UMass

[Towney007]

"There's an active effort to expand back into the Springfield market..."

What the heck? If they don't have the Springfield market, they've got less than nothing. I also don't get how they're being allowed to remain FBS in football while it seems they are playing more of their home games at 17,000 seat McGuirk Stadium on campus than at Gillette.

I have nothing against UMASS since The Squid departed Amherst, but suggesting they should be added to the already dysfunctional AAC is sheer insanity. The real litmus test for deciding to add anybody is whether or not the potential addition adds enough value in terms of media market to justify slicing the pie so all the pieces are slightly smaller. Any school that can't pass the pie test gets left out. They might want to get into the AAC, but wanting to and deserving to are two different things.

1.) I never insinuated they SHOULD be allowed into the AAC. Not at all. But that's the goal in the department and that's what they're hoping for. Whether that's realistic/unrealistic/whatever - it's what they're thinking and hoping for. Calm down.

2.) Springfield/Western Mass is a weird place. I kind of joke with people that there's almost an imaginary, gigantic tofu curtain that extends over the top of Holyoke and South Hadley and almost separates the region from Northampton,/Amherst/Easthampton/Deerfield, etc. Everyone knows each other on either side of the curtain, but you'd be surprised at how little business cross pollination there is. UMass gets covered by Masslive, but it's not a popular read. They do well when they come to the MassMutual Center, but that's few, far between and forever. No one travels from here to there.

Go look at their billboards and advertising - and it's all Hampshire County businesses - Liquors 44, Cooley Dickinson, UMass Hotel, Country Hyundai... there's almost nothing south of that so-called curtain (which in turn effects attendance). You DO see MassMutual, but you don't see MGM. You don't see Baystate, or Trinity or Peter Pan or Teddy Bear or Smith & Wesson or Friendly's or Holyoke Medical Center or Suez or PeoplesBank or United Bank or... you get it. Now go to a Springfield Thunderbirds game? All those guys are there. And all the guy at UMass aren't at the Thunderbirds games.

They don't have a TV deal. They're not broadcasted locally. If you want to see them, you have to go see them in person.

In spite of that - they do well attendance-wise. When they're competitive, Springfield peeks its head up. When they're not, they're not. The football games were bizarrely well attended when they were in FCS, but when they moved to Gillette, they killed buzz and interest among local alums who felt slighted. Boston area alums could have cared less. They're back on campus now and the tail gating scene there laps UConn's times 100.... but no one goes into the games and the students all just go back to their dorms..

It's a weird place.

 

[CL82]

hey're back on campus now and the tail gating scene there laps UConn's times 100

I find that hard to believe.

 

[UConnNick]

Our benefits are mostly that it is a readily winnable game with a fanbase that can drive to Rent but a little bit that it promotes New England football. Having other programs in the NE might start the rising tide that will float all boats.

I thought it might boost attendance for at least one home game, but according to Towney, who knows a lot about their situation, their local fans won't even drive the relatively short distance from Amherst to Foxborough. That doesn't bode well for expecting them to show up in East Hartford for a game. And I still don't get how they're getting a free pass from the NCAA on the 30,000 seat capacity stadium requirement to be an FBS team. They seem to hardly play any games at Gillette anymore, so counting it as their home stadium is quite a stretch.

 

[huskymedic]

I also don't get how they're being allowed to remain FBS in football while it seems they are playing more of their home games at 17,000 seat McGuirk Stadium on campus than at Gillette.

... And I still don't get how they're getting a free pass from the NCAA on the 30,000 seat capacity stadium requirement to be an FBS team. They seem to hardly play any games at Gillette anymore, so counting it as their home stadium is quite a stretch.

The minimum stadium seating capacity requirement was dropped 2004ish?

To maintain FBS status now, a school must avg 15,000 in paid or actual attendance a game at least once every two seasons.

 

[uconnphil2016]

The minimum stadium seating capacity requirement was dropped 2004ish?

To maintain FBS status now, a school must avg 15,000 in paid or actual attendance a game at least once every two seasons.

I think McGuirk fails to meet FBS standards in some respects outside of seating capacity. Let me look it up...

 

[uconnphil2016]

Nvm. They did fail at one point and I believe that hurt them with MAC but renovations for 2016 put them up to FBS standards

 

[Towney007]

I find that hard to believe.

Been to both. In recent years? UMass def. has more life about it. Problem is the kids just go home at kickoff.

 

[Towney007]

Nvm. They did fail at one point and I believe that hurt them with MAC but renovations for 2016 put them up to FBS standards

They're supposedly working with MGM on it.