UMASS goes to the MAC...

[KAUMASS]

YSU makes sense in the colonial, especially when Maine and/or UNH leave the conference. Maine/UNH needs another northeast regional team added for them to stay in the CAA. (Stonybrook/Albany) UNH seems more committed to football than Maine, but I'm not sure how long they could hold out if they had to fly to YSU (if YSU joined) every other year with all the other southern CAA flights.

[AZGrizFan]

YSU makes sense in the colonial, especially when Maine and/or UNH leave the conference. Maine/UNH needs another northeast regional team added for them to stay in the CAA. (Stonybrook/Albany) UNH seems more committed to football than Maine, but I'm not sure how long they could hold out if they had to fly to YSU (if YSU joined) every other year with all the other southern CAA flights.

Yeah. That would surely suck. Can't imagine a team having to actually FLY to games.....

[mainejeff]

YSU makes sense in the colonial, especially when Maine and/or UNH leave the conference. Maine/UNH needs another northeast regional team added for them to stay in the CAA. (Stonybrook/Albany) UNH seems more committed to football than Maine, but I'm not sure how long they could hold out if they had to fly to YSU (if YSU joined) every other year with all the other southern CAA flights.

UNH has a better coach which gives the appearance that they are more committed to football than Maine. A better coach has meant more success and a larger fan base due to those 7 straight playoff appearances. I would argue that the administration is more committed however. Maine has been much more aggressive in scheduling FBS games and has invested much more money into their football stadium.

[UNHWildCats]

YSU makes sense in the colonial, especially when Maine and/or UNH leave the conference. Maine/UNH needs another northeast regional team added for them to stay in the CAA. (Stonybrook/Albany) UNH seems more committed to football than Maine, but I'm not sure how long they could hold out if they had to fly to YSU (if YSU joined) every other year with all the other southern CAA flights.

UNH has a better coach which gives the appearance that they are more committed to football than Maine. A better coach has meant more success and a larger fan base due to those 7 straight playoff appearances. I would argue that the administration is more committed however. Maine has been much more aggressive in scheduling FBS games and has invested much more money into their football stadium.

why do you claim they have been more aggressive in scheduling FBS opponents? Because they have played teams like Nebraska and Syracuse which are big well name schools? Who cares, UNH Works to schedule money games they feel they have a chance of beating, so they can take the check and boost their post season chances.

[UNH_Alum_In_CT]

YSU makes sense in the colonial, especially when Maine and/or UNH leave the conference. Maine/UNH needs another northeast regional team added for them to stay in the CAA. (Stonybrook/Albany) UNH seems more committed to football than Maine, but I'm not sure how long they could hold out if they had to fly to YSU (if YSU joined) every other year with all the other southern CAA flights.

UNH has a better coach which gives the appearance that they are more committed to football than Maine. A better coach has meant more success and a larger fan base due to those 7 straight playoff appearances. I would argue that the administration is more committed however. Maine has been much more aggressive in scheduling FBS games and has invested much more money into their football stadium.

The only reason Maine has been "much more aggressive in scheduling FBS games" is because everybody will play you! For example, IIRC UNH had an agreement to play Syracuse in 2009. After UNH beat Army handily in 2008, Syracuse wouldn't finalize the deal and sign the contract. They then added Maine to their schedule instead. Another example, Maine has played UConn. Well, the Sled Dogs won't even talk to UNH about a game. I don't think Randy Edsall ever got over the 43-18 spanking his first UConn team got from UNH. They cancelled the next year's game and replaced us with Northeastern who also beat them! Nothing has ever got off the ground since.

I'll give you that Maine has done a better job with facilities, but from my vantage point UNH has significantly more administrative support. And IIRC, Maine had two playoff teams after the turn of the century that had wins at McNeese State and App State (going from memory) that sure could have been parlayed into more with the facilities edge you had over UNH/URI/NU and reasonably equal with Hofstra, UMass, Towson, W&M, Richmond and Villanova. And from reading message boards, I think UNH has more fans who care about football at the highest level of FCS than Maine does.

Personally, I think Maine should be able to be competitive and successful in CAA Football and I hope they don't downgrade to the NEC. Is there another program at Maine other than Ice Hockey that consistently plays at as high a level on the national scale as Maine Football? From afar I don't think so.

[UNH_Alum_In_CT]

YSU makes sense in the colonial, especially when Maine and/or UNH leave the conference. Maine/UNH needs another northeast regional team added for them to stay in the CAA. (Stonybrook/Albany) UNH seems more committed to football than Maine, but I'm not sure how long they could hold out if they had to fly to YSU (if YSU joined) every other year with all the other southern CAA flights.

Why does everybody assume UNH will leave the CAA because they have to add a flight or two? As I estimate things, it is an incremental increase in expenses for another flight or two. Our team flies commercially on SouthWest, AirTran (soon to be SW) and JetBlue for our games with Villanova, Delaware, Towson, JMU, Richmond and W&M. The same thing will work for ODU. With advance planning I doubt those tickets cost more than $250 and I doubt they have a travel party of 100, but using those figures it puts each flight at $25K. I couldn't quickly find the EADA figures for expenses, but my memory says they're at least $3.5 Million. I don't see why you'd ruin a successful program over $50K? Extrapolating it a step further, I believe UNH has a $25 Million plus athletic budget. Football is without a doubt at least the second most important athletic program at UNH. Not reallocating $50K out of that budget to save your best program in a sport that all of America cares about (as opposed to Ice Hockey) seems idiotic to me. UNH is within an hour and fifteen minutes of two airports (Manchester, NH and Boston's Logan) which should also result in a relatively inexpensive flight to Atlanta too.

BTW, in case you missed it our AD and head coach have both been quoted supporting continued play in the CAA in order to play at the highest level of FCS and to compete for national championships.

[mainejeff]

Place McDonnell on the Maine sidelines and the Black Bear football program would be light years ahead of UNH. No doubt that UNH's program has much more fan support and momentum than Maine's program does. On the administrative side, I know that the UNH AD says all the right things and is a great cheerleader for his program, but he cannot seem to parlay all of these years of playoff appearances and winning into major $$$ donations or new brick and mortar facilities.

[Col Hogan]

We now know some of the financial considerations arranged between UMass and the owners of Gillette Stadium...

The contract says that the first $300,000 of ticket revenue from UMass games in Foxborough will be split evenly between UMass and Gillette Stadium, which is listed in the contract as NPS LLC, its official company name. It's owned by The Kraft Group. If ticket revenue exceeds $300,000, Gillette would take out money to cover the cost of "staffing and operation of the Stadium for the Event." Any remaining revenue would be split equally between UMass and Gillette.

The contract also stipulates that the average ticket price will be no less than $24.50, meaning there will be tickets priced above and below that figure.

At that average, which doesn't include UMass students' fee tickets, to reach $300,000 in revenue, only 12,245 tickets would need to be sold per game.

Gillette will cover all staffing costs and will receive all revenue from concession sales, which will include beer. Alcoholic beverages are not available to the general public at McGuirk Stadium.

UMass will have control of five of the 86 suites and one of the two super suites at Gillette. Suites range from 16-32 person capacity, while super suites can hold as many as 70. Gillette will control the remaining suites.

Parking, which was free for UMass' game against New Hampshire at Gillette last year, will remain free.

http://gazettenet.com/2011/05/03/contra ... e-released" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[clenz]

So, what is the average attendance expected to be?

Also, just so I undersatnd the money thing...

Out of the first 300k UMASS and Gillette both get 150k, correct?

Starting at $300,000.01 Gillette gets everything until the costs of running games at Gillette is covered and then UMASS starts getting half of whatever is left after that? For example using numbers I'm pulling out my ass:

The UMASS/Gillette thing pulls in 1 million dollars in revenue, and operating costs not covered in the initial $150k is $350k.

That means out of that $1mm Gillette will get $150K from the first $300k, $350k to cover operating expenses from that last $700K, and then half of the remaining 300k?

That means UMASS gets $300K and Gillette gets 700K?

Really, is that a good deal? Or am I misunderstanding this?

[Col Hogan]

So, what is the average attendance expected to be?

Also, just so I undersatnd the money thing...

Out of the first 300k UMASS and Gillette both get 150k, correct?

Starting at $300,000.01 Gillette gets everything until the costs of running games at Gillette is covered and then UMASS starts getting half of whatever is left after that? For example using numbers I'm pulling out my ass:

The UMASS/Gillette thing pulls in 1 million dollars in revenue, and operating costs not covered in the initial $150k is $350k.

That means out of that $1mm Gillette will get $150K from the first $300k, $350k to cover operating expenses from that last $700K, and then half of the remaining 300k?

That means UMASS gets $300K and Gillette gets 700K?

Really, is that a good deal? Or am I misunderstanding this?

I don't do math, so I'll pass on trying to figure that out tonight...

But to your question on expected attendance...I'll predict we pull 20k +...and over 30K for select games...

[Mike Johnson]

The UMASS/Gillette thing pulls in 1 million dollars in revenue, and operating costs not covered in the initial $150k is $350k.

That means out of that $1mm Gillette will get $150K from the first $300k, $350k to cover operating expenses from that last $700K, and then half of the remaining 300k?

That means UMASS gets $300K and Gillette gets 700K?

Really, is that a good deal? Or am I misunderstanding this?

You are close on the math. With your scenario, UMASS gets $325K and Gillette $675K

[dbackjon]

Talked to friends of mine that are long time UMass season ticket holders - in ALL sports. Haven't missed a UMass home game in decades.

They are not renewing their tickets as long as UMass plays at Gillette. And may drop other sports as well if the AD keeps moving other sports' games out of Amherst (basketball games in Springfield, for example).

They said most of their friends that are season tickets holders and live in the Amherst area will do the same thing. They don't mind one game a year at Gillette, but will not drive that distance 6-7 times a year.

[Col Hogan]

Talked to friends of mine that are long time UMass season ticket holders - in ALL sports. Haven't missed a UMass home game in decades.

They are not renewing their tickets as long as UMass plays at Gillette. And may drop other sports as well if the AD keeps moving other sports' games out of Amherst (basketball games in Springfield, for example).

They said most of their friends that are season tickets holders and live in the Amherst area will do the same thing. They don't mind one game a year at Gillette, but will not drive that distance 6-7 times a year.

A minority...3-4 times the alums live in eastern MA...UMass74 has posted on his blog that quite a number of season ticket holders are planning to go to the Razor...

There are folks like your friends who have had it good for years ...now that they have to travel a little they abandon the team..

[clenz]

Talked to friends of mine that are long time UMass season ticket holders - in ALL sports. Haven't missed a UMass home game in decades.

They are not renewing their tickets as long as UMass plays at Gillette. And may drop other sports as well if the AD keeps moving other sports' games out of Amherst (basketball games in Springfield, for example).

They said most of their friends that are season tickets holders and live in the Amherst area will do the same thing. They don't mind one game a year at Gillette, but will not drive that distance 6-7 times a year.

A minority...3-4 times the alums live in eastern MA...UMass74 has posted on his blog that quite a number of season ticket holders are planning to go to the Razor...

There are folks like your friends who have had it good for years ...now that they have to travel a little they abandon the team..

To alienate the fan base like that isn't a great idea.


It would be like UNI moving football and basketball games to Iowa City (90 miles) to Des Moines (115 miles). While there may be a good number of alumns there the core fan base is going to be heavily alienated. I'm sure UMASS is different than UNI in terms of fan base but the Cedar Valley (Black Hawk, Grundy, Bremer, Tama, Butler, and Buchanan counties) is the core of the fan base. 95% of the fan base that goes to events live in the Cedar Valley. Without the Cedar Valley UNI doesn't exist.

UMASS may be different, but alienating the core fan base is almost always.....nay always....a bad idea.

[DJH]

Talked to friends of mine that are long time UMass season ticket holders - in ALL sports. Haven't missed a UMass home game in decades.

They are not renewing their tickets as long as UMass plays at Gillette. And may drop other sports as well if the AD keeps moving other sports' games out of Amherst (basketball games in Springfield, for example).

They said most of their friends that are season tickets holders and live in the Amherst area will do the same thing. They don't mind one game a year at Gillette, but will not drive that distance 6-7 times a year.

A minority...3-4 times the alums live in eastern MA...UMass74 has posted on his blog that quite a number of season ticket holders are planning to go to the Razor...

There are folks like your friends who have had it good for years ...now that they have to travel a little they abandon the team..

"had it good" means being able to watch your college team play their home games at their actual HOME?. The whole premise, and your "abandoning the team" phrasing is just asinine.

So If UNI decides they want to play all their home games in Chicago, and I don't go does that make me a bitter old fan?

[dbackjon]

Talked to friends of mine that are long time UMass season ticket holders - in ALL sports. Haven't missed a UMass home game in decades.

They are not renewing their tickets as long as UMass plays at Gillette. And may drop other sports as well if the AD keeps moving other sports' games out of Amherst (basketball games in Springfield, for example).

They said most of their friends that are season tickets holders and live in the Amherst area will do the same thing. They don't mind one game a year at Gillette, but will not drive that distance 6-7 times a year.

A minority...3-4 times the alums live in eastern MA...UMass74 has posted on his blog that quite a number of season ticket holders are planning to go to the Razor...

There are folks like your friends who have had it good for years ...now that they have to travel a little they abandon the team..

Pretty blasé about the fan base that has kept umass athletics going over the years

[LastMinuteman]

Massachusetts is different.

And if our supposed "core fan base" really does consist of these people who bitch about traveling an entire 20 minutes to go to the once-a-year Springfield basketball game next to the Basketball Hall of Fame, we're screwed anyway. You can't run a successful NCAA Division I athletics program with fans who won't travel more than 4 miles. Those people have nothing to say anymore about Bostonians denying the existence of anything outside Route 95 after that comment. Someone tell Stephen Hawking there's a second Hub of the Universe out in the Pioneer Valley.

[Col Hogan]

Massachusetts is different.

And if our supposed "core fan base" really does consist of these people who bitch about traveling an entire 20 minutes to go to the once-a-year Springfield basketball game next to the Basketball Hall of Fame, we're screwed anyway. You can't run a successful NCAA Division I athletics program with fans who won't travel more than 4 miles. Those people have nothing to say anymore about Bostonians denying the existence of anything outside Route 95 after that comment. Someone tell Stephen Hawking there's a second Hub of the Universe out in the Pioneer Valley.

Exactly...

Different...weird...unusual... call it what you want, but the folks in the Pioneer Valley who are bitching about traveling are a minority of the fan base...they most likely never go to road games...and like it that there is space in the stands when they attend home games...

There are lots of season ticket holders who understand why the University has taken these steps...and will continue to support the team and travel to Foxboro for football until Alumni Stadium can be upgraded...and will travel to Springfield for the occasional basketball game...

There was no way to not alienate some fans, and move the football program forward...at least, not in Massachusetts...its the price of progress...

[89Hen]

Home games are at home. End of story.

[collegesportsinfo]

Home games are at home. End of story.

In a simple world, full of simple minded people, yes, it would b e end of story. But UConn has followed a similar model where their home games are 45minutes to an hour away from campus. And they are a BCS conference school. UCLA plays it's games a good 2 hours away in LA traffic, leaving Westwood and heading northeast to Pasadena. Again, a BCS conference school.

I am in the camp of people that think the long term goal needs to be to have success at Gillette and then parlay that into a new stadium on campus. But it's a chicken/egg problem: if UMass has success at Gillette, there is no reason to justify a move. If they have little success at Gillette, there would be no justification to spend the money on a stadium on campus.

With the changing economics of the sport, the move needed to happy. The sport of football will not likely be a 5-6 game event in Amherst anymore. It's just the problem with the school being on one side of the state when virtually the whole population (and alumni) are all on the other side of the state. For UMass to keep football, this move needed to be made. Unlike say URI, which had to downgrade football to keep it, UMass got to go the other direction and upgrade to the FBS.

I'm an idealist, to I'd prefer downgrading football and keeping it at UMass...make it an inexpensive niche sport for the people in Western MA. But it makes little sense to do that when you can have your games in an NFL stadium, schedule highest quality OOC opponents, make money for the school after a 5-6 year period. So for the future, it appears that there will be 1 game at amherst out of the 5 home games...starting in likely 2015. If the alternative is a downgrade, I'll take it.

[89Hen]

Home games are at home. End of story.

In a simple world, full of simple minded people, yes, it would b e end of story.

Could you be more arrogant?

[dbackjon]

Massachusetts is different.

And if our supposed "core fan base" really does consist of these people who bitch about traveling an entire 20 minutes to go to the once-a-year Springfield basketball game next to the Basketball Hall of Fame, we're screwed anyway. You can't run a successful NCAA Division I athletics program with fans who won't travel more than 4 miles. Those people have nothing to say anymore about Bostonians denying the existence of anything outside Route 95 after that comment. Someone tell Stephen Hawking there's a second Hub of the Universe out in the Pioneer Valley.

Problem with Springfield is more the area around the Basketball Hall of Fame - and one or two games a year is fine, but UMass is talking about moving the majority of games there.

[dbackjon]

Talked to friends of mine that are long time UMass season ticket holders - in ALL sports. Haven't missed a UMass home game in decades.

They are not renewing their tickets as long as UMass plays at Gillette. And may drop other sports as well if the AD keeps moving other sports' games out of Amherst (basketball games in Springfield, for example).

They said most of their friends that are season tickets holders and live in the Amherst area will do the same thing. They don't mind one game a year at Gillette, but will not drive that distance 6-7 times a year.

A minority...3-4 times the alums live in eastern MA...UMass74 has posted on his blog that quite a number of season ticket holders are planning to go to the Razor...

There are folks like your friends who have had it good for years ...now that they have to travel a little they abandon the team..

And what do you call those "fans" in Eastern MA that will now attend some games in Gillette but refused to drive regularly to Amherst?

You are all excited for them, but shouldn't you be heaping scorn on them, the way you are on the Western MA locals?

[LastMinuteman]

It's not scorn, it's exasperation. If EMass fans don't travel when the games are held in Amherst, they will be lame, but one thing you won't hear from them is a sense of entitlement. Ultimately we're talking about 5 days a year, usually Saturdays, for the opportunity to be entertained in a state of the art facility with a bigger jumbotron, a better sound system, nicer seats and more copious alcohol sales than we'll ever be allowed to have at McGuirk. That's a hardship? Then I must be a complete moron to have traveled from Boston to Amherst all this time to watch us play partial-scholarship teams in a giant slab of concrete with (until recently) a broken dot matrix scoreboard. That's what they're saying to me. That if I was smart, I wouldn't have supported this team. I obviously reject their values.

The MAC's mid-week games will still be played in Amherst. WMass fans can see every single home game if they put in only a little effort. Try getting from Boston to Amherst on a workday to see a Wednesday night game. You practically have to plan your career around it. That's commitment. A lot of people consider a Saturday afternoon drive through western and central Mass during fall foliage season a vacation, not a punishment. And again, it's 5 out of 365 days a year. Plus WMass is in a much better position to get to any regional road game except Boston College, not that anyone who won't even come to Gillette would go to an away game.

I'm surprised it's folks in Big Sky country who are worried about some small worlders in the northeast. Don't you guys have to drive like 45 minutes to get to the nearest liquor store? What would Montana's stadium look like on Saturdays if its core fan base wouldn't travel more than 15 minutes to get there?

[Silenoz]

So I just googled it, and see that Gillette is over 90 miles away from the UMass campus. How the hell is that going to work? That has to be some sort of record. I mean I'm the sort of hardcore fan that's probably in the top 5% of fanaticism, and even I get really, really f'ing tired of 200 miles drives for a game. What casual fan is going to put up with that?

edit: yeah... what you guys said