UConn/Big 12 Meeting Next Week

[bendm]

Let’s get back to 30-40K average attendees first, then worry about need for expansion.

We don’t need more empty seats right now.

If you build it, they will come

After an official invite I think attendance would skyrocket overnight even if football doesn’t join for 7 years. So immediately back to 25-30k and then sold out 50k for big12 conference games. At least That’s my rose colored glasses outloook.

 

[ec33]

How much money is it worth spending to build a new stadium (and the money for all the road construction) so the athletic department loses slightly less money each year? Spending a billion dollars to come up $15 million better on an annual basis is not a winning argument.

 

[Stinger92860]

In the 80s, I wrote a white paper on the eventual decline of brick and mortar establishments that focused on Sears. It was, for all intense and purposes, before the worldwide web so it focused on downsizing the square footage where it would only be enough for a specific niche say Ted Williams sporting goods or just Craftsman tools, but would set aside a catalog desk in the back so that anything could be ordered directly. It turned out to be prescient, sort of.

Good future casting by you. The CEO of ARK investments lived in my town, I got to know her a bit. She called out the future value of Amazon in circa 1998 to an investment bank full of men. They laughed at her. Last I saw she was worth 600M+.

 

[SoFla Steve]

This has not worked well for former Big East basketball schools. Syracuse stinks, Pitt stinks, BC stinks, Rutgers stinks, Louisville stinks. I’m for staying.

History is with you. It hasn't worked out for most schools.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/56...aturday-realignment-history-college-football/

 

[JohnFSilver]

Does it really matter if we are winning national titles and able to schedule those teams now?

UConn Athletics belongs in a power conference for all sports. Its peers are Rutgers, Virginia, North Carolina, Penn State, Maryland etc.

State flagships.

 

[Waquoit]

If you build it, they will come

After an official invite I think attendance would skyrocket overnight even if football doesn’t join for 7 years. So immediately back to 25-30k and then sold out 50k for big12 conference games. At least That’s my rose colored glasses outloook.

I concur. Connecticut is packed with football fans, just not UConn football fans. But CT fans will support big-time CFB. The Big 12 qualifies.

 

[ucp990411]

On Campus stadium would make students significantly more interested, which results in long-term fans as alumni.

I have been saying this for oh like the last 25 years. My daughter graduated in 2016 and never cared about football. Why? Because she had to take a yellow school bus to get to the games so she never went. She loves men’s hoops though. She walked to Gampel.

 

[CL82]

It just needed to be a showroom.

Yep, for certain marquee brands only this keeping down the physical footprint. Everything else could be accessed via catalogue.

I was assured, however, that people would never buy products by just looking at a picture and a description. They felt I was underestimating the need for tactile experience to facilitate decision-making.

 

[Kolumbo]

I hate talking about the stadium situation and I'm sure that subject just might be broached during the UConn to the Big XII negotiations. Colleges of all shapes and sizes from your Ohio States to your Muhlenbergs have successfully built football stadiums on campus yet people think UConn can't do it. Take a look at Cinci's campus and how small a footprint that stadium has jammed in between its other athletic fields. We can build on campus and still go much larger. If UConn ends up in the XII, #3 behind the B1G and SEC, there is no reason UConn can't afford whatever kind of freaking stadium the XII would require. It becomes an integral part of the campus and the perfect place to showcase our football legacy.

 

[CL82]

How much money is it worth spending to build a new stadium (and the money for all the road construction) so the athletic department loses slightly less money each year? Spending a billion dollars to come up $15 million better on an annual basis is not a winning argument.

True, but it's also not an argument based in reality...so there's that.

The notion that there needs to be the super highway running up to the front door of the stadium is a fallacy based upon the experience of virtually every other college in the US who plays football.

 

[CL82]

Good future casting by you. The CEO of ARK investments lived in my town, I got to know her a bit. She called out the future value of Amazon in circa 1998 to an investment bank full of men. They laughed at her. Last I saw she was worth 600M+.

The indicators were all there, as they often are. It amazes me how often people get stuck in the mindset of "the way things are are the way they will always be", when experience tells us that's almost certainly not the case.

 

[Stinger92860]

History is with you. It hasn't worked out for most schools.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/56...aturday-realignment-history-college-football/

Based on history we have 6 ships despite getting screwed. Those schools, plus BC, can rot.

 

[Stinger92860]

The indicators were all there, as they often are. It amazes me how often people get stuck in the mindset of "the way things are are the way they will always be", when experience tells us that's almost certainly not the case.

Your comment speaks exactly to our current position. Still we have naysayers in our midst.

 

[bendm]

How much money is it worth spending to build a new stadium (and the money for all the road construction) so the athletic department loses slightly less money each year? Spending a billion dollars to come up $15 million better on an annual basis is not a winning argument.

Except it’s ~$30 million better annually. And no one has said we need to build a new stadium but expanding its capacity to 50k might be a reasonable prerequisite.

 

[JohnFSilver]

Your comment speaks exactly to our current position. Still we have naysayers in our midst.

Some people only care about basketball. If UConn doesn’t go then maybe St. John’s and Villanova leave big east for big 12 think about it.

 

[UofCT]

 

[Stinger92860]

View attachment 103105

Thats been done before at the collegiate level. Didn’t UCF go that route?

 

[LoyalFanCT]

I hate talking about the stadium situation and I'm sure that subject just might be broached during the UConn to the Big XII negotiations. Colleges of all shapes and sizes from your Ohio States to your Muhlenbergs have successfully built football stadiums on campus yet people think UConn can't do it. Take a look at Cinci's campus and how small a footprint that stadium has jammed in between its other athletic fields. We can build on campus and still go much larger. If UConn ends up in the XII, #3 behind the B1G and SEC, there is no reason UConn can't afford whatever kind of freaking stadium the XII would require. It becomes an integral part of the campus and the perfect place to showcase our football legacy.

It can also be used for a single university graduation ceremony, freshmen orientation, various campus events

 

[ec33]

Except it’s ~$30 million better annually. And no one has said we need to build a new stadium but expanding its capacity to 50k might be a reasonable prerequisite.

It isn't ~$30 million more. It is ~$30 total and athletic department expenditure will increase to meet the challenges of stepping up into a more competitive conference in most sports.

My reply was more to the "new stadium on campus" folks. Expanding and improving the current stadium would be the reasonable way to proceed.

When the time comes for a new stadium, then consideration should be made to an on-campus facility before recognizing that there is no political will for such and project.

 

[JSB60]

You're hyping up Cincinnati's NIT appearance, good lord. Kobe, how many handles do you have here?

I’m not hyping it up, it’s mediocre but better than the others. And I would never have any Kobe handle, only this one. Just a kid from New Haven.

 

[NEforceUConn]

I have been saying this for oh like the last 25 years. My daughter graduated in 2016 and never cared about football. Why? Because she had to take a yellow school bus to get to the games so she never went. She loves men’s hoops though. She walked to Gampel.

Yo dude, if UConn is 2-2 in the Big 12 playing TCU ( Houston, or anyone actually) at the Rent and a student doesn’t take the “yellow bus” they better be in the library studying for Advanced Calculus 6.

 

[ucp990411]

Yo dude, if UConn is 2-2 in the Big 12 playing TCU ( Houston, or anyone actually) at the Rent and a student doesn’t take the “yellow bus” they better be in the library studying for Advanced Calculus 6.

She never missed a mens hoop game. She also was a double major who graduated with 157 credits, worked part time in the financial office and is now earning well into 6 figures. And the yellow bus you quote me on really was a yellow bus. My point is that if the stadium was on campus she would have gone to every game and would have become a big fan. Instead she doesn’t give a darn about UConn football

 

[bendm]

Yo dude, if UConn is 2-2 in the Big 12 playing TCU ( Houston, or anyone actually) at the Rent and a student doesn’t take the “yellow bus” they better be in the library studying for Advanced Calculus 6.

With a plastic flask in your pocket the yellow buses sound like a good time

 

[Hamms30]

With a plastic flask in your pocket the yellow buses sound like a good time

Is that a fancy way of saying a gatorade bottle half full of dubra?

 

[50cPitchers]

Everyone acting like the Rent wasn't packed in 2010 when we were beating WVU and Pitt. If you win no one cares where the stadium is, they'll show up. Insane to think more kids will show up to see a 1-10 team play because they're "on campus"