Michigan AD confirms they will honor 2013 game....

[Husky68]

Out of curiousity, why are we discussing Michigan cancelling when they gave a clear answer that they wouldn't cancel?

"Read my lips, I won't raise taxes."
"I did not have sex with that woman ..."
"I was born in Hawaii."
"I won't invade Russia."

'Cause every clear answer isn't always the truth about what has happened or intentions/future actions.

 

[Palatine]

Let's expand the Rent.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

"Read my lips, I won't raise taxes."
"I did not have sex with that woman ..."
"I was born in Hawaii."
"I won't invade Russia."

'Cause every clear answer isn't always the truth about what has happened or intentions/future actions.

but the fact still remains, what reason does he have to lie about it now? he knows he can get out of it for $2 million if he doesn't want to play. so why issue non-forceful and non-threatening statements if you're trying to force uconn to do something, even if it's behind the scenes? there's really no reason to make these comments if you're considering pulling out of the deal.

 

[metsfan2323]

If its a choice between Yankee Stadium or canceling the game then play the game at Yankee Stadium and beat the hell out of them on the field.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

The idea of playing in Yankee Stadium sucks to me. Not because of any chest thumping about not giving up a home game but everyone who has been there for a game says it's a horrible venue for a football game.

I would be up for Giants Stadium for any teams in the future that were willing to plays us there, but I think it is important that we play Michigan at The Rent.

That being said, I don't think for one second that if Michigan doesn't want to play us at The Rent that they won't bail on it. A home game at Michigan Stadium I would imagine generates more than the $2M buyout they would have to pay UConn.

 

[huskypantz]

Wow, a UConn-Michigan game in NYC in September. That would suck, count me out.

 

[HuskyV]

The most important thing for UConn football over the next 10 years will to continue raise our national profile. Going undefeated in BE play will not be noticed. We need to play & beat teams like TN & MI.

The location of the the 2013 game will have little impact on the future of Husky football. If we have to play a few games in NYC, so be it. For now get the attention of NY sports fans, get on national TV, control the ticket revenue (while giving priority to Rent Season ticket holders) and play/win some games against the big boys.

In 7 years when the demand for season tickets approaches 40k and the CT legislature is prepared to fund the expansion of the Rent we can worry about where marquee games are played.

 

[Doggie Style]

So? He easily could have said we won't play in the Rent -- we'll negotiate for the Meadowlands or we'll cancel. People lie in business to get something, but very few lie just for the heck of it.

R u serious? Really? What the hell is he going to say..... Play at a neutral site or we'll get a booster to cut a 2.5 mil check for the buy out? Do u think the strong arm tactics implemented by the mich's and nd's of the world r played out in full view? He'll no! If this topic is in play again, which it may or not be,it's all going on behind the scenes. When my company acquires a competitor, we don't come in and say were going to gut the company, lay off the workforce and shut down the plant! We talk about how wonderful the employees and products are and how they are they are a stable part of the community, then sign the deal! When that's done, THEN we gut the company, game over. As a business lawyer I would expect more understanding of business and the gamesmanship that goes into it.

 

[johnhuskies95]

The most important thing for UConn football over the next 10 years will to continue raise our national profile. Going undefeated in BE play will not be noticed. We need to play & beat teams like TN & MI.

The location of the the 2013 game will have little impact on the future of Husky football. If we have to play a few games in NYC, so be it. For now get the attention of NY sports fans, get on national TV, control the ticket revenue (while giving priority to Rent Season ticket holders) and play/win some games against the big boys.

In 7 years when the demand for season tickets approaches 40k and the CT legislature is prepared to fund the expansion of the Rent we can worry about where marquee games are played.

Again, Syracuse is going to play USC, a top 3 team in the country next year in NY and nobody cares or will care.

Simply playing the game in New York doesn't make it meaningful or unique. If you get top 10 team to come to the Rent at night, playing a Michigan hardly ever plays in, that's important, that's unique. That builds your national profile.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Again, Syracuse is going to play USC, a top 3 team in the country next year in NY and nobody cares or will care.

Simply playing the game in New York doesn't make it meaningful or unique. If you get top 10 team to come to the Rent at night, playing a Michigan hardly ever plays in, that's important, that's unique. That builds your national profile.

You really don't think people are going to care about Syracuse USC? I think people will 100% be talking about that game. When was the last time USC was out on the east coast?

 

[rich1122]

I would go for sure to NY. But, do you think that you would fill a NY stadium with fans who can barely get there on time and always leaver early. Make it at the Rent or take the buyout.

 

[johnhuskies95]

You really don't think people are going to care about Syracuse USC? I think people will 100% be talking about that game. When was the last time USC was out on the east coast?

Well, they came to Virginia four years ago. The point is, getting a "blueblood" to play a Big East team in a true away venue is extremely difficult. Other than Pitt getting Notre Dame, how often do the true bluebloods like Alabama, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, USC, Texas, Ohio State, Tennessee and Nebraska play a Big East team in a true road game?

I simply disagree with the original poster saying we should move the game to NYC immediately because of the rise in national profile. UConn has a chance to get two bluebooks to come play them at the Rent in three years. How many other Big East programs can say that?

 

[metsfan2323]

Wow, a UConn-Michigan game in NYC in September. That would suck, count me out.

If the game is at Yankee stadium I assume it will need to be played in November after baseball season is over.

Two undefeated teams, both 9 - o squaring off in November on a Saturday evening. Michigan ranked # 2, UCONN ranked # 14. Michigan leads by 4 with 1:10 to go but we force a punt. Whitmer completes passes to Osiecki, and Bryce McNeal who breaks a tackle and goes for 30 yards before he is forced out of bounds at the Michigan 15 yard line. 6 seconds to go and ball at the Michigan 2 following a completion to Joe Williams. Whitmer under center, takes the snap and rolls out to his left on a naked bootleg and crosses the endzone as time expires. Fans on the field. Chaos at Yankee Stadium.

 

[businesslawyer]

R u serious? Really? What the hell is he going to say..... Play at a neutral site or we'll get a booster to cut a 2.5 mil check for the buy out? Do u think the strong arm tactics implemented by the mich's and nd's of the world r played out in full view? He'll no! If this topic is in play again, which it may or not be,it's all going on behind the scenes. When my company acquires a competitor, we don't come in and say were going to gut the company, lay off the workforce and shut down the plant! We talk about how wonderful the employees and products are and how they are they are a stable part of the community, then sign the deal! When that's done, THEN we gut the company, game over. As a business lawyer I would expect more understanding of business and the gamesmanship that goes into it.

Gee, thank you for that lecture. Not to bother you with Kindergarten level business lawyering, but the obvious fact that makes the two situations totally different is that Michigan has the unilateral right to cut UConn a check and walk away from the game. In your example, you elect to lie because you can't unilaterally buy a company -- you need to convince someone to sell it to you.

But thank you for your condescension.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Out of curiousity, why are we discussing Michigan cancelling when they gave a clear answer that they wouldn't cancel?

It's good question. Easy answer is b/c it's an internet chat forum and we're all just bullsh*tting.

I guess I would have to go back and read to figure out where and how the tangent started, but I've been trying to be clear on a couple things.

The thing that stands out most to me, is that the article referenced clearly lays out that Michigan is intersted in large eastern venues. It doesn't specifically say New York, but it I think it's pretty clear what the situation is. To my knowledge, this is the frist publc acknowledgement out of Michigan of interest to play football in NYC - again - for them. Been a long time since they played regulary in New York.

Of the top 10 programs that draw the most fan interest,television revenue, gate reciept revenue in college football in NYC, UConn and Michigan and are the only ones that don't have contracts in place in coming years for either Yankee stadium or Met-Life meadowlands games.

To my knowledge, based on today's article - of the identiied top 10 programs for fan interest in college fooball derived from official Google company research, published by the NYTimes, now that MIchigan has expressed that interest....ONLY our own University of Connecticut is the ONLY school with a 1-A football program htat has not openly expressed interest to play in NYC.

IMO - that needs to change, and quick.

and working out a partnership w/ Michigan to play in the city, seems to be sitting on the doorstep and just waiting to happen, and with a wide open future schedule out of conference currently, we've got tons of opporunity to start playing in New York.

By no means, does any of that suggest that the 2013 game in Rentschler be given up willingly, nor does it mean we should be restricting our normal desired alottment of games at Rentschler in any season. I have repeatedly expressed this.

So that's why I've been talking about it.

 

[UConnDan97]

If the game is at Yankee stadium I assume it will need to be played in November after baseball season is over.

Two undefeated teams, both 9 - o squaring off in November on a Saturday evening. Michigan ranked # 2, UCONN ranked # 14. Michigan leads by 4 with 1:10 to go but we force a punt. Whitmer completes passes to Osiecki, and Bryce McNeal who breaks a tackle and goes for 30 yards before he is forced out of bounds at the Michigan 15 yard line. 6 seconds to go and ball at the Michigan 2 following a completion to Joe Williams. Whitmer under center, takes the snap and rolls out to his left on a naked bootleg and crosses the endzone as time expires. Fans on the field. Chaos at Yankee Stadium.

We win by 17. McCombs goes for 180 and two tds. Whitmer throws for another 2 tds. Taylor Mack takes one to the house on the second half kickoff.

New York goes nuts. They are showing national flag blue on the Empire State Building (not that $#itty Rutgers red). Tri-state tv sets continue their trend of turning on for Huskies. I have a whiskey on the rocks and laugh to myself in joyous bliss. Life is good when you're a UConn fan. Root harder!

 

[Dann]

We win by 17. McCombs goes for 180 and two tds. Whitmer throws for another 2 tds. Taylor Mack takes one to the house on the second half kickoff.

New York goes nuts. They are showing national flag blue on the Empire State Building (not that $#itty Rutgers red). Tri-state tv sets continue their trend of turning on for Huskies. I have a whiskey on the rocks and laugh to myself in joyous bliss. Life is good when you're a UConn fan. #RootHarder

 

[HuskyBandDad]

What we need to do is take the 2010-2013 games, and build an an extended scheduling contract in place with Michigan such that the two game series we've got goes another 4 games, and we end up laying them 3 times in Michigan, and they play us once more in Hartford, and once in Yankee Stadium.

Get r done Warde.

Show of hands, how many people would take the train to E153rd station for a UConn v. Michigan game at Yankee Stadium?

Not Me - The Rent or nothing

 

[HuskyBandDad]

Michigan ranks right behind Notre Dame and Penn State in popularity and fanbase in New York City, for programs that actually aren't local to New York City, and historically played games in New York regularly.

Michigan and UConn, are the only football programs of the most popular college football teams in New York City, that don't have existing scheduling contracts in place to play games in either Yankee Stadium or the new Meadowlands.

Look, I'm all for getting games on the schedule in Rentschler, but can it be any more clear after the past few years? We can't be standing up without a chair on this one.

We need to get Michigan on our schedule, and in New York City. I'm not willing to give up the game at Rentschler for it, but we've got to find a way to make this work.

Warde Manuel.............get r done.

We have a hard time filling the Rent - How many of our fans are going to go anywhere else ??

 

[ZooCougar]

When they play at some Big Ten schools they don't even get 40k into larger capacity stadiums. For the sake of our season ticket holders, this should be a true home game.

 

[ZooCougar]

Also, I take the Michigan AD at his word. They intend to honor the contract, because that is their policy even when they could break even or make more money by buying it out and leaving us in a scheduling deficit.

If this is how Michigan really does business then this is something to be appreciated in my book. I also can't blame them for requesting we consider an alternate venue. If we were in their shoes we would do the same.

But this is one of the truly crappy things about the economics of college football. With such a comparatively short regular season, you are always going to see inequalities. Goliath will rarely ever go on the road to play David. Even when Goliath isn't really Goliath.

In this case, I expect that Michigan will be a much better team than they were the last time we played them.

I really don't envy our AD. He has fans and donors that want the premier teams playing in the Rent. But that is looking increasingly unlikely. I was against the Notre Dame, simply because it was too one sided. We could have played a few games at neutral locations, but Notre Dame should have compromises and at least played us once or twice at the Rent.

 

[Santini35]

The thing that stands out most to me, is that the article referenced clearly lays out that Michigan is intersted in large eastern venues. It doesn't specifically say New York, but it I think it's pretty clear what the situation is. To my knowledge, this is the frist publc acknowledgement out of Michigan of interest to play football in NYC - again - for them. Been a long time since they played regulary in New York.

Where does he say that he is interested in playing any game in a large eastern venue, beyond trying to get out of having to play the 2013 game at the Rent? Everything Brandon has said since at least last July is that he wants to play as many home non conference games as absolutely possible, with the exception of every other year with ND, and made for TV one off's like playing Alabama in Dallas this year.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Where does he say that he is interested in playing any game in a large eastern venue, beyond trying to get out of having to play the 2013 game at the Rent? Everything Brandon has said since at least last July is that he wants to play as many home non conference games as absolutely possible, with the exception of every other year with ND, and made for TV one off's like playing Alabama in Dallas this year.

"Certainly there are ways to make that game [away vs. UConn] bigger, in terms of venue, and we'll have conversations in that regard," Brandon acknowledged."

I inserted/inferred 'eastern' venue into the statement, is it a huge reach to think that he's talking about NYC? I think it's pretty clear.

He doesn't say anything about wantng to play future games in a large eastern venue. I'm saying that's what we should be pitching at Michigan. Based on everything I've written in here. The market shares in NY. The pieces of that incredibly large market base that are getting grabbed up by all the other college football programs that have significant fan bases there.

I understand that he wants to put every non conference game other than ND into the big house. That's not going to be realistic unless they're playing unattractive media and fan games.

I think we've got an opportunity to build a long term scheduling relationship with Michigan through NYC, and I think we'd be dumb not to make a strong effort to make it work. If they're going to go on the road to the east coast, NYC is the place to play for them, andI think that he may want it, but it's highly doubtful that they'll get every single non-conference game in the future other than ND at home.

Get it?

 

[Santini35]

No I don't get it. You seem to want to confuse his desire to make the best of what, from his point of view, is a bad situation that was forced upon him by his predecessor with wanting to play on the east coast at all.

He doesn't care what bigger venue he plays us in, he just knows one in the east is the only one he'd even have a chance to get UConn to capitulate to.

That fact does not mean that he desires to play in NYC at all (even if it makes market share sense to you), which you seem to attribute to him.

 

[Carl Spackler]

No I don't get it. You seem to want to confuse his desire to make the best of what, from his point of view, is a bad situation that was forced upon him by his predecessor with wanting to play on the east coast at all.

He doesn't care what bigger venue he plays us in, he just knows one in the east is the only one he'd even have a chance to get UConn to capitulate to.

That fact does not mean that he desires to play in NYC at all (even if it makes market share sense to you), which you seem to attribute to him.

Fair enough. I disagree that Michigan has no interest to play on the east coast, but it's just my opinion, and time will tell, whether or not they schedule NYC.

The fact that he's interested in discussion larger venues than Rentschler in 2013, on the east coast, most definitely means that he's interested in NYC venues, at least for one year. You seem to think that Michigan will be able to do exactly what he said in what you posted regarding scheduling out of conference in the future. I think it's totally unrealistic scheduling wise, but it sure sounds good to the Michigan fan base to hear the AD say that he wants all non-conference games at home.

The market share in NYC is what it is, and I posted the source that I used, which had nothing to do with Michigan's athletic department, no idea where you got that I attributed that to him.....but the source clearly demonstrates that there are about 8-9 D 1-A major college football programs that have significant fan base in NYC, and of those programs, the only ones that don't currently have scheduling arrangements in coming years in NY - are UConn and Michigan.

Michigan is a national brand in college football. They will be traveling west with the Pac-10 arrangement. If they're going to be traveling to the east coast as well, which they'd be dumb not to get in on the game that PSU, ND, USC....are getting in on........New York City is the place to play for them. Nobody owns New York City - in any sport. The Yankees don't. The Giants don't. What you do with New York City, is carve out your slice of the market, and make it as big as you can. The majority of the time, that small slice of New York, is bigger than most entire markets elsewhere in the country.

If, and when it happens, and I have no doubt that Michigan will be back in NYC at some point in the next few years..and that's clearly where we disagree - you think they won't...but....if and when they do....we absolutley need to be on that ticket, and my point in all of this discussion, is that we are in position right now, - to be very pro-active in making that happen.