No UMass Invite In the Near Future

[Vuce]

And I will add this. I live in western Mass and there is NO buzz whatsoever here when Umass plays BCU in football. None.

 

[Yawkey Way]

If you believe that a BC - UMass game in Boston would draw better than a BC - UConn game in Boston, then you are kidding yourself. No further explanation is needed. Stop kidding yourself...

Well, I've lived here in Greater Boston all my life and have family that live outside Hamden, ( that went to Uconn ), so I think I have a pretty good handle on both regions. UConn has a good fanbase in Connecticut, but they don't t travel to away games very well ( BC only marginally better in this respect ). As you know, the biggest football game in Uconn football history, played vs. Oklahoma no less, and in the BCS Fiesta Bowl sold less than 3,000 Uconn football tickets . Yes, I understand the game was in Phoenix, and thats further away than a 2-4 hour car drive to Chestnut Hill. But still in all. Uconn football fans won't come in droves to Chestnut Hill more than the 20 fold more Umass grads that are found everywhere around the Greater Boston area. Umass had a very good turnout from their alums the last time Umass played BC. Will Uconn bring more of their football fans to Chestnut Hill than Umass does ( where the legions of Umass grads live close by ) ? I don't believe so. At best it will be a wash. But you are certainly entitled to believe this assessment of mine to be wrong too. Now, having said all this, would Uconn crank out a great home town crowd to see Uconn play BC at the Rent ?... absolutely, no doubt in my mind about this. I'd go to either place to see the game ( as I did the last 2 times these 2 teams played.. and at the Rent )

 

[CAHUSKY]

Well, I've lived here in Greater Boston all my life and have family that live outside Hamden, ( that went to Uconn ), so I think I have a pretty good handle on both regions. UConn has a good fanbase in Connecticut, but they don;t travel to away games well. As you know, the biggest football in Uconn football history, played vs. Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl sold less than 3,000 tickets. Yes, I understand the game was in Phoenix, and thats further away than a 2-4 hour car drive to Chestnut Hill. But Uconn football fans won't come in droves to Chestnut Hill more than the 20 fold more Umass grads that are found everywhere around the Greater Boston area. Umass had a very good turnout from their alums the last time Umass played BC. Will Uconn bring more of them to Chestnut Hill than Umass did ( where the Umass grads live close by ) ? I don't believe so. But you are certainly entitled to believe this assessment of mine to be wrong too. Now, having said all this, would Uconn crank out a good size home town crowd to see Uconn play BC at the Rent... absolutely, no doubt in my mind about this. I'd go to either place to see the game ( as I did the last 2 times these 2 teams played.. and at the Rent )

Someone please post the picture of the UCONN section during the Fiesta Bowl and, if you have the energy, explain to our esteemed guest from Boston how the secondary ticket market allowed people to buy game tix for half the price of those sold by the University. Id also refer you to the Menieke Bowl in Charlotte where UCONN had roughly 15,000 fans.

By the way, the last time you hosted UMASS in 2011 the game drew 30,176. The last time you hosted UCONN the game attracted 42,564. Care to rethink your BC v. UMASS draws big crowds hypothesis?

 

[Yawkey Way]

.

By the way, the last time you hosted UMASS in 2011 the game drew 30,176. The last time you hosted UCONN the game attracted 42,564. Care to rethink your BC v. UMASS draws big crowds hypothesis?

Home attendance is much more a function of the home team, and how they are doing that year. In 2011, BC was winless when Umass came to Chestnut Hill , with BC having gotten blown out by Central Florida 30-3 a mere 2 weeks earlier. The BC fans knew the BC coach was going to be fired, and the team went tru one of their worst seasons in their history this 2011 season having won just 4 games... so in 2011, when BC and Umass brought out 30- 32,000 or so to watch a winless BC team at the time is not a good comparison to utilize compared with a BC- Uconn game several years removed...
Also, in the 2000 game you used here, BC was going to win 8 games this season, the season before they were good, so home game attendance was better for all teams this season... not just for the Uconn game . A much better comparison is the year 2004.. where BC played both Uconn and Umass at Chestnut Hill in the same season and within 2 weeks of one another. The attendance was pretty much the same for both games.

 

[CAHUSKY]

Home attendance is much more a function of the home team, and how they are doing that year. In 2011, BC was winless when Umass came to Chestnut Hill , with BC having gotten blown out by Central Florida 30-3 a mere 2 weeks earlier. The BC fans knew the BC coach was going to be fired, and the team went tru one of their worst seasons in their history this 2011 season having won just 4 games... so in 2011, when BC and Umass brought out 30- 32,000 or so to watch a winless BC team at the time is not a good comparison to utilize compared with a BC- Uconn game several years removed...
Also, in the 2000 game you used here, BC was going to win 8 games this season, the season before they were good, so home game attendance was better for all teams this season... not just for the Uconn game . A much better comparison is the year 2004.. where BC played both Uconn and Umass at Chestnut Hill in the same season and within 2 weeks of one another. The attendance was pretty much the same for both games.

But I thought UMASS was a big rivalry and the streets of Boston were full of UMASS and BC fans who were excited for this big time matchup of New England powerhouses? Fact is, UMASS v BC doesn't have half the horse power of BC v. UCONN and your assessment of UCONN's fanbase is simply incorrect. I was in Phoenix Stadium in Glendale and there were 10,000 UCONN fans there if there were 100.
"Thousands of tickets were available on the secondary market and UCONN fans bought them in droves to avoid the $245 sticker price of the tix UCONN was selling.
Secondary ticket outlets such as StubHub sold tickets to the game at much cheaper prices, which didn't help UConn. UConn was selling tickets for $105 to $255. Tickets on the secondary Internet market were plentiful and cheap, as low as $20 to $50. That's because fans who bought advance tickets to the BCS national championship game Jan. 10 also had to buy tickets to the Phoenix-area Fiesta and Insight bowls, and were dumping tickets to those two games"
There were even more at the Menieke Bowl in Charlotte.

 

[Yawkey Way]

But I thought UMASS was a big rivalry and the streets of Boston were full of UMASS and BC fans who were excited for this big time matchup of New England powerhouses? .

No... I know from reading a few of your posts that you're bright enough to know that I didn't state anything even remotely close to this. We know you just chose to engage in a little hyperbole and exaggeration for effect, and thats cool and all too.

 

[SAMCRO]

But I know that living in Boston, they'll be a bigger crowd for a BC- Umass football game in this area than a Uconn- BC Football games as there are far more graduates of the state college system of Mass. living in the greater Boston region than from Uconn.... 'Makes sense too, as there are far more Umass grads living in Greater Boston ( Umass- Boston, Umass- Amherest ) than BC grads living in Greater Boston. I expect a good crowd for the BC- Umass game.. it usually draws pretty well when these 2 Mass. college teams have played in the past.

Home attendance is much more a function of the home team, and how they are doing that year.

So which is it?

 

[Yawkey Way]

So which is it?

Both... as I don't see them as contradictory in any fashion. For example, the overall attendance of a game is primarily a function of how the home team is doing , and the attendance figure naturally is heavily weighted toward the home team ( for obvious reasons ). If an opponent team comes to a home game with their fans, they could easily bring less fans than before, but the overall attendance figure for that game probably will be higher if the home team has been playing well prior to that opponent coming to the winning teams home game. As a result, comparing a home attendance with an opponent from different seasons, really does not tell us much. I do agree that there really is no way of knowing for certain if all things being equal a BC- Uconn or a BC- Umass football game in Boston would have either fan base opponent bring more to the game, but the mere fact that there are far, far more Umass- Boston & Umass-Amherst grads living in Greater Boston than Uconn grads living near the stadium does give me some degree of confidence that the BC- Umass Game at Alumni Stadium would have a larger attendence by Umass fans than a BC- Uconn football game at Alumni Stadium and the numbers of Uconn fans that are at the game. That said, if others think this assessment is an incorrect assessment, then thats their perogative too, of course.

 

[Gampeltiles]

Why can they just take our place in the AAC when we get the hell outta there?