The BC-UMass crowd total was more a product of UMass football not being popular, the game being a rather blah matchup, and increased apathy towards the BC program at the time. I don't know that BC-UConn would sell 68K to Gillette, but 45-50 would be very achievable I think. The other problem is Gillette is VERY annoying to get to for everyone involved. It was built in a terrible location.
At the time? The game was just played last year. They were capitalizing on Williams' Heisman run and were marketing the heck out of Tyler Murphy, let alone the Battle for the Commonwealth (that they knew they would win). I think an important metric is tickets made available vs. purchased and used. I can't find that info. Remember, UConn-Army at Yankee Stadium was only only sold 27-something thousand total, so precedent does not currently support opening more sections.
I concluded a similar number to your 45-50k.
I wrote that earlier in this thread, followed up with a question on why BC would agree to it. Why would they pay rent for Gillette (where they would barely recoup their costs? Gillette sells beer, but it's doubtful they would get a cut of the concession), while their home stadium (which they can't sell it out in their own right) supports about the same number of estimated attendees.
Re: Location, I'd prefer Gillette. Compared to Alumni Stadium and all that goes along with it, Gillette is a football game day experience field of dreams. First, they widened Route 1 and if you get to Gillette early, you can at least tailgate. It is virtually impossible for home fans, let alone visitors, to do anything in Newton that we have become remotely accustomed to. The T stops every 46 feet on Comm. Ave. and good luck finding parking if you drive it. According to the article I posted yesterday, The idea of tailgating for a single game ticket holder involved a Hefty garbage bag, an ice machine, a 30 pack of swill, and a nearby street corner. All that said, Gillette doesn't make sense monetarily. BC owns Alumni and would be able to control ticket allocation. Even if & when UConn fans force a sell out, they would have to get tickets in some way, shape, or form through the BC ticket office.
The only solution really is a home and home series with a buyout so big it would choke an elephant, and based on those games, discuss a neutral-site.
Agree wholeheartedly, for everything they put into it, and for two in-state "rivals" the attendance numbers were woeful. Just wanted to point out that the game wasn't as empty as the picture above it may have insinuated. Attendance for UMass home games at Gillette has been brutal.
I never meant to insinuate that the photo I posted was from BC-UMass. My point is that Gillette typically makes available only about a 1/4 of the stadium for UMass. The fact that BC-UMass only sold 30-something-000 is more proof they wouldn't makes more than 45-50k available and even that seems high right now. In a round-about way, I think we are saying similar things.