UConn Student Football Apathy Needs Prompt Attention

[CL82]

You can't "blame" the students for what they elect to do for fun.

You didn't go to a restaurant and it went out of business or you didn't see a movie and it flopped - should I blame the people that elected to do something better with their time?

The bus sucks - it really does. I hated taking it but I loved the team (even in 05/06). However it's a tough sell.

I think there should be student ticket package options.

$15/game gets you: bus, a burger, dog, chips, soda, water, whatever.

$12/game gets you the bus or food.

$7/game ( or whatever it is now) gets youin the rent.

I love what Warde has done and I think he'll get this right but this needs to be done.

As a freshman, taking a 45 minute bus, showing up to the stadium 1.5 hours early, and staying for a 4-8 team (06) really sucked. Not to mention waking up early for noon games and killing your Saturday.

So, blame them all you want, but the reality is something needs to change.

Good ideas. Email him.

 

[Waquoit]

Add a special "athletics surcharge" to all student tuition fees. Say, $1000/yr (most tuition bills are paid for by student loans anyway).

This is a joke, right?

 

[CL82]

This is a joke, right?

We wouldn't be the first school to do it.

 

[RedSoloCup]

I think the ideas to give the students a close drop, a place to congregate, alcohol and non-alcohol options based upon their student ID, those have the most merit... get them there and a place to go when they land...

Work on entertainment before the game, and a staging area before they reload to get home, a great idea, they may stay later.

They may not as well, but making it easier is what you do to get them there. Getting them there, getting them fired up, and into the game will help the perception and that is what many are harping on.

 

[upstater]

We wouldn't be the first school to do it.

UConn already does this. Divide total student fee subsidy by number of undergrads.

At a certain point, when tuition and room & board is higher than a kid's ability to pay for it even with a 20 hour a week job year round + the max on student loans, you have to ask yourself whether you value public education at all. Michigan and Penn State are pretty embarrassing when it comes to this question.

 

[dsturdy5]

Reading DiMaurio's article, something struck me, a kid can leave his seat just before half time, say if a team is killing the clock, race to the bus, get back to campus and to their dorm and only miss a few minutes of game action after the twenty minute halftime.

If you're someone who is not 100% dedicated to the program, why not go for the half, see how the team is performing and if they are getting beat badly, take off and watch the rest from home while pounding a few back? I wouldn't take this option per se, but see why a student who just wants to go and enjoy a game would do it, particularly over the last few years.

 

[FAIRTIDES]

It's easy as f--- for a student or anyone else to get to the Rent.

Only changes I'd make...make the bus free, make some sort of pre-game burger thing available for a couple of bucks and then keep the little savages hostage until the end of the game.

Take it to the limit. Make the whole thing a portal-to-portal party. Run the bus like the Merry Pranksters (minus the free LSD, of course) of the sixties. Arrive early. Have a tent set-up for students only. Beer for those who qualify. Food and soda for everyone. Christ, hire a band. When I was in in college, I had two things in mind when I went to an event. Enjoying the event and getting lucky. Make the ride to, the pre-game, and the ride home something for college students. What's being described sounds like a poorly run senior citizens outing put together by Art History Majors from Vassar. Listen to the prospective customer.

Two quid-pro-quo requirements for the Students. Be loud! Stay till it's over!

 

[dsturdy5]

Get someone with good pipes to take over WHUS and announce "Saturday at the Rent, everyone gets laid."

It's worked before.

 

[Dooley]

This is a joke, right?

To be perfectly honest, I've given up on our students supporting football. Been beating this drum for over a decade and no progress, not even during winning seasons. There are a few dozen or so students who stay throughout the whole game and always have. But 80% of them (or more) have always arrived late and left early. And I think they always will unless we play a Michigan type of team. It's a shame too because when the student sections are full in the 2nd quarters of games, they make a considerable amount of noise.

 

[kemba]

But 80% of them (or more) have always arrived late and left early.

Not even close

 

[mets1090]

The student section can be a joke at times (especially the last 4 years) but the bigger joke is a collection of adults (the administration) expecting the students to change.

When have you ever known an 18 year old to change? To choose an option that is more work and less fun than alternatives? Like it or not the school needs to cater to the student section until going to games start to finish is a cultural norm. Otherwise it's going to take 4 years of winning to change it. And not 7-5 winning. 9-3 winning. 10-2 winning. 4 good years means graduating students are used to going to good football games and will buy season tickets etc.

At our peak we were the equivalent of a good mid major in basketball, except with no chance at a miracle title run. We look at good mid major basketball student sections and say "Hey, look at how they rally around their marginal team." That's largely because you only see them when they're playing in conference/national tournament games or when they are playing big time opponents. This is exactly what our student section was for football during our best days. Decent showing for most games, great showing for the big games.

So the University can either sit around and hope they start winning some damn games or they can help make a short term impact by affecting what they can affect. JMO.

 

[minidarren]

The student section can be a joke at times (especially the last 4 years) but the bigger joke is a collection of adults (the administration) expecting the students to change.

When have you ever known an 18 year old to change? To choose an option that is more work and less fun than alternatives? Like it or not the school needs to cater to the student section until going to games start to finish is a cultural norm. Otherwise it's going to take 4 years of winning to change it. And not 7-5 winning. 9-3 winning. 10-2 winning. 4 good years means graduating students are used to going to good football games and will buy season tickets etc.

At our peak we were the equivalent of a good mid major in basketball, except with no chance at a miracle title run. We look at good mid major basketball student sections and say "Hey, look at how they rally around their marginal team." That's largely because you only see them when they're playing in conference/national tournament games or when they are playing big time opponents. This is exactly what our student section was for football during our best days. Decent showing for most games, great showing for the big games.

So the University can either sit around and hope they start winning some damn games or they can help make a short term impact by affecting what they can affect. JMO.

I thought you were going to be positive?

 

[mets1090]

I thought you were going to be positive?

In the game thread

And that wasn't meant to be a negative post per se. It's more of a stop sitting on your hands situation.

 

[bmayuc]

*****************SUPERBUMP*****************

If anyone, of any stature or on this board, decries fan support, I would like to point them to the dump that UCONN just dropped on national TV, and tell them to go screw. I'll still show up and drink my beers and see my family and all that, but please stop insulting me.

That is all.

*****************SUPERBUMP***************

 

[Salzano14]

For all you guys do to persuade yourselves that BC's fan support at football games isn't great, we have 9k undergrads and fill the student corner regardless of the opponent. BC has the highest percentage of the student body in its football student section of any school in the country.

Say what you want about our attendance but BC's students aren't the problem.

I don't say this to troll (not entirely, anyway) but my point, to what others have said, is that after watching BC students go to games even when we were 2-10, having a stadium on campus would do even more for UConn's student attendance than winning would.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

I see the points about paying for buses and no food, but honestly most of this sounds like a bunch of snobby kids that were raised in the fashion of what are you going to do for me right now and not tomorrow

And the season ticket holders who don't want to drive all the way to Storrs are what? The students' argument that the games should be on campus is absolutely positively 100% valid.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

fill the student corner regardless of the opponent.

Laughably incorrect and you know it. They weren't close to full for Pitt. Student seats were not 100% full midway through the first quarter against USC. Was the walk from the mods too far?

 

[Salzano14]

Laughably incorrect and you know it. They weren't close to full for Pitt. Student seats were not 100% full midway through the first quarter against USC. Was the walk from the mods too far?

This was 10 minutes ago

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[zls44]

This was 10 minutes ago ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

You beat usc and they're more full. How shocking.

 

[zls44]

This was 10 minutes ago ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Way to totally duck what he said about the usc game. The kind of blatant debate chicanery common on the heights.

 

[husky10]

This was 10 minutes ago

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Way to be posting on the uconn board during a bc football game. Clearly some exciting football going on up in Boston.

 

[Salzano14]

Way to be posting on the uconn board during a bc football game. Clearly some exciting football going on up in Boston.

Did you know Google Chrome allows you to open multiple tabs? It's awesome.

As for the USC game, sorry, student section was packed. But if you want to split hairs on some stragglers not making it in before kickoff as proof of BC somehow lacking in student support, then idk what to tell you. 60% of the student body goes to every football game.

 

[Salzano14]

You beat usc and they're more full. How shocking.

Attendance was under 30k and yet the student section was completely full. Again, student support is not something BC is struggling with.

We had more students AT UMass than UMass did.

 

[Husky25]

That game was played in Foxboro, not Amherst.

 

[Salzano14]

That game was played in Foxboro, not Amherst.

I know it was. Wasn't in Chestnut Hill either.