Student Section is a Joke

[Duncan Idaho]

UConn sold out the student and young alumni sections for the 2013 season after back to back 5-7 seasons. I believe the student section was expanded to accomadate the demand. The Rent has become the New York Kights baseball stadium before Roy Hobbs came on board. Looks better with people in the bleachers.

 

[freescooter]

Save arguments for highway access etc for an NFL board.

That’s not what this is. This is college sports, folks, and so many people here don’t get it and it’s sad.

I realize it’s the hand we’re dealt now and it sucks.

It was a mistake to build the Rent in East Hartford. Full stop. End of discussion.

Yes but...the other option was not build it. It wasn’t a problem for the first 10 years. Suddenly it’s a problem. Just like basketball playing in Hartford. And Hockey Playing in Hartford. None of those thing were problems when teams are good. Just when they are bad.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

UConn sold out the student and young alumni sections for the 2013 season after back to back 5-7 seasons. I believe the student section was expanded to accomadate the demand. The Rent has become the New York Kights baseball stadium before Roy Hobbs came on board. Looks better with people in the bleachers.

Well Michigan on the schedule had everything to with that

 

[gampelcrazies]

...or we could just go full Orwell:

This is becoming a problem.

Teams/leagues are moving to digital tickets so they can track your every move.

I’ve been told MLB does this and people don’t even know

 

[freescooter]

Bad product. It’s not rocket science. And a the student section is still a whole lot more full for a crappy basketball than it is at the Rent on a Saturday

Not just a bad product but that is absolutely a huge part of it. But also television has made going to games less fun than it ought to be. Never ending time outs. Play reviews that take forever. And my favorite the tv time out followed by 1 play followed by a tv time out.

I went to a D3 game last year with a friend who had a nephew playing against Wesleyan. Same rules but the game took about 2 1/2 hours. 45 minutes less than last weeks UConn-Illinois game. That doesn’t make the in stadium experience

 

[lange10]

I went to a few UConn graduation parties this May. Just taking the temperature of some of the grads - they do not give a flying f about the athletic department.

Some probably because the teams have been terrible - but the grads they are cranking out aren’t anything like the kids who graduated like 15 years ago.

Watch TV - this isn’t a UConn specific issue.

I mean these 2019 grads did just endure a pretty brutal stretch for the MBB/FB programs...

I do think the rising academic prowess and the population of students that are coming to UConn today though do care a lot less about sports.

I graduated in 2017. The football games in 2013 when I was a freshman all had jam packed student sections for the first few games.

 

[whaler11]

I mean these 2019 grads did just endure a pretty brutal stretch for the MBB/FB programs...

I do think the rising academic prowess and the population of students that are coming to UConn today though do care a lot less about sports.

I graduated in 2017. The football games in 2013 when I was a freshman all had jam packed student sections for the first few games.

maryland and michigan? thanks for your service

 

[formerlurker]

Play the games in the parking lot.

 

[Uconnalliance]

This is modeled after China's "good citizen" plan. A glimpse into the future where technology is used to perfect conformity. Available for export, call your local embassy.

I will from Turks and Caicos

 

[lange10]

maryland and michigan? thanks for your service

Towson...

And we lost...

 

[CL82]

In college, we snuck a keg into the stadium.

And by "snuck" you mean just walked in laughing because our buddy was taking tickets and he really didn't give sheet one way or the other.

 

[CL82]

Free White Claws for everyone that attends!

Kids don’t drink beer any more; kegs won’t fix the problem.

Not going to games. Not drinking beer. It's like I have nothing in common with them.

 

[CL82]

Yes but...the other option was not build it. It wasn’t a problem for the first 10 years. Suddenly it’s a problem. Just like basketball playing in Hartford. And Hockey Playing in Hartford. None of those thing were problems when teams are good. Just when they are bad.

Um, another option was build it on campus, like, oh I don't know, 95% of the other football playing schools.

 

[husky8273]

Um, another option was build it on campus, like, oh I don't know, 95% of the other football playing schools.

building it on campus was not an option. the attempt to do so got no traction in the legislature.

 

[CL82]

building it on campus was not an option. the attempt to do so got no traction in the legislature.

Incorrect. Even a proposal to have the state pay for a stadium, Burton and Shenkman combo “got traction” it just didn’t have the votes to pass. If UConn went to the legislature saying we will do Burton and Shenkman from private funds if you will bond for the stadium it likely would have had the votes to pass.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Well Michigan on the schedule had everything to with that

Thats right! Forgot about that.

 

[SubbaBub]

The students came they just didn’t stay.

They don’t want to sober up so they leave. Lower the drinking age and stick kegs in the student section and they stay.

The actionable thing here is, looser pat downs at the student gate.

 

[whaler11]

The actionable thing here is, looser pat downs at the student gate.

im surprised we dont have to take our shoes off

 

[pepband99]

im surprised we dont have to take our shoes off

Don't give CRDA ideas - they can hire more minions!

 

[freescooter]

Um, another option was build it on campus, like, oh I don't know, 95% of the other football playing schools.

I’m, like they you know, tried to build one on campus. Don’t remember the exact dates but around 1993-94 or so. It looked like 1A football was dead until P&W offered the current site several years later. So yeah. The option was no stadium or East Hartford stadium.

 

[freescooter]

I think student attendance is pretty much down in many places...maybe most. Lots of things contribute The fact that tv makes the in stadium experience impossible. The fact that every game is on tv. The fact that students don’t really care that much.

I also think the new post season doesn’t help. We are 3 weeks into the season and Maryland’s season is essentially over. So is Southern Cal’s There are only a handful of schools that could survive an early season loss and those aren’t any of them. The other thing is the myth that full stadiums were “normal”. That was true for maybe a few programs at the very top but for most the only time they got a full house was if A. A huge name came to town. Or B. They played a rival. Add the expanded stadiums that rarely sell out. North Carolina is a good example, and the problem is even worse. Kenan Stadium went from mid-40,000s to mid 60s. Honestly they’d have been better off without the expansion or with a much more modest one. Rutgers did a big expansion which rarely fills.

Finally the realignment didn’t help. Traditional rivalries disappeared. Regional games went away.

 

[DefCONNOne]

Sure, all those things could definitely be factors but the most implant factors you’re leaving out are the following:

The team (and stadium) was shiny, new and GOOD (and playing in a BCS conference).

Traditions and fandom are not built overnight; so, of course, when the program and conference fell apart; people didn’t really have the same feeling of loyalty towards the football program because there was really not much loyalty to begin with.

I don’t like to play this card often here (since this is a UConn football message board) but I am a Georgia football season ticket holder. You’re just going to have to trust me when I tell you I might no a little something about how fanbases and traditions are built in college sports.

Well, that certainly explains the smugly superior attitude you're showing in this thread.

 

[DefCONNOne]

Timing of the above didn't help. The country was just reemerging from the Great Recession and Connecticut's recovery was slower than most anywhere else around the country.

Many incurred major life events and reassessed their disposable spending. If and when they personally recovered, the team fell on hard times and they found they could do without certain social and/or entertainment functions that they previously engaged, spectator sports among them.

No one calls it that. Well, no self respecting person calls it that.

If and when? Don't you mean if OR when?

 

[DefCONNOne]

But there are enough people to fill a Double A ballpark every night? It seems like the people going to that are younger and fun! The Yard Goats market and brand very well. UConn...not so much.

They also get their jimmies rustled if you call them out on their idiotic peanut ban. They don't like that at all.

 

[Husky25]

No one calls it that. Well, no self respecting person calls it that.

If and when? Don't you mean if OR when?