LVille Gametime set

[J187Money]

Hundreds of thousands of UConn fans watch on TV?

Billions?

 

[BlueMAB]

Hundreds of thousands of UConn fans watch on TV?

You don't think 100,000 or more of the viewers that night will be UConn fans?

If we can get 30,000+ to show up for a football game, another 5-7,000 to show up for a basketball game the same night; it's reasonable to estimate that for every fan in the seat, 3-5 will be watching on TV sets around the country.

Whether you agree with that estimate or not, we know that there is the potential for millions of TV sets to be tuned into UConn athletics for 5 hours. This is a good thing no matter what Debbie downer has to say about it.

 

[freescooter]

FS - I don't think people are disagreeing with you that it isn't optimal. But what if it was play this game, or not get a P5 game of similar stature? You seem to be assuming we could have just picked what we wanted. Or maybe that isn't the case, and we'd have ended up with another Vermont game or the equivalent, not in NYC, which lots of people would skip anyway because it is Vermont. The team is much better off having Maryland on the schedule, than something less than Maryland.

Also - to your other point about the time of the football game. It is a Friday. If the game is at 7, that means anyone from outside the Hartford area has to leave work early, make special plans, take a half-day, etc to get up there by kickoff. For working people that live outside a 30 minute ride to the Rent, 8:30 on a Friday is probably a better time (I know it is for me). On a Thursday I might agree given how late the game will run, but for a Friday night game I think 8:30 is fine.

J187,
we still have a finicky fan base. I think the later start hurts attendance. It wouldn't at Alabama but it does at UConn. I don't know that playing Maryland or not playing Maryland is that big a deal. It's Maryland as I said. Kind of like playing Washington or Wake Forest. On the good side, people know who they are. On the bad, they aren't that good. NIT semis last year. I htink if they played Vermont in the season opener at Gampel on Saturday night that would be a much better outcome. Not sure why we need a game of this "stature" to the extent Maryland has any stature currently. And we could have likely found another opponent, for a different date of equal stature with a bit of effort anyway. These are schools people have actually heard of that had RPIs within 6 spots plus or minus of Maryland at the end of last season: Better than MD were BYU, Eastern KY, Baylor, Stephen Austin and Denver. Worse than MD were Wyoming, Stanford, Indiana State, Virginia and Montana. Not exactly tough to find an "or equal" to the Terps. My guess is you could have made a game with most of them, played it at Gampel and not hurt your RPI one bit. The problem here was that ESPN and Maryland called and Warde did his usual and genuflected because they are "big time programs" kissed their backsides and said "whatever you say Sir" instead of standing up for his programs.

 

[freescooter]

Just one more note on Maryland. they are one of those teams that gets a much higher RPI than they deserve by virtue of playing in the ACC. As statistical analyses show that the RPI over values Strength of Schedule anyway, so a mediocre team in a good league always gets treated better than it deserves.

 

[huskymedic]

J187, we still have a finicky fan base. I think the later start hurts attendance. It wouldn't at Alabama but it does at UConn.

We've had 8:00p kickoffs on Fridays before without anyone biotching - you can't convince me that an 8:30p kick-off against Lousiville is a bad thing unless you have to be @ work by midnight. Lots open @ 4:3o. Has the making for a great night!

 

[sportsart]

ESPN did not schedule MD for us, but they did tell us when they would like to schedule it on ESPN 2.

We could have turned it down and taken ESPNU or ESPN3 the next day.

Warde made the correct choice no matter what the clueless think

 

[J187Money]

We've had 8:00p kickoffs on Fridays before without anyone biotching - you can't convince me that an 8:30p kick-off against Lousiville is a bad thing unless you have to be @ work by midnight. Lots open @ 4:3o. Has the making for a great night!

I think people might leave earlier if the game is a blowout (either way), but I don't think it affects the actual gate much. Maybe 5% - the other 95% of the variable attendance will be directly correlated to our on-field performance.

 

[whaler11]

You don't think 100,000 or more of the viewers that night will be UConn fans?

If we can get 30,000+ to show up for a football game, another 5-7,000 to show up for a basketball game the same night; it's reasonable to estimate that for every fan in the seat, 3-5 will be watching on TV sets around the country.

Whether you agree with that estimate or not, we know that there is the potential for millions of TV sets to be tuned into UConn athletics for 5 hours. This is a good thing no matter what Debbie downer has to say about it.

Hundreds of thousands is defined as 200,000 plus. That's the definition of the words. You'd have to define 'fan' to actually try to estimate.

I'm fine with the Maryland game. I'd prefer a time I could attend because I haven't been to the Brooklyn arena. I do think that the scheduling could lead to people staying home to watch both instead of attending either. That's just reality.

 

[uconnflyer88]

ESPN did not schedule MD for us, but they did tell us when they would like to schedule it on ESPN 2.

We could have turned it down and taken ESPNU or ESPN3 the next day.

Warde made the correct choice no matter what the clueless think

this

 

[J187Money]

I can't see skipping a football game against a ranked opponent that I have tickets for in order to stay home and watch a basketball game in November. But I guess that's just me.

 

[whaler11]

I can't see skipping a football game against a ranked opponent that I have tickets for in order to stay home and watch a basketball game in November. But I guess that's just me.

Yeah and we could use tens of thousands like you instead in lieu of fans who stay home or in the parking lot to watch baseball games.

 

[freescooter]

I can't see skipping a football game against a ranked opponent that I have tickets for in order to stay home and watch a basketball game in November. But I guess that's just me.

Exactly. it is you. It isn't guys like you that UConn cares about. Its casual fans, and people who buy the tickets tickets the week before the game. This setup is such that those are the folks who won't show up. So instead of 40,000, we'll have a crowd of 30,000 and then read that UConn couldn't even sell out its small stadium for a nationally ranked team.

As for the rest of it, it doesn't matter that the mens basketball team gets on ESPN2 on a Friday night in November against a middling Maryland club. Who cares? November basketball is like February baseball to most of the country. Unfortunately, in Connecticut it is a big deal and will impact the football game. The other point, I think, is that in an era when we've just seen how important football is vs basketball, Warde and his loyal followers made it perfectly clear what their priorities are. If UConn's Athletic Department doesn't care about the football program enough to protect it the way Maryland( you'll note they wouldn't play on Saturday because they have a football game then) and Rutgers would, why should anyone else care about the football program? That is the attitude that will confine us to the AAC for a long, long time. This was a short -term decision that reflects a series of attitudes that are prevalent in our athletic department which will have negative log term consequences. the difference between a Friday night basketball game in November on ESPN2 vs one on ESPNU on Saturday is negligible. The difference between 33000 and a sellout on that same night is huge.

 

[J187Money]

Exactly. it is you. It isn't guys like you that UConn cares about. Its casual fans, and people who buy the tickets tickets the week before the game. This setup is such that those are the folks who won't show up. So instead of 40,000, we'll have a crowd of 30,000 and then read that UConn couldn't even sell out its small stadium for a nationally ranked team.

As for the rest of it, it doesn't matter that the mens basketball team gets on ESPN2 on a Friday night in November against a middling Maryland club. Who cares? November basketball is like February baseball to most of the country. Unfortunately, in Connecticut it is a big deal and will impact the football game. The other point, I think, is that in an era when we've just seen how important football is vs basketball, Warde and his loyal followers made it perfectly clear what their priorities are. If UConn's Athletic Department doesn't care about the football program enough to protect it the way Maryland( you'll note they wouldn't play on Saturday because they have a football game then) and Rutgers would, why should anyone else care about the football program? That is the attitude that will confine us to the AAC for a long, long time. This was a short -term decision that reflects a series of attitudes that are prevalent in our athletic department which will have negative log term consequences. the difference between a Friday night basketball game in November on ESPN2 vs one on ESPNU on Saturday is negligible. The difference between 33000 and a sellout on that same night is huge.

You have actually swung me on this point. Maybe this isn't a bad thing for the overall "branding" of the school and TV eyeballs (getting 5 hours of coverage in one night). But it certainly won't help attendance. To either event.

 

[mattp]

I think it's a little silly to say that because Warde took advantage of an opportunity to play a name OOC bball team at a neutral site that's very do-able for UConn fans, he's flushing the toilet on football. I wish we didn't have to split our fans, but I think overall we're still better off playing that ball game that night than we are a home game against Sacred Heart the following night, or whatever else we'd have on the schedule.

Football against Louisville will be a sell out either way, I'm more worried about how our attendance in Brooklyn will look.

 

[Carl Spackler]

You guys got to get outside the little bubble on this website once in a while. the world doesn't revolve around UCONN sports. It's important, to people like the people that post here, but get a grip on reality, and stop entertaining Debbie's. they suck energy.

Whether or not a UCONN football game sells out in November at Rentschler has absolutely nothing to do with a UCONN basketball game being played in Brooklyn on the same date, and the big assumption here, is that you somehow think that UCONN has final say over when and where ESPN decides to broadcast sports anyway.

Getting basically a full Friday night of UCONN sports on a national ESPN channel, I'm actually quite fine with - and think is a pretty good thing (even though I'm pretty sure, that deep in their black and withered hearts, the programming people at ESPN are secretly hoping for Maryland and Louisville wins) but at least we're on national TV, for an entire evening.

Whether or not the football game against Louisville is a sell out, is dependant upon many factors, the most important of which, is how well our football program is doing come November, and the least important of which, is a UCONN basketball game in Brooklyn.

 

[freescooter]

I think it's a little silly to say that because Warde took advantage of an opportunity to play a name OOC bball team at a neutral site that's very do-able for UConn fans, he's flushing the toilet on football. I wish we didn't have to split our fans, but I think overall we're still better off playing that ball game that night than we are a home game against Sacred Heart the following night, or whatever else we'd have on the schedule.

Football against Louisville will be a sell out either way, I'm more worried about how our attendance in Brooklyn will look.

Its Maryland, for gosh sakes. Its Maryland in November. We're not talking about Duke in March. It isn't some big deal game at a Military base overseas, or on an aircraft carrier or anything unique. its a friggin' early season game against an easily replaceable opponent in a location at a time and a location whcih will hurt our football program. We could easily have landed a comparable opponent to Maryland, played the game at home on Saturday and made it a big deal. It isn't 2002. Maryland is a mid-level opponent, not some power program. And it sends a clear message to everyone out there that A. UConn doesn't care about its football program; and B. UConn is willing to do anything for the privilege of playing a crappy team from a power conference. I expect that being relegated to the AAC will ultimately push us down the ladder to mid-majordom. But Warde appears not to have bothered to wait. I guess at least one can say he's being pro-active on something.

 

[whaler11]

There will be people who don't go to the basketball game to go football. There will be people who don't go to football, because they go to Brooklyn.

There are people who stay home to watch both on television that may have gone to one of them otherwise.

Is it a lot of people? Is it worth worrying about? Who knows and probably not. But there are certainly people who are going to make choices. I would go to Brooklyn if there wasn't a football game.

 

[freescooter]

whaler, when you are trying to build up a program's bonafides you don't intentionally schedule such that you compete with yourself. That is dumb. And you surely don't do it for the privilege of playing a mediocre opponent. And that is the practical side of things. The "optics" of this is even worse. Absolutely screams small time. And that football doesn't matter to UConn. And it probably doesn't. But I don't know why you would want to say that publicly.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

UConn needs to be 5-2 going into the Louisville game or both places are not going to look good on tv. This is a big year for both programs

 

[sportsart]

I'm trying to remember the last "small time" program that had BB and FB back to back on ESPN2. If anyone can help me just SCREAM it out.

 

[J187Money]

It probably wouldn't look good in Brooklyn even if there was no football game. My comments re: an 8:30 start for football on a Friday at the Rent are even more true for a hoops game in Brooklyn. Technically, I couldn't get to the game on time from my office 2 blocks from MSG without leaving early. To make that game from CT and be in your seats at the tip, you'd have to be getting on the 4-5 at GCT at 5:45.

 

[PRHusky]

Estimated number of UConn fans who would have gone to the basketball game in Brooklyn but will not because they will attend the football game at the Rent that day: 500 (still will have 4-5k UConn fans in Brooklyn).

Estimated number of UConn fans who would have gone to the football game at the Rent, but will not because they will attend the basketball game in Brooklyn that day: 250 (will still be a sellout at the Rent).

These numbers are just a guess, but I think they are reasonable estimates. If they are correct, then freescooter's argument is absurd.

 

[J187Money]

Estimated number of UConn fans who would have gone to the basketball game in Brooklyn but will not because they will attend the football game at the Rent that day: 500 (still will have 4-5k UConn fans in Brooklyn).

Estimated number of UConn fans who would have gone to the football game at the Rent, but will not because they will attend the basketball game in Brooklyn that day: 250 (will still be a sellout at the Rent).

These numbers are just a guess, but I think they are reasonable estimates. If they are correct, then freescooter's argument is absurd.

You forgot to estimate the number of people that might have gone to either game, but won't because they will stay home and watch on TV.

 

[Waquoit]

I'm trying to remember the last "small time" program that had BB and FB back to back on ESPN2. If anyone can help me just SCREAM it out.

Wrong question, what big-time program has ever agreed to putting a national BB game the same night as a home football game once, nevermind twice?

 

[whaler11]

You forgot to estimate the number of people that might have gone to either game, but won't because they will stay home and watch on TV.

Which you can't until you know their record.