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

[Jimmy Serrano]

edit: btw: I will preface everything I write from here on in in this subject matter with the following:

I believe the 2013 game contracted with Michigan should remain at Rentschler field.

The greatest asset that UConn has to draw from in the state when it comes to grow this football program from a fan and financial standpoint, is in Fairfield County, and it is virtually untapped. New York market presence is a pretty important and influential way to tap that keg. Scheduling games in Yankee Stadium, is going to catch the attention of Fairfield county, and it's easier for fans in the I-95 corridor in all the communities from Greenwich to Bridgeport to get to Yankee Stadium, than it is to get to Rentschler. Yes Syracuse is in New York, but last I checked, Syracuse is still 250 miles from manhattan. It's 159 miles from Putnam, CT to Yankee Stadium.

And once again, since no matter how many times I repeat it, people don't seem to get it - it does NOT have to come at compromising the quality of schedule at Rentschler, and if we go out and make it known, there are nationally prominent programs out there that are interested in playing in New York.

I get it. Play the 2013 game at the Rent and then explore the possibility of scheduling a future series with UM that involves playing our home games in NYC. A couple of questions that nobody has answered:

1) Is Michigan going to play 6 games in Ann Arbor in return for a game in NYC? I mean not in a million years would they do that. I've seen no evidence, none, that UM would like to play in NYC.

2) How in the world does this not compromise the quality of schedule at the Rent?

 

[Doggie Style]

i agree with that. how many more seats would we be talking? 2k? not even? it still helps...

-------------------------------------------
At the very least they should do it for Big time teams that r willing to play here and add seats in the other endzone in front of the family section as well. W/ both ends you could get at least 5k more seats. Oh, and here's an idea for the Uconn AD: How about opening up those seats on the field to long term season tix holders first, then to all those who are connected at Uconn second which is prob what would happen. Might go over well in terms of establishing long time support. Fans may think twice about giving up their season tix for a year or two if they think they can get their hands on some field level seats for a big game!!!???

 

[businesslawyer]

Michigan would want to play this game at the old Memorial Field? Seriously? What other venue change could they possibly be suggesting since Rentschler Field is UConn's home stadium? Did the Huskies asked to have the '10 game played in Detroit at Ford Field? No, they played at Michigan's home field.

No way to anything but UM coming to East Hartford. That is a huge part of UConn getting respect as a legit BCS program.

Going forward, if Michigan wants a long term deal . . . sure one of the games could be at Yankee Stadium or better yet - a 1-2-1 series with two games in the Bronx. Other than that . . . take a hike. Unless!!! Unless, it could solicit their influence to get UConn a conference invite . . . at which point I'm all in for whatever they'd like in the short-term.

It would be far more important to the long term future of this program to have the economic benefit of more fans in greater NYC than it would be to have the "respect" of the college football world, whatever that means.

But you and I have had this discussion before and we will just have to agree to disagree.

 

[Dann]

i think people are overestimating what we'd gain from a game in NYC. Carl above said he'd go for a future 1 and 1 with one game being at Michigan and one at NYC with no trip to the Rent, but I'd rather see us play a home and home with a mid level BCS team like Georgia Tech, or Purdue. we're only going to have 4 OOC games a year from here on out, and assuming one will always be a 1AA patsy, you're really talking about 3 games to work with to try to get good teams at the Rent. if you assume one away game/year as part of a decent BCS home and home series and one payday game against a MAC team, there's not a ton of wiggle room left to have neutral site games.

with 4 OOC games per year i think we're probably looking at 1AA(I'd love to get rid of this to be honest, but i get why it's necessary) 2 BCS home and home schedules (one home/one away per year) and then a payday game against the MAC. that will give us 7 home games, which is what most BCS teams have.

we could bank on the fact of umass upgrading a little more. its going to take them some time to get to mac level depth and recruit wise. so we can play them as our mac game, as our rival game, as a always home game, a warmup game for a couple years here. then we could pick the 2nd 3rd and 4th a little easier.

1-umass
2bcs team home
3bcs team away
4 go many ways, a neutral game like a nyc game. a warmup game and so on....

 

[Carl Spackler]

There's another option for the future too - and that's to expand Rentschler field to 50k, as it was originally designed to be.

And BTW: I am 100% in favor of keepign the 2013 Michigan game at Rentschler field.

 

[Dann]

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How is a florida guy an authority on CT traffic patterns? LOL..............

what?

 

[Dann]

There's another option for the future too - and that's to expand Rentschler field to 50k, as it was originally designed to be.

And BTW: I am 100% in favor of keepign the 2013 Michigan game at Rentschler field.

i understand your position carl. we agree on 2013.

i would love to see the rent expanded but it takes time to make sure we can fill it. what i would like to see is when the bball pf and the other fields are done are some media noise about it and some future plans draw up types getting spread to pump up the fans etc.

but wait a sec here. a sellout at the rent is 40k right?
-put the band on the field and fill those seats.
-put some temp bleachers up in the walk area.

are we talking 45k now?

thats why i don't like expanding to 50k. if you expand you do i once for good for the future. 50k is still below par in the cf world. it has to be 55,001 or bigger to get any respect from people. go big once and so what we wont fill it right away, we will in time and by that point everything else will make sense and work out. the last thing we want to do is add 10k and the 10 years later be looking around again. the state can lift the size requirments and stuff. there is $$ to be made by doing so.

 

[businesslawyer]

edit: btw: I will preface everything I write from here on in in this subject matter with the following:

I believe the 2013 game contracted with Michigan should remain at Rentschler field.

The greatest asset that UConn has to draw from in the state when it comes to grow this football program from a fan and financial standpoint, is in Fairfield County, and it is virtually untapped. New York market presence is a pretty important and influential way to tap that keg. Scheduling games in Yankee Stadium, is going to catch the attention of Fairfield county, and it's easier for fans in the I-95 corridor in all the communities from Greenwich to Bridgeport to get to Yankee Stadium, than it is to get to Rentschler. Yes Syracuse is in New York, but last I checked, Syracuse is still 250 miles from manhattan. It's 159 miles from Putnam, CT to Yankee Stadium.

And once again, since no matter how many times I repeat it, people don't seem to get it - it does NOT have to come at compromising the quality of schedule at Rentschler, and if we go out and make it known, there are nationally prominent programs out there that are interested in playing in New York.

Stop kowtowing to the complainers. The future of UConn football requires we be in a real conference when all the shuffling is done, and our ability to work our way into a real conference would be greatly increased by materially increasing our market share.

Those who really care about the program need to stop worrying about whether they feel respected or will have a two hour drive to a "home" game and suck it up.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I get it. Play the 2013 game at the Rent and then explore the possibility of scheduling a future series with UM that involves playing our home games in NYC. A couple of questions that nobody has answered:

1) Is Michigan going to play 6 games in Ann Arbor in return for a game in NYC? I mean not in a million years would they do that. I've seen no evidence, none, that UM would like to play in NYC.

2) How in the world does this not compromise the quality of schedule at the Rent?

I must have written something today or yesterday that started this, but I have no idea what it was - 6 games in Ann Arbor for 1 in NYC? Lines crossed somewhere. That's all I can say, if it was somethign I wrote. Other than that, I'm tired of this....somebody please tell me how scheduling in NYC is going to make the quality of schedule at Rentschler worse. I've talked a lot about how doing it, doesn't mean the schedule will necessarily get unattractive at Rentschler.

edit: BTW - I am completely in favor of keeping the 2013 Michigan game at Rentschler and do not want to see the game moved.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

I must have written something today or yesterday that started this, but I have no idea what it was - 6 games in Ann Arbor for 1 in NYC? Lines crossed somewhere. That's all I can say, if it was somethign I wrote. Other than that, I'm tired of this....somebody please tell me how scheduling in NYC is going to make the quality of schedule at Rentschler worse. I've talked a lot about how doing it, doesn't mean the schedule will necessarily get unattractive at Rentschler.

edit: BTW - I am completely in favor of keeping the 2013 Michigan game at Rentschler and do not want to see the game moved.

4 conference road games
1 road game vs either ND or Pac12

That is 5 guaranteed road games every year. If they played one game annually in NYC, that leaves them 6 games every other year in Ann Arbor.

My apologies if I'm contemplating reality while convoluting some kind of pipe dream.

Do I really need to explain how playing a home game in NYC dilutes the quality of schedule at the Rent? Really?

 

[businesslawyer]

4 conference road games
1 road game vs either ND or Pac12

That is 5 guaranteed road games every year. If they played one game annually in NYC, that leaves them 6 games every other year in Ann Arbor.

My apologies if I'm contemplating reality while convoluting some kind of pipe dream.

Do I really need to explain how playing a home game in NYC dilutes the quality of schedule at the Rent? Really?

Of course it dilutes the quality of the schedule at the Rent. But so will not making sure we stay "big time," and increasing our marketibility in NYC does that.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Stop kowtowing to the complainers. The future of UConn football requires we be in a real conference when all the shuffling is done, and our ability to work our way into a real conference would be greatly increased by materially increasing our market share.

Those who really care about the program need to stop worrying about whether they feel respected or will have a two hour drive to a "home" game and suck it up.

Don't feel like I've been kowtowing, but maybe it looks like it? ;-)

Anyway, couldn't have said it better myself, and damn sure that I coudlnt' have said it shorter.

 

[Carl Spackler]

4 conference road games
1 road game vs either ND or Pac12

That is 5 guaranteed road games every year. If they played one game annually in NYC, that leaves them 6 games every other year in Ann Arbor.

My apologies if I'm contemplating reality while convoluting some kind of pipe dream.

Do I really need to explain how playing a home game in NYC dilutes the quality of schedule at the Rent? Really?

Who said Michigan wants to play annually in NYC? I didn't.

Look playing a Michigan, ND, PSU, USC, etc......name brand in NYC, is not going to help the home schedule at Rentschler. I get that.

BUt there's no reason why we can't have a year or two spaced in of 6 home games at Rentschler (4 conference, 2 non) a game in NYC, and 5 road games (4 conference, and 1 out), with years of 7 home games at Rentschler and 5 on the road.

The fact that we've got Tennessee and Virginia as our only home and homes udner contract right now, leaves plenty of room to schedule decent home slates at Rentschler, in addition to playing in NYC.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Who said Michigan wants to play annually in NYC? I didn't.

"This article I'm reading today, about UConn and Michigan, is the first time that I've seen Michigan take a public step in indicating interest in playing in New York"

Does that ring a bell?

 

[Carl Spackler]

"This article I'm reading today, about UConn and Michigan, is the first time that I've seen Michigan take a public step in indicating interest in playing in New York"

Does that ring a bell?

Sure does, you're the one that put "annually" into it. Not me.

 

[Carl Spackler]

4 conference road games
1 road game vs either ND or Pac12

That is 5 guaranteed road games every year. If they played one game annually in NYC, that leaves them 6 games every other year in Ann Arbor.

My apologies if I'm contemplating reality while convoluting some kind of pipe dream.


FWIW: Michigan has a standing policy of a minimum of 7 home games per year. It's standard practice for Michigan to play only 5 road games annually. If they go to a 9 game league schedule in the big 10 in the future, and they keep Notre Dame as a partner, and when the pac 12 deal kicks in 2017 - they will have a grand total of ONE non-conference game other than ND/Pac12 with which they will be able to schedule.

I know that the AD at Michigan has said about scheduling, but it's posturing for the fan base, it's totally unrealistic to think that every non-conference game in the future is going to be at home for them in the future. PLaying a non-conference game in NYC, or Dallas, or WAshington.....etc.....is going to be somethign they're looking at when it comes to scheduling to fill out their calendars, especially if the league goes to a 9 game schedule. If the Big East goes to a 9 game schedule, we're going to have to be looking real close at how we schedule our non-con games too, to get the best bang for the buck.

I have no idea where you're getting your info about scheduling, especially that either ND or a PAC-10 team will be on the road annually for Michigan. Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't think that's correct. the pac 12 thing doesn't kick in until 2017 as far as I know.

 

[Carl Spackler]

i understand your position carl. we agree on 2013.

i would love to see the rent expanded but it takes time to make sure we can fill it. what i would like to see is when the bball pf and the other fields are done are some media noise about it and some future plans draw up types getting spread to pump up the fans etc.

but wait a sec here. a sellout at the rent is 40k right?
-put the band on the field and fill those seats.
-put some temp bleachers up in the walk area.

are we talking 45k now?

thats why i don't like expanding to 50k. if you expand you do i once for good for the future. 50k is still below par in the cf world. it has to be 55,001 or bigger to get any respect from people. go big once and so what we wont fill it right away, we will in time and by that point everything else will make sense and work out. the last thing we want to do is add 10k and the 10 years later be looking around again. the state can lift the size requirments and stuff. there is $$ to be made by doing so.

You do know that Rentschler was designed to seat 50k? That the foudnation of the structure is in place to build above ground to put seating for another 10k in a third tier opposite the tower? That the concept of expanding in about 10 years was originally planned?

Expansion to 50k, cost and time wise is not a bank breaker at this point in time. If we can't have 50k seat sell out for a season that includes back to back weeks of games at home v. Maryland and Michigan......well, I believe we'd sell out at 50k.

The issue is getting the snowball going, and I've talked ad nauseuam about this in the past. Whether or not you want to think it was paper sell outs or actually gate sell outs, Rentschler was sold consecutively for I believe at least two full seasons around 2005-2006 - when we were playing our worst and filling our schedules with low profile teams.........the athletic department dropped the ball, instead of working like hell to retain season ticket buyers 6,7 years ago, and at the same time figure out who and where the new buyers can be found, they expected the basketball model to work and sat with their thumbs up their rears and planned golf vacations for the post season.

What the athletic department failed to do, was generate interest for new ticket buyers, when it was most crucial, which is something that constantly needs to be done in football. They went the basketball model and simply expected 40,000 tickets to be bought every year blindly........we've got the opportunity to recover from that strongly, with scheduling in coming years.

This year - is the very first year - I've seen on my ticket purchasing stuff - a slot to check if you are a new buyer or a returner......they're learning up there in storrs.....slowly.

anywya - I'm tangenting. To go beyond 50,000 seats at Rentschler, will be a major undertaking, to get to 50k wouldn't be, the construction could be done quite quickly - over hte course of a summer - and putting that third tier up there would make it a very, very difficult place for visiting teams.

The key to all of it, is winning games.

 

[Johnbuoy]

I know there've been comparisons to the size of other non-conference stadiums that Michigan plays in, but in case I missed it, why is Michigan playing Alabama in Arlington, TX this year? Alabama's stadium seats a little over 100K, and Cowboys Stadium 80K.

 

[Uptop]

Carl,

Great entrepreneuial focus.

Manuel played football at Michigan. So, yeah, he should be wheeling and dealing on a series.

The only way Southern Cal schedules a return game vs Cuse is if it's played in NYC in a pro stadium

Ironically, the last time Southern Cal played in NYC area was circa (1990) vs Cuse in Kickoff Classic. Todd Marinovich vs Marlon Graves. Circa (1988) Southern Cal played at BC. O.J.'s son was a RB on that team

My all-time top 4 programs are:
1A. Notre Dame
1a. Southern Cal
3. Michigan
4. Ohio State

At this juncture of the program, it would be huge to have played, beaten and have a long series with any of these aristocracy programs and any of the service academies, which are the only national programs

College football is no longer a regional sport. So, how big and important is the media, financial and advertising capital of the world to college football today? Here's an excerpt from a recent article by New York Times, Pete Thamel on college football playoffs:

WHERE WILL THE GAMES BE PLAYED? The model receiving the most support has the semifinal games rotating among the four so-called B.C.S. bowls — Sugar, Orange, Fiesta and Rose — with the site of the national title game determined in a manner similar to that for the Super Bowl.
The option remains to have all three playoff games within the bowl system. A more lucrative option would be to have all three outside the bowl system, accepting bids for neutral-site games. Outsourcing lucrative games to the bowls has never made financial sense, but excluding the long-entrenched bowl system could be tricky politically.

Complete Article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/25/sports/ncaafootball/key-issues-in-deciding-college-footballs-new-postseason.html?_r=1&ref=sports


Also, in interview on Sirius today Thamel said SEC commish, Mike Slive is in favor of having Notre Dame keeping its indy slot with any new BCS workups because it prevents ND from joining and stabilzing the acc where the SEC has its focus on for the next round of expansion.

Wasted energy because no way Notre Dame joins the acc.

 

[businesslawyer]

Carl,

Great entrepreneuial focus.

Manuel played football at Michigan. So, yeah, he should be wheeling and dealing on a series.

The only way Southern Cal schedules a return game vs Cuse is if it's played in NYC in a pro stadium

Ironically, the last time Southern Cal played in NYC area was circa (1990) vs Cuse in Kickoff Classic. Todd Marinovich vs Marlon Graves. Circa (1988) Southern Cal played at BC. O.J.'s son was a RB on that team

My all-time top 4 programs are:
1A. Notre Dame
1a. Southern Cal
3. Michigan
4. Ohio State

At this juncture of the program, it would be huge to have played, beaten and have a long series with any of these aristocracy programs and any of the service academies, which are the only national programs

College football is no longer a regional sport. So, how big and important is the media, financial and advertising capital of the world to college football today? Here's an excerpt from a recent article by New York Times, Pete Thamel on college football playoffs:

WHERE WILL THE GAMES BE PLAYED? The model receiving the most support has the semifinal games rotating among the four so-called B.C.S. bowls — Sugar, Orange, Fiesta and Rose — with the site of the national title game determined in a manner similar to that for the Super Bowl.
The option remains to have all three playoff games within the bowl system. A more lucrative option would be to have all three outside the bowl system, accepting bids for neutral-site games. Outsourcing lucrative games to the bowls has never made financial sense, but excluding the long-entrenched bowl system could be tricky politically.

Complete Article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/25/sports/ncaafootball/key-issues-in-deciding-college-footballs-new-postseason.html?_r=1&ref=sports


Also, in interview on Sirius today Thamel said SEC commish, Mike Slive is in favor of having Notre Dame keeping its indy slot with any new BCS workups because it prevents ND from joining and stabilzing the acc where the SEC has its focus on for the next round of expansion.

Wasted energy because no way Notre Dame joins the acc.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Carl,

Great entrepreneuial focus.

Manuel played football at Michigan. So, yeah, he should be wheeling and dealing on a series.

The only way Southern Cal schedules a return game vs Cuse is if it's played in NYC in a pro stadium

Ironically, the last time Southern Cal played in NYC area was circa (1990) vs Cuse in Kickoff Classic. Todd Marinovich vs Marlon Graves. Circa (1988) Southern Cal played at BC. O.J.'s son was a RB on that team

My all-time top 4 programs are:
1A. Notre Dame
1a. Southern Cal
3. Michigan
4. Ohio State

At this juncture of the program, it would be huge to have played, beaten and have a long series with any of these aristocracy programs and any of the service academies, which are the only national programs

College football is no longer a regional sport. So, how big and important is the media, financial and advertising capital of the world to college football today? Here's an excerpt from a recent article by New York Times, Pete Thamel on college football playoffs:

WHERE WILL THE GAMES BE PLAYED? The model receiving the most support has the semifinal games rotating among the four so-called B.C.S. bowls — Sugar, Orange, Fiesta and Rose — with the site of the national title game determined in a manner similar to that for the Super Bowl.
The option remains to have all three playoff games within the bowl system. A more lucrative option would be to have all three outside the bowl system, accepting bids for neutral-site games. Outsourcing lucrative games to the bowls has never made financial sense, but excluding the long-entrenched bowl system could be tricky politically.

Complete Article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/25/sports/ncaafootball/key-issues-in-deciding-college-footballs-new-postseason.html?_r=1&ref=sports


Also, in interview on Sirius today Thamel said SEC commish, Mike Slive is in favor of having Notre Dame keeping its indy slot with any new BCS workups because it prevents ND from joining and stabilzing the acc where the SEC has its focus on for the next round of expansion.

Wasted energy because no way Notre Dame joins the acc.

Hey uptop, thanks. It's messages like this that make me feel like I'm not totally wasting my time writing.

I think I mentioned the kickoff classic somewhere in this discussion, maybe it was somewhere else, but I do recall writing about it very recently. That game was a major game prior to the onset of the BCS bowl era in the late 1990s and the onset of the guaranteed ticket sales model for invitiational type games, and idiotic national championship scenario generator that's imploding on the BCS system as I write.

The kickoff classic in new york averaged 60k+ paid attendance for 20 years straight, and down south, they're trying to revive the concept that we had up here in teh north east for two decades with it. The concept that college football can't gain traction in New York City is false. THe concept that a single college football program can own new york city is false. The media and social power of the New York City demographic is undeniable.

 

[businesslawyer]

No way? Really?

What if the Big XII, SEC, Pac Ten and Big Ten announce that their champions will play in a 4 team tourney at the end of every year, and the NCAA can either sanction it or they'll leave?

There are lots of things that can force ND into a conference. It is only a question of whether any of them happen.

 

[rich1122]

We would get 20,000 to go to New York to sit next to 60,000 Michigan fans. I first thought that playing at New York or Foxboro would be a good thing, but we could never get 50,00 people there for OUR Home Game. It would be embarrassing. It would end up being their Home Game I'm afraid. I don't care who we play.

Fill the Rent cook some dogs drink some beers and have a short ride home. Otherwise take the money and run.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I'm disappointed to read that the concept of including only conference champions in any scenario with teh word playoff is losing traction.

I think that these power brokers down there in Florida are a little blinded by the money. Fans might be easily swayed, and influenced, but they aren't dumb when it comes to what a playoff and a champion really are.

If they really come up with something called a 'playoff' and don't involve only conference champions....the fans will revolt. It's no surprise that they are so careful not to use the word "playoff" officially in anything.

 

[pepband99]

Have you looked at our future schedules? We have ZERO teams scheduled for 2014. We have 1 OOC game schedule in 2015. We have 2 OOC games scheduled in 2016. We have 1 OOC game scheduled in 2017. This is a problem that needs to be fixed. Very fast. It's a huge weakness that was left unaddressed by Hathaway. We menaged to land Michigan and Tennessee a few years ago, and renewed a Virginia home and home, and essentially nothing was done with future scheduling that is evident for fans to see.

A great point, and not something we've seen talked about much. I was expecting more here sooner, and it's starting to look a little worrying. Multiple MAC teams WON'T CUT IT, especially if UMass becomes an annual game.

Manuel and PP need to get going on this - now.