Lew Perkins

[Stinger92860]

As we count our blessings this Thanksgiving, may we all remain mindful that if not for Lew Perkins vision of D1 football, UConn would be in a much worse position than we are today.

 

[ShakyTheMohel]

I would love to line up behind this statement, but until we know UConn's future, it's hard to say we are better off. If UConn ends up in a MAC level conference with MAC level results...was it worth the investment? Not saying it wasn't...last 10 years have been fun...but...you could argue that it may have all not been worth it if the end result is Akron level football (no offense to Zip fans). If UConn never advanced the football program they would be like Villanova right now...which may not be that different than where we end up.

I say this fully believing that UConn will end up okay...just saying it is hard to declare success at this tenuous point.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

I would love to line up behind this statement, but until we know UConn's future, it's hard to say we are better off. If UConn ends up in a MAC level conference with MAC level results...was it worth the investment? Not saying it wasn't...last 10 years have been fun...but...you could argue that it may have all not been worth it if the end result is Akron level football (no offense to Zip fans). If UConn never advanced the football program they would be like Villanova right now...which may not be that different than where we end up.

I say this fully believing that UConn will end up okay...just saying it is hard to declare success at this tenuous point.

Regardless of what happens in the near future, the upgrade was well worth its weight and gold and was tremendous foresight by Lew Perkins. Without the upgrade we are sitting on our hands with the Catholic schools waiting.......

 

[4UConn]

Regardless of what happens in the near future, the upgrade was well worth its weight and gold and was tremendous foresight by Lew Perkins. Without the upgrade we are sitting on our hands with the Catholic schools waiting.......

If they haven't already, the powers in Storrs should have Lew right next to them as a consultant.

 

[Waquoit]

If they haven't already, the powers in Storrs should have Lew right next to them as a consultant.

Nah, Lew may have helped establish UConn football but he did the program no favors when is comes to sustainment. He priced the tickets way too high to start keeping many folks off the bandwagon. And UConn is still paying the price for the culture of arrogance that he nurtured. I truly believe that's a big reason UConn is still on the sidelines waiting to be chosen. Payback is a bitch.

 

[gars44]

Nah, Lew may have helped establish UConn football but he did the program no favors when is comes to sustainment. He priced the tickets way too high to start keeping many folks off the bandwagon. And UConn is still paying the price for the culture of arrogance that he nurtured. I truly believe that's a big reason UConn is still on the sidelines waiting to be chosen. Payback is a bitch.

What do you mean by "culture of arrogance?" Story to tell?

 

[Husky25]

He priced the tickets way too high to start keeping many folks off the bandwagon.

$30/ticket was too high? Rentschler field sold out regularly until 2007. The recession started in 2007 and was full on by late summer of 2008. President Reagan...errr...God...sorry...Lew Perkins was just beginning his ticket scandal at Kansas around that time. Vacancies on the bandwagon have nothing to do with ticket prices.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

$30/ticket was too high? Rentschler field sold out regularly until 2007. The recession started in 2007 and was full on by late summer of 2008. President Reagan...errr...God...sorry...Lew Perkins was just beginning his ticket scandal at Kansas around that time. Vacancies on the bandwagon have nothing to do with ticket prices.

I believe when the Rent first opened the cheapest tickets were $20 or $25. A bargain.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Nah, Lew may have helped establish UConn football but he did the program no favors when is comes to sustainment. He priced the tickets way too high to start keeping many folks off the bandwagon. And UConn is still paying the price for the culture of arrogance that he nurtured. I truly believe that's a big reason UConn is still on the sidelines waiting to be chosen. Payback is a bitch.

I don't think football tickets were ever overpriced.

Now....the first "U-Game" between us and UMass at the Civic Center where they charged something obscene for the nose bleeds.....different story. Arena was half empty for that game.

 

[Husky25]

I believe when the Rent first opened the cheapest tickets were $20 or $25. A bargain.

Thanks, Jimmy. You only further my point. Ticket prices have stayed realitively stable in a time of higher than normal inflation. The only difference between the 3 year pack now and in 2003 (for me) is the extra $$ for a blue pass. Key reasons not everybody in the state jump aboard were: 1) Local TV and Radio Coverage were still 1-AA...at best; and 2) Fans of other sports (read: basketball) are not always football fans to begin with. You build a fanbase starting with the stadium patrons. But it's the media coverage and game results that attract the casual fan...

 

[Waquoit]

I don't think football tickets were ever overpriced.

Yeah, they were. People forget that the chairbacks were never sold out when the place opened. I doubt they sold more than 1/3 of them for season tickets. Including seat donations, it was at least (more than?) $150. bucks a game. As a result, many folks like me who had planned to buy chairbacks said "whoa" and bought preferred instead. The preferred seats sold out immediately. If they had priced the chairbacks sensibly, they would have filled them up with fans like me which in turn would have opened up the preferred for more new fans. The program lost fan momentum with that blunder.

And before you say the games sold out, they sold out like the way the Red Sox games sell out. It was BS. There were tons of empty chairbacks. And many of those seats that were filled, were filled with comps to state employees and seats sold at face value to existing chairback ticket holders. A chairback holder in my office used to buy 20-40 extra a game for other employees and friends. And that hurt season ticket sales. As one guy told me, "You pay more to sit on the 20 yard line than I do to sit on the 40. Why should I buy season tickets?"

 

[ZooCougar]

Waquoit,

What's a reasonable price? How many other places have you bought tickets at regularly. I mean this respectfully, but what did you expect for Division I football?

Some places, it's so hard to get a ticket that you have to buy it from a scalper outside a stadium.

Some places, where the football stadium just takes up space they practically have to give the tickets away for example, Memphis and Indiana.

 

[Waquoit]

Waquoit,

What's a reasonable price? How many other places have you bought tickets at regularly. I mean this respectfully, but what did you expect for Division I football?

Some places, it's so hard to get a ticket that you have to buy it from a scalper outside a stadium.

Some places, where the football stadium just takes up space they practically have to give the tickets away for example, Memphis and Indiana.

All that is irrelevent, Zoo. The market tells us what's reasonable. Seats between the 35's at $35. per game plus a $650. per year seat donation didn't sell, I'm guessing maybe 1/3 of them went at that price. I could be high.

Seats between the 0-35 at $25. per game plus a $125. per season sold out in minutes.

So I would say reasonable at that time would have been much lower for the chairbacks and a bit higher for the preferred.

 

[ruskin]

Clearly the chairbacks were and remain overpriced. The reserved seats (35 to goal line), on the other hand, were well priced.

 

[Husky25]

Yeah, they were. People forget that the chairbacks were never sold out when the place opened. I doubt they sold more than 1/3 of them for season tickets. Including seat donations, it was at least (more than?) $150. bucks a game. As a result, many folks like me who had planned to buy chairbacks said "whoa" and bought preferred instead. The preferred seats sold out immediately. If they had priced the chairbacks sensibly, they would have filled them up with fans like me which in turn would have opened up the preferred for more new fans. The program lost fan momentum with that blunder.

And before you say the games sold out, they sold out like the way the Red Sox games sell out. It was BS. There were tons of empty chairbacks. And many of those seats that were filled, were filled with comps to state employees and seats sold at face value to existing chairback ticket holders. A chairback holder in my office used to buy 20-40 extra a game for other employees and friends. And that hurt season ticket sales. As one guy told me, "You pay more to sit on the 20 yard line than I do to sit on the 40. Why should I buy season tickets?"

If the "preffered" cost $30/seat/game + donation, what would have been reasonable for the chairbacks, which offer additional services than the benches (chair back, plastic vs metal, cup holders)? Without getting too far into the minutiae, I don't believe Perkins himself had a ton to do with setting the ticket prices for a number of reasons. He probably did, however, have a significant part in setting the donation levels, but if you're gonna pay $700 for the chairbacks vs $240 for the benches what's another $50 for a donation. Plus Perkins officially started at Kansas in June 2003. He was probably checked out of UConn before then.

IMO, there were 2 screw ups that cost the program far more than the alledged mispricing of season tickets in 2003. 1) They should have declared the concourse, including the infamous "Beer Garten" Standanding Room Only, and encouraging people to sit at least near their assigned seat. Secondly, but much more important is what I said earlier. Only 40,000 people are allowed through the gates. The fact that most early games were not made available on TV throughout the state was a cardinal sin. The games were always on WTIC 1080am, but apparently it doesn't come in (at least too well) in Fairfield County.

This is off topic so it's my only comment on the Sox existing sell out "record." Speaking as a partial season ticket holder from 2000-2005, I believe your comment only applies to the 2012 season. Through 2011, sellouts were more or less legitimate. There was a time during the meat of the streak where your best/only bet was a ticket agency or scalper, but that place was packed...

 

[hexlub]

When The Rent opened, didn't they have PSL kind of deals as well. Like a few grand a seat?

 

[ZooCougar]

I can agree with you that the chair backs were an over reach, but it was hardly some sort of arrogant social injustice. A lot of those blue seat STILL seem to be empty. It's a real problem that needs to be addressed. Small potatoes Hathaway certainly didn't do much about it.

All that is irrelevent, Zoo. The market tells us what's reasonable. Seats between the 35's at $35. per game plus a $650. per year seat donation didn't sell, I'm guessing maybe 1/3 of them went at that price. I could be high.

Seats between the 0-35 at $25. per game plus a $125. per season sold out in minutes.

So I would say reasonable at that time would have been much lower for the chairbacks and a bit higher for the preferred.

 

[Adios]

Calhoun came to UConn with a vision. Quite a visionary he is.

 

[Pudge]

Big time Athletics at OUR University required Lew Perkins. It required FBS Football. Any other post confirms your small worldview mind.

1. Perkins fostered both Calhoun & Auriemma's rise. Those two sports proved that UConn could compete at a level of excellence comparable to any Program in college sports. We are not Akron. We are a major Athletic Department at a world-class University. Not investing & poor effort would have been a travesty.

2. Hathaway was a caretaker. Like older buildings, he never made impactful moves to keep the engines running. Any success was purely reaping the original foundation. Marketing our sports (look all around) was poor. Fundraising development was poor. We were falling back quick. Our fan base is fatigued. We needed constant nurturing. And look at Louisville - lesser University & lesser demographics; but a vibrant Jurich made them viable.

3. Prices for tickets? Ridiculous argument. Seems the lack of sales on the chair backs is a year to year Marginal Pricing issue. Blaming Perkins arrogance for years is crazy.

4. Manual? Good stature. But, I simply cannot see his fingerprints yet that set our strategic course.

If we didn't go all-in on Football, we would be a Villanova. That's right. A trajectory good for Villanova; awful for a upwardly targeted excellent college sports Department. Just New England curmudgeon behavior to choose that course.

We need a renaissance in our enthusiasm. That's hurting us as much, IMHO, as our Pasqualoni folly. We can be higher on the track than a Rutgers; it's possible.