Sunday, March 27, 2016

Fenway is not the answer

I waited on responding to the Globe's hacky piece on BC turning down a return trip to Fenway in 2016 because there was a lot to address even in a short, poorly argued article. I've been a huge proponent for more football at Fenway, but that doesn't make it the perfect destination for BC under any old circumstance. BC should and will return to Fenway, but it needs to be under the right circumstances.

2016 was always a no go
Even with its proximity, Fenway remains a gimmick/marketing game for the BC fanbase. It is not part of the traditional on campus experience and requires a change in behavior from our fans and on the team operations. We already have a huge gimmick game in 2016. In case anyone at Fenway or the Globe forgot, BC is putting a ton of energy and marketing into the trip to Ireland. Even with the disappointing ticket sales, it is taking tons of coordination and tapping into our most loyal fans and customers. If BC had included Fenway in 2016, it would have hurt Ireland all that much more. I assume the negative comments and information about the Ireland trip were planted by Fenway people who can't believe BC passed on the opportunity. And although we are not hosting the UMass game at Gillette, having another game so close to campus also hurts demand for anything special BC might have attempted. 

Losing the home field advantage
Playing a road game at Fenway was brilliant. BC kept travel costs to a minimum yet could leverage the recruiting and marketing aspect of the game. Who cares that we dressed in the visitor's locker room? The number of people who paid attention to Boston College being away in Boston's most famous landmark was minimal. If you are reading this blog you pay attention. If you are a casual BC fan or casual college football fan, you probably didn't realize and forgot about it five minutes after the game ended. If UConn or UMass want to move their future home games against us to Fenway, I would be all for it. It would be easier for our fans and a less hostile environment. However, us elevating those opponents by choosing to play them in Fenway is a bad idea. Think of it this way: would more UConn fans buy tickets and pour into Fenway than Alumni? Where is our team more likely to feel at home?

Keeping as many games as possible at Alumni
Financially I am sure Fenway would have been as successful or even more than a standard home game. But there are ancillary benefits to a game on campus that BC can't always measure with dollars. Games bring fans and alumni back to campus. It creates a feeling. A connection. It is a great showcase of what BC is. It also serves as a great tool for future students. Plus the more we move home games away from BC, the more fuel we give to the neighbors who hate BC. There are already too many restrictions on our home games. If we create a regular alternative, how long before the locals cap home games at five and demand more played at Fenway? Plus keeping games on campus adds value to our donor programs and our season ticket packages. Scheduling, bad football, and tone deaf marketing has hurt our ticket sales and made buying a package questionable at best. If we take more and more home games out of the package, we are telling our loyal customers that the games they are buying for Alumni have even less value. It will erode what value those seats currently have.

Aside from winning, we should use our marketing efforts to create a better Alumni Stadium experience so that people want to come to our regular home field.

Fenway's baseball problem
The Red Sox may exploit Fenway any chance they get, but it will always be a baseball stadium first. In 99% of the seasons, the only time to play in Fenway will be November. For TV reasons and overall scheduling reasons, the ACC would prefer that all our November games be conference games. Why should we move desirable important ACC games away from Fenway?

What Fenway should do
The Red Sox would have an event at Fenway every day of the year if they could. Them planting an anti-BC story in the Globe is just sour grapes and another way to put pressure on BC to play more games at Fenway. But if they want a regular game there, then it is time to start the Fenway Bowl. That sort of event would be perfect for BC. We could play there often. It would be lucrative for both parties and allow BC to leverage the Boston aspect of our school and football. Even in the years when BC wasn't in the game, there would probably be enough interest from other ACC fanbases to keep the bowl viable.

What next?
BC needs to put all of its energy into improving the Alumni experience. There is no reason to go to Fenway in 2017 either. In my opinion the earliest games to consider bringing back to Fenway is Holy Cross in 2018. But to do that, BC would have to move the game from September to November. There is historical justification for playing the Crusaders in Fenway and it could be a way to turn a less desirable into a hot ticket.

22 comments:

Napolean Bonaparte said...

All of these novelty games like Ireland and playing in Fenway are distractions. The focus right now has to be on the quality of the team. If the Athletic Department wants to do anything else - then work to remove or lessen the tailgating restrictions and figure out a way to get more people to be able to park on or closer to campus and enjoy the ability to socialize and tailgate. The stadium, for now, is fine. A better team and better tailgating will sell out Alumni. Without those two things - BC football is lousy entertainment.

Napolean Bonaparte said...

Rather than paying them to promote their own stadium, why doesn't Bates get Fenway Sports Management to host various road shows promoting the program and the Boston experience in places like Pennsylvania coal country for the families and coaches of huge offensive linemen?!

Hoib said...

I don't see it as that big a deal. If the UMASS game were there instead of Gillette I think that makes sense, just so we aren't playing in a half empty building. I've said it before, what I'd much rather see is a change for the Cuse game.I think we should play the Tgiving game w/ Cuse In Yankee stadium. That would put more zip into the closest thing to a rivalry game we have. Try it for 2 years and see what happens.

SaturdaysOnShea said...

BC would be smart to allow tailgating on campus for games played at Fenway. There was really no reason not to allow people to have their normal tailgate on campus and then provide transportation to Fenway or at the very least the Riverside T stop. IMO this was a really big missed opportunity. We should have let the ND fans have the bars around Fenway while we kept our pre-game on campus. By the way, many alums went to campus that day anyway, myself included.

If future Fenway games are going to be planned, then tailgating on campus on the day of the game needs to be made a part of that. It just makes too much sense.

EL MIZ said...

BC employs Fenway Sports - why are they leaking quotes to the Globe for hit pieces on BC? BC should end that relationship immediately, i've been scratching my head from day one as to the value-add provided by Fenway - is there any?

mod34b said...
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ATL_eagle said...

We would pay Georgia Tech regardless. We pay all road teams. The 900k is to protect their costs and share in the upside of the game.

ATL_eagle said...

We would pay Georgia Tech regardless. We pay all road teams. The 900k is to protect their costs and share in the upside of the game.

mod34b said...
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JBQ said...

Beggars can't be choosy. The BC program is in a shambles. Even when Bates says no, he says it with an element of arrogance. Within the current environment, BC has no room to dictate. The Yawkeys helped build something to be proud of. What is going on now is something that is deplorable. Bates needs to go.

Knucklehead said...

What is going on with Men's basketball and Men's football is difficult to get a handle on in terms of making the programs competitive again. The lesson to a certain extent ought to be that if you have a good coach treat him well and pay him a competitive wage. Tom O'Brien didn't bring us as an ACC championship but he was extremely successful and left because he was very underpaid in comparison to his ACC colleagues. Al Skinner also didn't bring us an ACC championship but was very successful. He got stale when his assistant left but it was pretty obvious to everyone at the time that Cooley or Coehn were the natural replacement. They were not hired out of spite of Skinner. Despite that Skinners last teams were really competitive teams with 18-20 wins. Those teams are 100%, 100% better than an "all star team" of players we had the last 5-6 years combined.

Terrible human capital management.

Hoib said...

Knuck

Al Skinner brought us a Big East championship. I don't think he was stale, his last few years difficulty were mostly from a move up in competition or at least to a league that played a different style. He had earned the right to figure things out, but Gene knew better so out he went. He just concluded a good first year at K State. He's still got it.

Scott said...

We all respect what Skinner accomplished in the past, but I don't think he's an innocent victim for the downturn. The three biggest indictments.

1) Steve Donahue did a much better job coaching kids recruited specifically for Skinner's system. Skinner's 2009-10 team fell far short of expectations, with a 15-16 overall record (6-9 in the ACC). SD took the exact same team, without any notable additions, and improved to 19-11 overall (9-7 ACC), with a few big upsets, earning BC 5th place in the ACC, and a #1 NIT seed.

2) Skinner signed zero recruits going into his last season (with junior dominated team), and zero recruits singed by Nov of the last year. That's a crisis situation that no other P5 coach would allow.

3) The drop off in recruiting and play corresponded with the loss of top-notch assistants he failed to replace ... and who were rumored to be the workhorses.

Perhaps Skinner could have turned it around, we all know he has the ability. But what P-5 school would allowed a coach to stay after items 2-3?

Scott said...

With regard to Fenway, the Globe is just proving itself to be a hater. It's practically indefensible for BC to move a home game to Alumni.

Fenway has 6,000 less seats, with crappy site lines that are much further away from the field ... and no tailgating. In other words, worse fan fan experience.

Plus, Fenway costs a lot of money to rent, and Fenway would keep the concessions and parking fees. In other words, it's a money loser for BC.

The only way Fenway would ever be a viable option, is if it Fenway is offered as NEUTRAL site (50/50 split in seats) for a game that would otherwise be an away game for a BC.

The only HOME game BC should ever move off campus is a big name game that needs Foxboro's 80,000+ capacity.

CT said...

Skinner gave up. The ACC and a different style? No. The ACC better? Yes. BC's only championship hopes, besides hockey, are bball. Football will never happen. Too far behind. Too irrelevant in the south.

CT said...

Agree with Scott. Fenway is a Boston thing. If u want to be parochial, keep believing Fenway matters. It doesn't. It seems to me we're looking for anything to ignite the flame.

Players. Coaches. In that order. That's it.

Hoib said...

Scott

W/ a healthy Rakim, and Heslip Al would have had that team to the dance easy. Gene wasn't about to allow that to happen. He wanted Al out and pounced when he had the chance. We have been paying the price for Gene's hubris ever since.


CT

Disagree, though purely theoretical at this point. I think we would be more likely to win in football. This hoop league is the greatest ever put together in the history of the NCAA. Football is a tough league but nothing special. Of course I'd be happy playing 500 ball in league in either sport at this point.

CT said...

It takes two or three guys to get the train moving in bball. Even just a couple of elite guys to carry you to six wins in the tourney. The ACC is just the road to get in to the NCAAs. It's difficulty only matters if you believe we will never qualify for the tourney from the ACC. Even as bleak as things are, that seems desperate. In football, you can have the best defense in the country and not win a league game. I mean, come on. Upsets are much easier in bball, too.

Hoib said...

CT

I misunderstood, I thought you meant league titles. I'll add though if you're not good enough to win your league I don't see how you can win the national title. True about 2 or 3 guys in hoops. The problem is that's all our competitors need to stay ahead of us, and they have a much easier sale than we do.

Knucklehead said...

The ACC right now is much better than when BC first got in. It was Duke, UNC, Clemson and BC/VT as the top 4-5. Now you have a legit Miami program, Syracuse and PITT. Much different dynamic now. Skinner got stale like I said. He wasn't washed up. It got stale.

Some more money, some more love or some better management might have kept him going but things got stagnant. My point is you cannot lose good coaches or push them out the door

CT said...

The ACC gave up its claim to anything standing for something when it admitted Louisville.

Hoib said...

When they admitted Lville they sealed the deal on greatest hoop league. 3 national powers w/ multiple national titles, plus a second tier that includes 2 time winner NCS, Cuse, and Pitt. Lville was admitted for the same reason we were TV $. It always has been and always will be about the money. I hope some day BC realizes this.