a sold out BB game knows its much more than traffic management that would be needed to move 60,000 fans in and out of therein a day.
Instead of Malloy's last superjohn of a busway from Hartford to NB, why not run light rail from Storr's and Hartford to the Rent? Why not run a UCONN Express from NYC through Stamford to Hartford for football games? Then let's put a new BB/Hockey arena out at the Rent--much cheaper than in Hartford [besides by that time Hartford will have its own baseball team and will not be able to aford a new arena--almost forgot, Hartford cant' afford the baseball stadium either].
Let's think out of the box instead of running around bemoaning what isn't going to be changed.

 

[upstater]

For the vast majority of non-students having the game off campus is off campus is the same experience as on. So you parked next to Cabelas instead of a chemistry building... so what.

If you don't think being on campus would get more people to attend other than it being your personal preference why would that be a good thing? I can guarantee beyond a shadow of a doubt you'd lose people that don't have the time or desire to drive to Storrs.

Fairfield County everyone seems to agree is important - add two hours to their roundtrip? That's a good idea?

Being in a stadium full of students is a vastly different experience than being in a stadium with 3 to 5,000 students.

 

[whaler11]

Being in a stadium full of students is a vastly different experience than being in a stadium with 3 to 5,000 students.

I will give you that for sure but I think your 15k even on campus is way overblown. That's more than half the campus isn't it?

Are there 5 schools that get 15k consistently?

 

[upstater]

I will give you that for sure but I think your 15k even on campus is way overblown. That's more than half the campus isn't it?

Are there 5 schools that get 15k consistently?

More than half the student body including grad students attend games in the B1G. 30k at PSU and Michigan. UConn with 30k likely in the near future should be shooting for 15k at a minimum. 1/4 of the stadium in the B1G is filled with students.

 

[Ldandy]

OK, I can't resist commenting on this any more. I wonder how many on this board have actually been to Penn State football? The Rent is a far better place to watch a game. It is not the alumni that fill the place. PSU is Pennsylvania's team, not unlike Notre Dame in the midwest. Grads of many schools that don't have big time football adopt the PSU football. Also please stop talking about those who walk out of UCONN games early as an exception. I'd guess 25% leave Penn State games at half and another 25% at the fourth quarter except for the one or two real big games.
Next, I am so tired of hearing about a stadium in Storr's. Give it up and get behind
an effort to expand the Rent. It[s not going to move in our lifetime. Anyone who has really been to Storr's for a sold out BB game knows its much more than traffic management that would be needed to move 60,000 fans in and out of therein a day.
Instead of Malloy's last superjohn of a busway from Hartford to NB, why not run light rail from Storr's and Hartford to the Rent? Why not run a UCONN Express from NYC through Stamford to Hartford for football games? Then let's put a new BB/Hockey arena out at the Rent--much cheaper than in Hartford [besides by that time Hartford will have its own baseball team and will not be able to aford a new arena--almost forgot, Hartford cant' afford the baseball stadium either].
Let's think out of the box instead of running around bemoaning what isn't going to be changed.

Sorry but this simply is not accurate. I have been to over a hundred PSU home games over the last 25 years and at no point in time, including the "Dark Years" of 03-04 did 50% of the stadium clear out by the fourth quarter. That is downright laughable. While there are always a group of people that go out at half to rejoin the party and don't return, or another group that wants to "beat the traffic" but they don't add up to 50,000 People.

 

[whaler11]

More than half the student body including grad students attend games in the B1G. 30k at PSU and Michigan. UConn with 30k likely in the near future should be shooting for 15k at a minimum. 1/4 of the stadium in the B1G is filled with students.

I went to the Michigan game... there were 30k students there? I can take your word but certainly didn't seem like 30% students.

 

[upstater]

I went to the Michigan game... there were 30k students there? I can take your word but certainly didn't seem like 30% students.

I've been to a lot of Michigan games myself (I lived in Ann Arbor for 2 years, 2001-2003) and also PSU games, and 1/4 of these stadiums were filled with students, from field level to the last row. Both stadiums are 110,000 seats so... 25% is 27,500 students.

 

[CL82]

I live East of Hartford. The rent is a bit closer to me than campus.

I can give you a fairly easy project to learn what you are up against.

Buy a few extra season tickets this year and then try to find people to bring to the games. I've been buying 2-3 extra since the Rent opened. You'll quickly understand how difficult it is to get people to commit and how much people's schedules play into that.

Thanks for the project idea. Of course you understand that isn't even vaguely a good indicator of people's response to an on campus stadium right?

 

[Seaa Blue]

I've been to a lot of Michigan games myself (I lived in Ann Arbor for 2 years, 2001-2003) and also PSU games, and 1/4 of these stadiums were filled with students, from field level to the last row. Both stadiums are 110,000 seats so... 25% is 27,500 students.

Student tickets sales are a problem at many places. Michigan has not escaped it.

http://johnubacon.com/2014/06/the-r...ers-are-bailing-on-michigan-football-tickets/

"student football ticket sales are down, way down, from about 21,000 in 2012 to a projected 13,000-14,000 this fall."

 

[whaler11]

Thanks for the project idea. Of course you understand that isn't even vaguely a good indicator of people's response to an on campus stadium right?

If you think that moving the campus to on stadium makes people less busy then nope it's not.

Either you are going to commit to the idea that people that don't go to Rentschler because it's not on campus or you aren't. To this point you haven't so your stance exists on personal preference.

 

[whaler11]

Student tickets sales are a problem at many places. Michigan has not escaped it.

http://johnubacon.com/2014/06/the-r...ers-are-bailing-on-michigan-football-tickets/

"student football ticket sales are down, way down, from about 21,000 in 2012 to a projected 13,000-14,000 this fall."

LOL but they get 30k students a game.

 

[upstater]

LOL but they get 30k students a game.

I wonder, why do you find that funny?

What were the numbers a decade ago when I cited them? Does UM sell out anymore? If they are getting only 13k students, they aren't selling out. At least that's what the article implies when it says no screen shots of the Big House anymore during games.

If you read the articles and comments, you would have also noticed that the replies confirmed what I said. The freshman class used to sit in the end zone, with the classes progressing and wrappin around the stadium as the senior class sat at the 50 yard line. That's 1/4 of the stadium, as I said. I chose that $27,500 number off the top of y head as it was simply 25% of capacity, and that's what I saw with my own eyes multiple times at both stadiums.

Read here to know what ails Michigan:
"But Brandon did away with that last year, with his new General Admission seating policy. Instead of seating the students by class — with the freshmen in the endzone and the seniors toward the fifty, as they had done for decades – last year it was first come, first served. (They also raised the price to $295 for seven games, up from $195 for six games the year before.) The idea was to encourage students to come early, and come often. Thousands of students responded by not coming at all.

This was utterly predictable – and I predicted it, 13 months ago, in this column. (http://johnubacon.com/2013/05/blaming-the-customer/)

(This is probably as good a place as any to say, No, this is not about the department pulling my press pass. It’s not personal. It’s about misguided decisions and long-term consequences.)

TV networks loved showing blimp shots of the sold-out Big House – one of the iconic sights in college football. Now they don’t show any."