Was listening to Joe D. & Gresch at work yesterday... | The Boneyard

Was listening to Joe D. & Gresch at work yesterday...

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Just before the 6 P.M. newsbreak they were discussing the effects of College realignment on the UConn program. Joe D. mentioned about how the B1G picked Rutgers because Pernitti sold them a bill of goods on how Snooki would deliver the NYC market. Same old, same old-said that not Rutgers, not Syracuse, not UConn-NOONE delivers the NYC market. Went on to discus how football season ticket sales are "WAY DOWN" for the 2015 season & that he suspects that will also be the case with Men's & Women's hoops. His reasoning being that UConn is stuck in the AAC & the average fan has no connection to UConn's conference opposition, Cinci & maybe Temple excepted. The absence of local opponents is killing UConn at the box office.
Given these comments, my suspicion is that a future announcement of season ticket sales of @ 15K would be the target, but that actually the A.D. is staring at a much lower total. They are in a world of hurt.
 

CL82

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I hate to admit it but "Snooki" gave them entry to the NYC market. RU was a good acquisition for them. I would have rather it were us, but it what it is.
 

mikedog10

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They need to slash prices and fill arenas. It is their own fault if they don't make it happen. Now is not the time to be conservative on this. We need to look big time, AAC or not.
That would be great, especially for procrastinators like myself, but how would all the football-faithful who've already purchased seats feel about it? It's probably too late in the year to do cut season ticket prices...
 
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A good team in a bad league or a bad team in a good league you can sell some seats but a bad team bad league and throw in a bad home schedule and you get trouble. Same on the hoop side really. Despite the 2014 national champions the team hasn't been all that good in the regular season really for many years. When was the last RS conference Championship? The last team with only a handful of losses? And it doesn't help that D1 basketball has become like the NBA in the sense that it is now a playoff sport where making the tourney is the only thing teams care about. If you look around the country even places that never had trouble selling tickets aren't selling out. Heck Duke didn't sell out its student section.
 
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Is this really shocking. The product on the field last year was terrible, if not unwatchable. If they can not produce a team that is not at least engaging to watch people are not going to waste their time and their money. This is coming from a season ticket holder, yes I have purchased again for this year, who will not purchase again next year unless I see clear improvement. 3 wins will not cut it and I am hoping for at least 4-6 win season. Hoping I am not dreaming beyond expectation.
 
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Is this really shocking. The product on the field last year was terrible, if not unwatchable. If they can not produce a team that is not at least engaging to watch people are not going to waste their time and their money. This is coming from a season ticket holder, yes I have purchased again for this year, who will not purchase again next year unless I see clear improvement. 3 wins will not cut it and I am hoping for at least 4-6 win season. Hoping I am not dreaming beyond expectation.

It was so bad last year that our group walked out of the stadium at halftime during the SMU game. We've never left early in the ten years that we have had season tickets. While it is unfair to expect wins right now in Diaco's second season as the HC, that is the reality we face. We need to win now, or accept the fact that we'll be stuck in the AAC
 
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My compliant is JoeD's classic CT attitude...just accept reality...we don't fit...blah...blah. I like a guy who believes Connecticut is a major player.
His copyrighted trademark line "I know that season ticket holders don't want to hear this BUT..."
 
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Just before the 6 P.M. newsbreak they were discussing the effects of College realignment on the UConn program. Joe D. mentioned about how the B1G picked Rutgers because Pernitti sold them a bill of goods on how Snooki would deliver the NYC market. Same old, same old-said that not Rutgers, not Syracuse, not UConn-NOONE delivers the NYC market. Went on to discus how football season ticket sales are "WAY DOWN" for the 2015 season & that he suspects that will also be the case with Men's & Women's hoops. His reasoning being that UConn is stuck in the AAC & the average fan has no connection to UConn's conference opposition, Cinci & maybe Temple excepted. The absence of local opponents is killing UConn at the box office.
Given these comments, my suspicion is that a future announcement of season ticket sales of @ 15K would be the target, but that actually the A.D. is staring at a much lower total. They are in a world of hurt.

This is entirely why the approach that was taken last season was very, very risky. There is no historical precedent that the fan base that existed and filled the stadium from 2007-2010 regularly when we were winning - will return. The league we were part of then is gone. A division 1 football capacity stadium did not exist prior to fall 2003, 1-AA attendance is the only long term thing you can look back it for ticket sales trends and what the fan base really is. That's scary.

My opinion, is that if we win, people will come. The UCONN brand is very strong, and in this culture, people have lots of choices what to do with their money, and they're not going to shell out in droves for a loser, but time and again, in the money making sports - when there is a big event - UCONN fans have shown up.

The issue I see - is that with the demise of the Big East conference, and our exclusion from a big name conference in football - ending up with the schedules we have now - the only way that we can generate B1G UConn events at Rentschler field 6-8 times a year - is if we are overall winning B1G. I hope I"m wrong, but I think we have to win regularly and be nationally relevant now - for the State of Connecticut - more than we would have to be to sell out regularly with a different regular slate of opponents (like Penn State, New Jersey State, Maryland State, Ohio State, Michigan State).

It would be nice to have a real sell out again and have regular big time events involving a top 25 program (us) at Rentschler. The last one (not because of a big 10 opponent) was Cincinatti in December 2010 I'm pretty sure.
 

OkaForPrez

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I love all things UConn. I follow Men's basketball primarily, but also women's, soccer, baseball, hockey and football.

I've been a season ticket holder the last two years. I did not renew this year. There's putting out a winning product, putting out a competing product and putting out an entertaining product.

UConn Football hasn't done any of the above for many years. I'm hopeful for Diaco, but I'm not going to eat the tickets for games I can't attend this year. I'll go often and pay game to game.

Call me a barometer for the UConn diehard, football casual. Or call me just one guy.
 
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Apparently Joe D has never heard of Skiblets. He should try to keep his chin up.

And Diaco has a ton of pressure on him right now. Hopefully he can pull this off
 
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It's possible season ticket packages are going the way cable packages. Scalping is the equivalent to streaming??
 

cohenzone

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The point system that rewards donations and not loyalty is death when an unattractive product is thrown in. I have great football seats. But starting in year one at the Rent, it's been typical for there to be many sold but empty seats in our 50 yard line section or to be occupied by new faces at every game, often by fans of the visiting team. The reason is that they are corporate owned seats. The system has always been geared to make money at the expense of loyalty. Add that to the fact that a big chunk of regular UConn fans are fair weather fans, and you get a witch's brew of bad news in troubled times.

I agree that we need to be in a league that doesn't feel like each game is out of conference, but if the sales approach doesn't change, we could be in the NFL and get no attendance if the product on the field is not at least watchable if not a frequent winner.
 

Waquoit

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It's possible season ticket packages are going the way cable packages. Scalping is the equivalent to streaming??

That and knowing that bad years will bring plenty of Groupons.
 

Adesmar123

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Your ahhhh ummm first mistake was ummm ummm listening to Joe D. He is quickly becoming the Arnold Dean of sports talk radio. And I don't mean the well respected man who could interview anyone. I mean the sportscaster who made listening to sports news boring and would make you want to stick a pencil in your eye.

Best Regards,
"One Eyed Louie"
 
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I love all things UConn. I follow Men's basketball primarily, but also women's, soccer, baseball, hockey and football.

I've been a season ticket holder the last two years. I did not renew this year. There's putting out a winning product, putting out a competing product and putting out an entertaining product.

UConn Football hasn't done any of the above for many years. I'm hopeful for Diaco, but I'm not going to eat the tickets for games I can't attend this year. I'll go often and pay game to game.

Call me a barometer for the UConn diehard, football casual. Or call me just one guy.
agree exactly, but I leaned the other way and bought tickets. came real close to not buying because the home schedule is weak and the past couple years games in November have been tough to get motivated for. I think last year was the bottom and hoping this year could be a swing year.

I do think that winning, even in the AAC will bring out some fans. Challenging for the G5 bowl slot would bring out more. The average Uconn fan has been completely spoiled by the success of all the other sports (and the early success of HCRE). Add to that CT fans are usually bellwether anyway and you can see why the fanbase has eroded.
 

SubbaBub

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His copyrighted trademark line "I know that season ticket holders don't want to hear this BUT..."

So far the season ticket holders have a better batting average that the either the Horde or the AD. Where I come from it's called listening to your client base, P5 is completely out of our hands as you can't force either the ACC or the B1g to expand or invite UConn if they do. What the AD can do and what the local media can do is to expect a P5 caliber product. Being P5 doesn't mean playing in the NCG or the NYD bowls every year. What it does mean is winning the games on your schedule, specifically the G5 games and making the game day experience one that people look forward to attending.

I've already seen both on display in East Hartford. Is our current situation more or less of a hill to climb than transitioning from 1-AA? I think it's slightly more difficult because you can olny sell 'new' once and right now we are a losing team from the wrong side of the tracks. For Joe D or anyone else who had followed this university for 30 years to say we need to accept our current lot is a betrayal to what has been accomplished. We aren't completely reinventing the wheel here.

If Joe wants to show that he's not a company shill, he should find another way to go about it.
 

Husky25

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Congratulations on finding non-sport live content on AM1080. That must have been painful for you. I try to listen, but every time I tune in, it's a commercial, traffic, or weather report. Every other station will blow through a break every once in a while if a compelling interview is going on (Mad Dog Russo on WEEI comes immediately to mind). TIC is a slave to its "On the 8s." There was an recent interview where the subject (I don't remember who) had to stay on for 3 segments because of TIC's over-rigidity. They spend the first 2 minutes of each segment rehashing the previous segment, ask their interviewee a single question, the subject answers it and the chopper sound starts in the background. Sometimes it jumps the gun. Mark Christopher gets more air time than Andy Gresh. The only time I feel compelled to listen to 1080 during non-games is during a blizzard, but the thing is, I don't need the radio to take 2 minutes to tell me that its snowing, followed by 4 of commercials. Chances are the weather is exactly the same as it was a half hour ago, let alone 10 minutes ago.

Half hearted rants aside I bought season tickets. While the game is the primary reason I go, it is not the only reason. That said, whoever believes that UConn doesn't have an image problem is kidding themselves. I don't blame the current regime, but it's their responsibility to clean it up. Not exactly a reasonable request, but winning will go a long way and I believe they are primed to start.

I appreciate the game day changes, but chances are that (if and) when UConn football returns to the regional forefront, it will not come on the backs of the 30 and 40-somethings who originally bought tickets as 20-somethings in 2003. It will have to rely on the current 20-somethings and recent graduates. The more important change in game day experience must occur for the student season ticket holders.
 

SonsOfNutmeg

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Here's the thing- why WHY WHY are we continuing to scheudule these lack-luster FCS opponets then? If we can't move out of the American anytime soon (and it looks pretty bleek at this point), then why not make the most power-packed, intriguing (even to the most casual of fan) scheulde possible? Even if we're playing tougher competition... Why not? Let's be honest. This is my 7th year as a Season ticket holders, and I live for Uconn Football on Saturdays in the fall. Even I have a hard time getting up for playing the Stony Brook's, Holy Crosses, or URI's of the world. Its not the same kind football- its actually pointless. They're playing for a legit championship decided by Wins and Losses in a true playoff format. We're playing for the best bowl possible, a conference title, and (even though its tough to admit it) money and recruits.
 

SubbaBub

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SonsOfNutmeg said:
Here's the thing- why WHY WHY are we continuing to scheudule these lack-luster FCS opponets then? If we can't move out of the American anytime soon (and it looks pretty bleek at this point), then why not make the most power-packed, intriguing (even to the most casual of fan) scheulde possible? Even if we're playing tougher competition... Why not? Let's be honest. This is my 7th year as a Season ticket holders, and I live for Uconn Football on Saturdays in the fall. Even I have a hard time getting up for playing the Stony Brook's, Holy Crosses, or URI's of the world. Its not the same kind football- its actually pointless. They're playing for a legit championship decided by Wins and Losses in a true playoff format. We're playing for the best bowl possible, a conference title, and (even though its tough to admit it) money and recruits.

Two reasons not totally unrelated.

1. You need to play in bowls games. It's the mendoza line between being a respectable program and not. For that you need to win 6-7 games. Assuming a .500 league schedule against your "peers". You better schedule 3 winnable OOC games.

2. Every P5 team lives by rule #1. They also want 7 homes games minimum if they can get them. Playing road OOC games isn't what they like to do unless they have to return a game against a marquee opponent.
 

mikedog10

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It's possible season ticket packages are going the way cable packages. Scalping is the equivalent to streaming??
Scalping is the future! It's the bee's knees, word is starting to spread on the telegraph wire...
 

SonsOfNutmeg

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Scalping is the future! It's the bee's knees, word is starting to spread on the telegraph wire...
Hey Diaco DID promise that UConn Football would become "the hottest ticket in town"!
 
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