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What's with all the empty seats for a defending National Champ?

They get smaller stadium next year when the brand new on-campus stadium opens...

kalm wrote:What's with all the empty seats for a defending National Champ?

Tell me about it.....not to mention a relatively close opponent that travels well.......sounds like half the crowd is behind App State. I guess they knew what they were doing by building a new stadium that only seats 9,000.

The attendance at Southern Illinois and Villanova was pretty pathetic as well.

mainejeff wrote:

kalm wrote:What's with all the empty seats for a defending National Champ?

Tell me about it.....not to mention a relatively close opponent that travels well.......sounds like half the crowd is behind App State. I guess they knew what they were doing by building a new stadium that only seats 9,000.

The attendance at Southern Illinois and Villanova was pretty pathetic as well.

I also wondered where the ASU fans were. If EWU hosted a quarterfinal against Montana which is 200 miles away, they would bring whatever it takes to fill the stadium.

What does their stadium now seat?

Wow!

CAA is the best conference in football, but when talking about attendance, its pretty weak.

The turnout on Richmond's side was embarrassing. For a defending national champion, the turnout was sad. Appalachian always travels well and they did it again tonight.

From a resident of Richmond: The city of Richmond is weak when it comes to supporting any athletic team or decent entertainment Richmond is imbred (not literally) and the entire city/metro region suffers because of it (in general, talent of all types leaves Richmond, does not move to Richmond)...However, if your last name is __________, or ___________, or ___________ and you graduated from one of two unnamed Richmond private high schools you're golden. If not, you're "the help"...

Eample one, Richmonders can't attend a decent concert w/o having to drive an hour to the much smaller Charlottesville which on a regular basis draws big name entertainment...Richmond does however draw the Ice Capades and Barney the purple dino on an annual basis...Example two, my neighbor, a UR grad and Spider Club member did not go the App game, a playoff game, the last game in UR Stadium, a game two miles away b/c it was "cold." The city of Richmond in a nutshell: "I think I'll stay home and watch VT on the tube"

JMUpurplehazed wrote:From a resident of Richmond: The city of Richmond is weak when it comes to supporting any athletic team or decent entertainment Richmond is imbred (not literally) and the entire city/metro region suffers because of it (in general, talent of all types leaves Richmond, does not move to Richmond)...However, if your last name is __________, or ___________, or ___________ and you graduated from one of two unnamed Richmond private high schools you're golden. If not, you're "the help"...

Eample one, Richmonders can't attend a decent concert w/o having to drive an hour to the much smaller Charlottesville which on a regular basis draws big name entertainment...Richmond does however draw the Ice Capades and Barney the purple dino on an annual basis...Example two, my neighbor, a UR grad and Spider Club member did not go the App game, a playoff game, the last game in UR Stadium, a game two miles away b/c it was "cold." The city of Richmond in a nutshell: "I think I'll stay home and watch VT on the tube"

And to add to that...I live north of Richmond and no one I know goes to Richmond for entertainment...it's to DC or Norfolk/Hampton or Charlottesville...

Col Hogan wrote:

JMUpurplehazed wrote:From a resident of Richmond: The city of Richmond is weak when it comes to supporting any athletic team or decent entertainment Richmond is imbred (not literally) and the entire city/metro region suffers because of it (in general, talent of all types leaves Richmond, does not move to Richmond)...However, if your last name is __________, or ___________, or ___________ and you graduated from one of two unnamed Richmond private high schools you're golden. If not, you're "the help"...

Eample one, Richmonders can't attend a decent concert w/o having to drive an hour to the much smaller Charlottesville which on a regular basis draws big name entertainment...Richmond does however draw the Ice Capades and Barney the purple dino on an annual basis...Example two, my neighbor, a UR grad and Spider Club member did not go the App game, a playoff game, the last game in UR Stadium, a game two miles away b/c it was "cold." The city of Richmond in a nutshell: "I think I'll stay home and watch VT on the tube"

And to add to that...I live north of Richmond and no one I know goes to Richmond for entertainment...it's to DC or Norfolk/Hampton or Charlottesville...

In the face of all that. . .isn't VCU supposed to be revisiting the idea of a football program?

That stadium couldn't have been in a worse location. In the middle of an interstate/freeway triangle with limited parking. And it was falling apart. David Jackson, App's PBP guy, broke the window in the press box trying to open it.

DJH wrote:CAA is the best conference in football, but when talking about attendance, its pretty weak.

Old Dominion to the rescue!!!!!!!!!!!!

T-Dog wrote:That stadium couldn't have been in a worse location. In the middle of an interstate/freeway triangle with limited parking. And it was falling apart. David Jackson, App's PBP guy, broke the window in the press box trying to open it.

Yea, it is bad...but ASU can always say they won the last college game played in that dump...

I've seen the drawing of the new on-campus stadium that the Spiders will debut next season...I don't know what provisions are being made for tailgating, but watching and playing the game will be in a much nicer, cozier facility...

Richmond's recent success became a lot more impressive after I saw their stadium. That, folks, was a first-class shithole, and I'm glad our guys were the ones to finally condemn the place. Didn't look like the city had done any maintenance on it in decades. How they were able to recruit enough athletes to win a national championship with those facilities is nothing short of a minor miracle.

As far as support goes, Mountain Man almost got into a fight with literally half the Richmond fans in attendance. He wanted to whip all of 'em, and he would have, too, but the other dude backed down.

Actually, what really happened was one of the few Spider fans we saw tailgating yelled a bunch of FUCK APP stuff at MM while he was standing in line at the portajohn. MM asked him — very nicely, I'm sure — which high school they shared their stadium with.

Robins Stadium (that's the name of the on campus stadium) will seat 8700. I know that a number of folks "sneer" at that capacity. However there are a couple of reasons for an 8700 stadium instead of a 12000 to 15000 facility. Richmond is a small private university of around 2800 undergraduates. It is not a 20000 to 30000 student body like VT, UVA, JMU, W&M, ODU, and Delaware. Actually I am not sure about the 20k-30k for W&M and JMU. Also, if UR had proposed a 10000 + capacity, the required approval of the Richmond City Council would not have happened. The neighborhood around the UR campus would fight to keep the stadium under 10k in seating capacity. Also, the people in the Richmond area that do not have "ties" with UR, either having graduating from there or having children who graduated or are currently attending UR, would care less about UR. Richmond is viewed by most non-UR folks as a school that only accepts spoiled, rich, white kids from outside of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Hence, the measley attendance at UR football and basketball games. It is what it is.

ur76spider wrote:Robins Stadium (that's the name of the on campus stadium) will seat 8700. I know that a number of folks "sneer" at that capacity. However there are a couple of reasons for an 8700 stadium instead of a 12000 to 15000 facility. Richmond is a small private university of around 2800 undergraduates. It is not a 20000 to 30000 student body like VT, UVA, JMU, W&M, ODU, and Delaware. Actually I am not sure about the 20k-30k for W&M and JMU. Also, if UR had proposed a 10000 + capacity, the required approval of the Richmond City Council would not have happened. The neighborhood around the UR campus would fight to keep the stadium under 10k in seating capacity. Also, the people in the Richmond area that do not have "ties" with UR, either having graduating from there or having children who graduated or are currently attending UR, would care less about UR. Richmond is viewed by most non-UR folks as a school that only accepts spoiled, rich, white kids from outside of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Hence, the measley attendance at UR football and basketball games. It is what it is.

Wait, that isn't the case?

"It is what it is" is right.


Oh and BTW, it was part of producing a National Championship.

Can't we start a similiar thread called

"Southern Illinois needs a smaller stadium?"

Their showing wasn't much better.

bandl wrote:Can't we start a similiar thread called

"Southern Illinois needs a smaller stadium?"

Their showing wasn't much better.

Same as Richmond. We're building a new stadium with fewer seats that opens next year.

siuham wrote:

bandl wrote:Can't we start a similiar thread called

"Southern Illinois needs a smaller stadium?"

Their showing wasn't much better.

Same as Richmond. We're building a new stadium with fewer seats that opens next year.

What is the capasity at the new place going to be? It may seat less, but it is going to be infanently better than what you have now.

I want to believe the weather was a factor. It was cold and rain/snowy night plus the game was on MASN. Casual fans aren't going to go out in that.

andy7171 wrote:I want to believe the weather was a factor. It was cold and rain/snowy night plus the game was on MASN. Casual fans aren't going to go out in that.

It was absolutely sunny and beautiful, albeit a tad bit cold, in Carbondale though...

bandl wrote:

andy7171 wrote:I want to believe the weather was a factor. It was cold and rain/snowy night plus the game was on MASN. Casual fans aren't going to go out in that.

It was absolutely sunny and beautiful, albeit a tad bit cold, in Carbondale though...

I live in a CAA-centric world.

andy7171 wrote:

bandl wrote:
It was absolutely sunny and beautiful, albeit a tad bit cold, in Carbondale though...

I live in a CAA-centric world.

As am I. And I believe that we should all aspire to such lofty desires. But in today's world,you're either in the CAA, or you're on the outside trying to get in.