Monday, July 12, 2010

Ticket slump for special event at Fenway and other links

One of my pet ideas is a Bowl game at Fenway. My thought was that the gimmick of football at Fenway alone would carry ticket sales and that it would be a good fallback location for BC. Even though hockey games and concerts have worked at Fenway, ticket sales have been soft for a soccer friendly between Celtic FC and Sporting Clube de Portugal. Boston has traditionally been a good soccer town, so this probably caught the Fenway folks by surprise. I am sure the economy is a factor but maybe, just maybe, there is now some Fenway fatigue.


Here are names to watch this season in the ACC.


It's ACC week over at Doc Saturday's. Check it out in the coming days.


How come whenever anyone mentions 'is this the year that FSU returns to power?' they rarely mention that BC gets to play spoiler every year.

I am okay with this ranking of Herzy, but how can Kuechly come in so low on this ranking?

13 comments:

Unknown said...

For the record, Celtic and Sporting are two sub-premier soccer clubs. This wouldn't be a highly attended match anywhere, let alone the US.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Erik said...

I know ticket sales are way down for concerts. Tours are getting canceled, and I keep getting emails from Ticketmaster and Live Nation with various promotions to boost sales.

I think it was growing for a while very out of control especially with all the lame fees being tacked on. People are starting to say it isn't worth it.

I also think the "Fenway" thing is completely overdone. I went to the BC-BU hockey but I would have much rather gone to see it in Alumni Stadium, Harvard Stadium, or Gillette Stadium. Pretty much any concert that comes through I don't go even if it is a band I would otherwise be excited to see in a different venue.

Big Jack Krack said...

Fenway Park = baseball and nothing else. The idea of a college football bowl game at Fenway is not good IMO.

This will be an interesting year for Kuechly and I think he's up to the task. He'll definitely be a marked man.

EasyRider said...

Aside from Kuechly being ranked so low, that list is a sham in general. Bowers at #4? Sportswriters really prove their laziness when they use pre-college rankings to determine a players college performance. "Oh this guy was on a list before let's use him." That's like saying the kid who got a 4.0 and a 1600 in high school is always going to graduate cum laude. The reality is players like students perform at different rates on different levels.

JP from Dorchester said...

Something else to consider is the ticket prices. The Sox are charging waaaaay too much for a soccer game between teams many casual soccer fans (like most of those in the Boston market)don't even know. If this was an international friendly between say, Ireland and Portugal, or even Man U and Benfica I think more tickets would be sold.

The Sox just sold out a minor league doubleheader and will most likely get a decent crowd for the Cape League All Star Game later this month. I don't think its the Fenway thing.

Unfortunately, the way this town rolls, the only way I think they could get a big crowd to come out for a football game would be if the Patriots played or if you scored two big name college teams to play in a bowl game. BC-ND would definitely work, maybe an FSU or USC, but casual sports fans in Boston do not follow college football outside of Notre Dame of making fun of BC.

This is coming from a BC fan and alum who has to put up with this every day....

Galvin said...

Someone posted this on EagleOutsider, but apparently DePaul finally released Walter Pitchford from his LOI. He's regarded as a very athletic 6'8" to 6'10" forward who can play either the 3,4 or 5. Supposedly raw offensively but a good shot blocker and rebounder. Hear he doesn't want to stay in the Big East (not sure if he would be allowed to sign with a BE team anyway). I wonder if Donahue will jump on this. If he's good I hope so, not many teams have lots of scholarships open for 2010 (I know Arkansas still does, they were after Noreen, as was Washington)

mod34b said...

Kuechly is ranked #11 by a South Carolina paper -- that is to say he is ranked # 11 out of 131 starting defensive players in the ACC.

I think that's a decent assessment and not one I would call "so low" -- particularly when you consider this is a puff piece written by Carolina paper trying to appease its readers.

Herzy at #5 is more of an emotional than factual choice. Let's hope Herzy and Keuchly turn out to be #1 and #1a in ACC this year!

What is the deal with Momah? has he converted back to WR (per recent roster) and no longer a DE-in-training?

Big Jack Krack said...

I like Momah at WR (who couldn't use a tough 6'6" 230 lb receiver when you've got to get those tough yards?) Having said that, we're thin at DE this year - Albright, Holloway, Edebali and Williams. Is Newman DE or DL.

We are really thin at DL in terms of available players - with Ramsey heading off into the wild blue yonder, who do we have? Scafe, Quinn, Murray and O'Neal and some true freshmen! If we get some injuries, we're in deep kimchee. We need some players to step up. Maybe Claiborne will have to be moved back to DL :-) and maybe they will convert Bryan Davis to DL - he played some there in H.S.

Coach Jeff Comissiong has some serious challenges this year.

mod34b said...

BJK -- DL/DE is the team Achilles' heel. If we can't generate pressure, our DB/LB must play the soft pass D (think of ND game last year, groan, or how much time Ponder and Skinner each had to pick us apart).

This lack of a pass rush leads to lots of yards and ball control by our opponents. This, in turn, limits the number of plays Shinskie and the O get.

So, yeah, a good or even decent pass rush will really change the nature of the BC defense and give the Offense more chances to convert a few 3rd downs (our Achilles' heel #2)

I wonder what the deal is with Quinn as well. Is he the real deal?

Ry said...

mod, i like the strategy of spelling kuechley two ways to cover all possibilities. i remember getting jumped on for what you considered bad grammar at one point, nice to see your glass house on display.

mod34b said...

My man RY - So petty and bitter. Smile and tell us your thoughts on football and skip this nonsense.