UMass as leverage

[brasssbonanzaa]

Don't be fooled by the UMass-UNH attendance last year. Half of that was UNH fans, it was not considered a UMass home game, but rather a neutral site game. They didn't draw a half-full crowd when their basketball team played Memphis at TD Garden a couple of years ago, listed at 8,000. Here's a video from the closing moments of the game, 8,000 is generous. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LT4L07xdC-c The balcony wasn't even open. UMass football drawing 50K of their own fans at a venue 100 miles from their own campus is a total pipe dream. There are more BC and BU hockey fans in this part of the state than there are UMass football and basketball fans. Whoever said UMass is the #1 school in this state is a complete fool.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

UMASS drew 32,000 people to Gillette last year for a game against New Hampshire. If they could draw that many for New Hampshire i'm sure they could get
close to 50,000 for Big East games. I'd be willing to bet that UMASS could draw more fans to games than BC which would have to be pretty embarrassing to BC.

The question people need to ask themselves is can UMASS generate more fan support than BC if they were moved into a quality league? The answer to that question is absolutely YES, which is why UMASS as leverage might work.

I'm sorry to be blunt, but you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about and are categorically wrong. BC soundly trumps UMass in terms of fan support. I know we all grasp at straws here to find the most asinine reasons to hate BC, but this is absolutely wrong. Pretty soon we're going to start hearing that Northeastern has more fan support than BC.

 

[metsfan2323]

BC soundly trumps UMass in terms of fan support.

Because UMASS is division 2, That can change when they go to D1 and it would certainly change if they were in the Big East. Need proof? Yale had more football fan support in CT than UCONN did in the 80's...and in the 60's Yale had more football fan support than UCONN does now! The world changes, even the sportsworld.

 

[BlueMAB]

It's really hard to take UMass to the big east seriously when one of the most vocal supporters uses one game with an announced attendance of 32k against another local team to argue they are "sure" UMass would "get close to 50k for big east games". And the other most vocal supporter lectures others on his knowledge of market studies, while ignoring the impact of the pro teams in Mass and their affect on UMass' market share.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

Because UMASS is division 2, That can change when they go to D1 and it would certainly change if they were in the Big East. Need proof? Yale had more football fan support in CT than UCONN did in the 80's...and in the 60's Yale had more football fan support than UCONN does now! The world changes, even the sportsworld.

You cannot compare fan support in the 1960's. You also cannot compare fan support in different states with different schools, it's apples and oranges. Plus, Yale is FCS, so saying we eclipsed them isn't saying much. That's not proof. The proof is their marquee sport cannot fill 50% of the big arena in the city they're supposed to be drawing support from in their FBS move. UMass sports are not big here, they are not covered regularly in the newspapers/news stations unless something huge happens. UConn gets significantly more coverage here. As I stated, the 32k at the UMass-UNH game was half UNH fans, and believe me, they promoted that game to hell and were practically giving tickets away. The only seats outside of the lower level that were open were the small group of sections at the 50 yard line, and they did not sellout. The entire upper level and all other balconies were not open. It was also a neutral site game, so tickets were evenly distributed to both schools. Here's a picture from the game: http://blogs.umass.edu/jack4rl/files/2010/10/2010-10-23-17.41.21.jpg Point: There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that UMass football would ever draw 50K for a game at Gillette in the Big East, unless 25-30K of those people are UConn fans. Likewise, the suggestion that they would pass BC in fan support, even with BC down and being low on the totem pole to the pro teams, is backed by absolutely no facts whatsoever. Hell, Harvard averaged more fans lat year than UMass.

 

[arnie3]

This thread has gone on for 5 pages, and it could have been stopped with brassbonanzaa's "hell Harvard averaged more fans last year than UMass". Case closed.

 

[whaler11]

I'm not even sure that UMass could be used for leverage if someone's bank robbery was thwarted and the only hostage they had was UMass.