Amazingly the Wake game and Florida State are not sold out. To make things even more bleak, Wake is on Parents' Weekend. In the past Parents' Weekend has been such a slamdunk sellout that we usually played DIAA teams. What's the issue? My guess is that the economy is major factor. Parents and alumni are less likely to travel back to Boston when cutting their personal expenses. I also think the usual buzzkills of donor-based seating and tailgating restrictions are a factor. But some of this is due to the offseason issues and the Spaz hire. I know it is early and Spaz will certainly have time to change this but I think it is clear that there is not much excitement around BC football right now.
After getting bounced from ABC/ESPN broadcast team, Doug Flutie has resurfaced as part of Versus' UFL coverage.
TOB and Matt Ryan still keep in touch.
The soccer team beat Hartford 2-1.
One of the minds behind Courtney Cox's new show Cougar Town is BC guy Kevin Biegel. I don't know him but he was part of my graduating class. Congrats to him. (Guess who is going to be getting a spec script with an Atlanta mailing address!)
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The economy and the Jags/Gene situation are the reasons for the low ticket sales. There isn't anyone BC could have hired that would have mobilized the fan base to the point that these games would be sold out. Take a break from taking shots at Spaz.
TOB talking about Matt Ryan is nauseating.
The low ticket sales are due to our offense substantially regressing from last year, which no one thought was possible. Further, our two "wins" now feel like outright fraud. Depression hurts.
I'm more interested to see how the "Gold Out" for the FSU game is going to go.
Gold Out? That's the first I've heard of it (though I live 2000 miles away). I still hold season tickets and had no clue. Good thing I bought the Herzlich shirt, because I'm traveling up for that game...
I am surprised to see Flutie dumped from ESPN college coverage. While Doug was slightly stiff, I still thought he was pretty good and way better than most of the college analysts (herbstreit, bret mushyburger etc. yuk).
Now Flutie is going to cover UFL (Who??, a new NFL development-style league, apparently) on Versus Cable (who??). Hope they pay Flutie a lot because it seems like Flutie just took a dive to the bottom of the TV football food chain
Donor-based seating has had an effect personally. After 25 years of season tix, I had to give them up. Also Whipple would have had the stadium rocking.
Mod 34b says: "I am surprised to see Flutie dumped from ESPN college coverage. While Doug was slightly stiff, I still thought he was pretty good and way better than most of the college analysts (herbstreit, bret mushyburger etc. yuk)."
Flutie's business sense was substandard to say the least. He was too open to praising non-traditional powers when they played well, forgetting that a BYU or a BC's success hurts profitability across the various platforms. Yes, beat a Notre Dame to hammer GE's bottom line, but lay off traditional powers like FSU and Oklahoma, powers that have the sense to make their bed with Bristol.
And, did Flutie EVER show up in a Deadspin or Barstool Sports post showering attention on the lovely coeds who attend the games. He was so focused on the field, being faithful to his wife, etc. that he forgot about ancillary profit opportunities. Don't forget that when Musberger praised Ms. Sterger, that the screencaps and video clips that went out featured prominently the logos of Disney assets ESPN and ABC.
Flutie was so focused on the games themselves, his family and his charitable work that he never developed the skill of exploiting business opportunities in his commentary. That, alas, is why he's now on Versus.
Economy, economy, economy. Frankly, the product on the field is not worth the cost of a ticket. People in Boston have been hit hard; I don't blame them for cutting back this year.
I agree that its surprising considering its Parents Weekend. Otherwise its the Negative Nancy vibes from media and alumni quick to jump off the bandwagon promoting a negative buzz.
Luckily people like us enjoy watching football games, enjoy spending hours in Chestnut Hill, enjoy watching players like Kuechly and Pantale grow into stars.
While I prefer Alumni Stadium to be sold out, many will not be this year - in addition to ours. That includes at least several professional teams, and perhaps many more.
The Atlanta Falcons are an exciting team, but the game last Sunday was far from a sell-out. Clemson, although much larger than Alumni Stadium, was 4,000 - 5,000 short of a sell-out (They always sell out, right?)
I think the camera crews will be de-emphasizing shots of the stands this year because it's such a wide-spread problem.
Did you see the poor attendance at the Miami-FSU game? As Erik said - people like us will be there. Some of my greatest thrills at Alumni Stadium over the years were at games that were not sold out.
DBS and bad tailgating for sure - but the big factor here , I'm afraid, is the "fair weather fan" - there are too many of them.
Think Spaz would do the same for those of you in Clemson last week?
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4496615
BJK, the Falcons game was a sell-out, and although I know you went to the game, I'd suspect you had remembered how bad the weather was down here in Atlanta last week (worse than the Clemson game, I think). It's a Dome, yes. But the roads...
But I do agree with you on this: too many "non-rabid" BC fans find too many excuses not to support the team. Throw in the recession...
I'm not convinced it's related to Spaz or the Clemson game. I just don't think we quite know what we have yet. Are we really that offensively challenged?
There's a lot of football to be played.
Flutie has been at the last two home games. I have to say, the guy is sooooooo gracious about fans. He doesn't seek out the spotlight or walk around like he is king (even though he is!). He tries to be just like any other uncle watching his nephew. Everyone wants to shake his hand and take a pic, and he always seems to gladly stop and oblige. Glad he has a new gig. The guy is a class act, and we should be proud to have him as the face of our program.
Coincidentally, the front page of the Sports section in today's Washington Post has an article about similar attendance woes at Maryland this year:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/22/AR2009092203678.html
I had four season tickets last year but did not renew because of financial concerns, but also because there is no benefit to being a season ticket holder; tickets are always available at face value or less. There were even a bunch of ND tickets for sale at face value on the online bceagles.com Marketplace the morning of the game last year.
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