What attendance would constitute a good showing on Saturday?

[Palatine]

He was very good. If he was not banged up, he would have kept drives going and kept the ball out of UConn's O hands, some...

No. He couldn't have sustained the workload he had in the first quarter. He was working his butt off to get five yards. They were great five yard runs, lots of moves and taking a lot of contact but they were also taking a toll. He was being overused. Probably was a factor in his injury.

Best of luck to him moving forward.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

No. He couldn't have sustained the workload he had in the first quarter. He was working his butt off to get five yards. They were great five yard runs, lots of moves and taking a lot of contact but they were also taking a toll. He was being overused. Probably was a factor in his injury.

Best of luck to him moving forward.

There is an argument to be made there. I thought the calf injury occurred on a pass play.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

No offense to CCSU but they don’t get enough home attendance to cause such a big bump.

True, but they showed very well for this game. I'll wager that Central will have a couple home games with fewer of their fans attending than what showed up Saturday.

 

[freescooter]

Agreed! And to further the point West Virginia had 57K for its opener against Robert Morris of the NEC. Bobby Mo was blown out and that didn't impact attendance.

I know for most UConn fans, it is a chicken-egg theory, but hard to say that Connecticut can ever support football at the ACC or BigXII level. Tough pill to swallow for many here, but objectively not sure you can see it any other way.

Yes, major conference affiliation would improve the attraction of the home schedule and probably would draw a few extra fairweather and bandwagon fans in good seasons. This State has basketball in its blood and football at all levels will be a very distant afterthought. That's not the culture at these other schools (and the Duke, Kansas, and Indiana have been in the club since the beginning).

This is nonsense. We had 30-37,000 plus for Central on Saturday (only Don Amore disagrees and he was mad because he had to cover UConn instead of his beloved Yankees). Are we going to put 50,000 in the building? Be pretty tough since we only seat about 40,000. And unlike the service academies, we out drew all 3, attendance isn’t required. If we had Carolina, BC, Syracuse, Clemson coming to town regularly, and we had a competitive football team, we would see similar numbers most weeks. We keep winning and the numbers will be very good even with our current schedule. I don’t know if you remember the Kevin Ollie basketball years, when we were losing to the likes of Northeastern and Wagner. Tickets were available, let’s just say.

 

[JohnFSilver]

Agreed. Central needs to get out of the NEC. That conference is done.

Central been trying since I was covering the team. Issue is money. The state won't let them spend much on athletics. So, Q-Pec and Sacred Heart jumped them into the MAAC. Hockey had a lot to do with it too.

Now? I feel that New Haven will jump them as well. CCSU needs a better hoops arena. But, that ship has sailed. If the state had money for it, Southern should be D1 as well.

 

[LIUCHusky]

True, but they showed very well for this game. I'll wager that Central will have a couple home games with fewer of their fans attending than what showed up Saturday.

I keep hearing how Central fans showed so well Saturday. From where I sit (101) I had the opposite feeling. I felt it was a disappointing number of Central fans attending.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

I keep hearing how Central fans showed so well Saturday. From where I sit (101) I had the opposite feeling. I felt it was a disappointing number of Central fans attending.

There were many scattered in 241 and adjacent sections, quite a few in 139 (spent a bit of the second half there) and a ton walking around between levels. I can't remember ever seeing that many Central tee shirts in my life.

There had to have been a few thousand at the game and it would surprise me if they don’t have some games at home that don't crack a few thousand.

 

[Purple Stein]

Central been trying since I was covering the team. Issue is money. The state won't let them spend much on athletics. So, Q-Pec and Sacred Heart jumped them into the MAAC. Hockey had a lot to do with it too.

Now? I feel that New Haven will jump them as well. CCSU needs a better hoops arena. But, that ship has sailed. If the state had money for it, Southern should be D1 as well.

Does CCSU have its own athletic foundation/donor base?

 

[businesslawyer]

From SBNation; "When we played at UConn my freshman year, that was the loudest place I’ve ever been as a football player,” Griffin continued. “The stands are right next to the field, it was packed, and everyone was yelling. That was probably the coolest place for me to play at aside from Texas, Texas A&M and Nebraska.”

Baylor always gave us respect when we swept the home and home. I reminder one TX reporter writing something like “People think UConn is a basketball school? Look at the size of the OL and tell me that’s a basketball school.”

 

[CCSU97]

Central been trying since I was covering the team. Issue is money. The state won't let them spend much on athletics. So, Q-Pec and Sacred Heart jumped them into the MAAC. Hockey had a lot to do with it too.

Now? I feel that New Haven will jump them as well. CCSU needs a better hoops arena. But, that ship has sailed. If the state had money for it, Southern should be D1 as well.

As I've posted before, yes it is the lack of funding, but that's because CCSU operates with much less autonomy from the State and has never had the political support to enhance its academic or athletic infrastructure. They are unable to do anything and has been overlooked by State politicians for decades.

 

[CCSU97]

Does CCSU have its own athletic foundation/donor base?

Yes, but it is tiny. A few very supportive donors, but nothing to move the needle.

 

[Stinger92860]

Typically everyone in the facility including players, officials, event staff, etc count (and it's pretty standard that they do), IIRC the 40,000 capacity for the Rent is around 38k seated and the rest counted from staff/players/etc

They count as tickets distributed? I’m having a hard time supporting the naysayers versus the official UConn attendance numbers.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Yes, but it is tiny. A few very supportive donors, but nothing to move the needle.

You need to get Scott Pioli and Richard Greico to step up.

 

[jostar1]

 

[JohnFSilver]

They count as tickets distributed? I’m having a hard time supporting the naysayers versus the official UConn attendance numbers.

This is a thing only in CT. For last 20 years every attendance was looked at as fake. The real number is tickets distributed. Like, if a ticket was printed and given to someone, that is still revenue. Marketing or promotions has a budget to pay for those.

I don't get why other programs give their attendance and that's that. But if the turnstile doesn't match it's a scandal.

Best metric is ask LAZ what the parking take was. I would expect about 7,500 cars x $20 a person. Nice take. Why doesn't UConn get that money again?

 

[Palatine]

This is a thing only in CT. For last 20 years every attendance was looked at as fake. The real number is tickets distributed. Like, if a ticket was printed and given to someone, that is still revenue. Marketing or promotions has a budget to pay for those.

I don't get why other programs give their attendance and that's that. But if the turnstile doesn't match it's a scandal.

Best metric is ask LAZ what the parking take was. I would expect about 7,500 cars x $20 a person. Nice take. Why doesn't UConn get that money again?

As a season ticket holder, I pay UConn for my parking pass. Not sure they just hand that money over to LAZ. Do you know how the parking revenue is distributed? It would seem like that money is split some way.

 

[UConnJim]

Best metric is ask LAZ what the parking take was. I would expect about 7,500 cars x $20 a person. Nice take. Why doesn't UConn get that money again?

Because the stadium is owned by the state and not UConn.

 

[CCSU97]

Central been trying since I was covering the team. Issue is money. The state won't let them spend much on athletics. So, Q-Pec and Sacred Heart jumped them into the MAAC. Hockey had a lot to do with it too.

Now? I feel that New Haven will jump them as well. CCSU needs a better hoops arena. But, that ship has sailed. If the state had money for it, Southern should be D1 as well.

QU and SHU surely have more money, better facilities, and play in a better conference - but neither school has the fan support or history that CCSU has. QU Hockey may be the outlier, but even in a 1960's era gym, Central draws bigger basketball crowds than either school on a regular basis. CCSU is a bigger and has many more alumni, though we are blue collar and don't have deep pockets. Remember when Hartford beat Central by a year jumping to D-I back in 1985. The played the first few years in the Civic Center and thought they would compete with the DePauls and Marquettes of the world. Well now they are D-III.

If Central was given just a little more financial and political support, we would be a top regional mid-major across the board in hoops, football, and baseball.

Finally, by my count, that CCSU game was the highest ever attended UConn game at The Rent for an FCS opponent (but someone can correct me if I'm wrong).

 

[Palatine]

QU and SHU surely have more money, better facilities, and play in a better conference - but neither school has the fan support or history that CCSU has. QU Hockey may be the outlier, but even in a 1960's era gym, Central draws bigger basketball crowds than either school on a regular basis. CCSU is a bigger and has many more alumni, though we are blue collar and don't have deep pockets. Remember when Hartford beat Central by a year jumping to D-I back in 1985. The played the first few years in the Civic Center and thought they would compete with the DePauls and Marquettes of the world. Well now they are D-III.

If Central was given just a little more financial and political support, we would be a top regional mid-major across the board in hoops, football, and baseball.

Finally, by my count, that CCSU game was the highest ever attended UConn game at The Rent for an FCS opponent (but someone can correct me if I'm wrong).

UHartford has 81,000 living alumni. 30,000 of them live in Connecticut. It's a big ask to even fill their field house.

CCSU has over 100,000 living alumni with around 70,000 of them in Connecticut. That local population is a solid base to draw fans.

UConn has just under 300,000 living alumni with just over half residing in Connecticut. UConn's big advantage is they have largely been adopted by the state and many fans are not alum, they just identify with the team.

 

[CCSU97]

UHartford has 81,000 living alumni. 30,000 of them live in Connecticut. It's a big ask to even fill their field house.

CCSU has over 100,000 living alumni with around 70,000 of them in Connecticut. That local population is a solid base to draw fans.

UConn has just under 300,000 living alumni with just over half residing in Connecticut. UConn's big advantage is they have largely been adopted by the state and many fans are not alum, they just identify with the team.

Agreed. UConn is the without a doubt the State flagship and especially since the 1990s has really done well to draw non-alumni fans from inside Connecticut. I'd suggest most of that is still basketball-focused, but it bleeds into football and maybe hockey to an extent. UConn's biggest problem in-state is that historically the goal was never to go to "State U" in a region dominated by Ivy League, Catholic and high-caliber private colleges and universities and college football just isn't big in the Northeast - its NFL. But UConn Law and Medical School and D-I athletics put it above the many smaller academic-elite schools and gives it big clout in the General Assembly.

Central's biggest issue (aside from lack of public funding/political support) is that our loyal alumni are almost entirely blue collar, working class. Most of our alumni are first-generation college graduates. We graduate teachers, nurses, accountants, cops, firemen, and the middle-mangers and small business types. We have very few corporate executives or high net-worth individuals that can afford to give back in large, amounts to make a huge impact. I'd wager that many UConn grads from the 1970s and on had a parent that graduated from a CSU school. We are not a legacy school and so our alumni kids or grandkids don't really go to Central, they are attending other "higher rated" schools. So even through CCSU probably has the 2nd (or third) largest alumni group inside the state, we don't have the power or influence of UConn, the Ivy class, or even high-wealth doners at Wesleyan, Trinity, Fairfield, Quinnipiac, etc.

Also, both CCSU and UConn don't do as well in Fairfield County and that's where they state has grown the most and is the most wealthy. Obviously UConn has made leaps and bounds in the area (and they Stamford campus helps), and are much better than CCSU, but I know back in the 1980s, your high-academic FCIAC school kids were going out of state. CCSU draws well across the state, except in Fairfield County. When the State's 2nd largest city Stamford is sending maybe 10 kids a year to Central, we have a problem. I doubt there are more than 50 kids at Central from Greenwich, Stamford, Darien, and New Cannan, Norwalk, Wilton, and Westport combined.

 

[drayenob]

I doubt there are more than 50 kids at Central from Greenwich, Stamford, Darien, and New Cannan, Norwalk, Wilton, and Westport combined.

132 for the fall of 2024

https://docs.ccsu.edu/oira/institutionalData/factbook/enrollments/headcount/Fall_Enrollment_By_CT_Towns.pdf

 

[WrenchFan69]

I would foster a mutually beneficial player development relationship w/ CCSU. New times/new strategies.

I'd like to see it in (pretty much) all sports. Play CCSU annually (assuming Yale won't come every year) in football. Play them at XL every year in MBB. If we're paying an opponent money to come play us, it might as well be one that can contribute to a few ticket sales, and even better if the money stays within the state budget. Helps CCSU for recruiting as well. "Sure we can't pay you as much this year, but you'll get a shot to show your skills against UConn every year you're here." Heck I'm not even opposed to a CCSU student section at the Rent if we're not going to sell the game out naturally.

 

[huskymedic]

 

[freescooter]

UHartford has 81,000 living alumni. 30,000 of them live in Connecticut. It's a big ask to even fill their field house.

CCSU has over 100,000 living alumni with around 70,000 of them in Connecticut. That local population is a solid base to draw fans.

UConn has just under 300,000 living alumni with just over half residing in Connecticut. UConn's big advantage is they have largely been adopted by the state and many fans are not alum, they just identify with the team.

Yes but much of that is the difference between a flagship university and a state university. UConn is a different animal. Closer to being a quasi-state entity. Central Connecticut is more like the primary campus of the State University system. They have different functions too. UConn is a research entity offering PhD’s in a range of fields, has a medical and law schools while CCSU is more teaching and “applied research” oriented. These are not meant to demean CCSU. Just to indicate they are a different animal. Most states have similar systems. Massachusetts for example, has UMass system and the state university system with Worcester State, Framingham, Bridgewater and some others. Often though not always the State universities originated as teachers colleges, sometimes they were agricultural schools, The influence/ power of these varies among states.

 

[freescooter]

I only saw 1 report suggesting there was “closer to 25,000”. That was Dom Amore. And he will likely push that narrative again if he gets a chance. My view is Dom is not a UConn football fan. And he was ticked he had to go to Rentschler Field rather than Yankee Stadium. He makes a point of downgrading the program when he gets the chance. Not in big ways but this is typical.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Baylor always gave us respect when we swept the home and home. I reminder one TX reporter writing something like “People think UConn is a basketball school? Look at the size of the OL and tell me that’s a basketball school.”

I believe they were a yes for a B12 invite.

 

[HCCForever]

Yes but much of that is the difference between a flagship university and a state university. UConn is a different animal. Closer to being a quasi-state entity. Central Connecticut is more like the primary campus of the State University system. They have different functions too. UConn is a research entity offering PhD’s in a range of fields, has a medical and law schools while CCSU is more teaching and “applied research” oriented. These are not meant to demean CCSU. Just to indicate they are a different animal. Most states have similar systems. Massachusetts for example, has UMass system and the state university system with Worcester State, Framingham, Bridgewater and some others. Often though not always the State universities originated as teachers colleges, sometimes they were agricultural schools, The influence/ power of these varies among states.

I have degrees from both CCSU and UConn. When I dropped out of UConn in my junior year, CCSU was a great choice for my Computer Science degree since I was working full time and they had many evening classes unlike UConn. I was then able to earn my MBA at UConn Hartford at night. Of course this was over 30 years ago before online classes.

 

[freescooter]

I have degrees from both CCSU and UConn. When I dropped out of UConn in my junior year, CCSU was a great choice for my Computer Science degree since I was working full time and they had many evening classes unlike UConn. I was then able to earn my MBA at UConn Hartford at night. Of course this was over 30 years ago before online classes.

That actually is Central’s role. Fits perfectly. Lots of part time students. I’m not knocking it in the least. I have taken classes there. It is just a different role. Not better. Not worse.

 

[HCCForever]

That actually is Central’s role. Fits perfectly. Lots of part time students. I’m not knocking it in the least. I have taken classes there. It is just a different role. Not better. Not worse.

It worked for me. An added benefit was that most of my classes were reimbursed by my employer.

 

[Hamms30]

I have degrees from both CCSU and UConn. When I dropped out of UConn in my junior year, CCSU was a great choice for my Computer Science degree since I was working full time and they had many evening classes unlike UConn. I was then able to earn my MBA at UConn Hartford at night. Of course this was over 30 years ago before online classes.

Did the same with Westconn. And saved a bit of coin at a time where I didn't know which direction to go with school and what to study.