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Date Posted: 01:22:55pm 01/15/06 Sun,
Author: DitchMitch
Subject: Re: column: Fairfield arena solution may be close to home
In reply to:
Loyola211
's message, "column: Fairfield arena solution may be close to home" on 12:51:26pm 01/15/06 Sun,
Great article by Elsberry
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Arena - overused by Stags -- JCM, 02:35:22pm 01/15/06 Sun, [1]
1) Fairfield pays 15K per game for the women to play in front of 750 fans.
2) The Men have no home court advantage whatsoever playing at Harbor Yard.
3) The men will never outdraw the capacity of Alumni Hall against some of the lesser teams on the schedule.
4) The program cannot advance without playing some games at an arena like Harbor Yard (St. John's, Providence, URI, or any name program they want to attrac).
The logical solution needs to be to play some games at Alumni Hall and some at Harbor Yard.
I don't argue with what the administration has done to this point. It was estimated that upgrading Alumni Hall would cost in excess of 1 Million dollars. They could lose $100,000 a year for 10 years on AHY before it approaches the cost of the Alumni Hall renovation. And it was possible that AHY would be a break even or possibly profitable venture, if the administration played their cards right. The 5 years deal with Harbor Yard was a good decision.
However, the administration didn't play their cards right. They overpriced the tickets. They showed no ability to promote the program. They didn't capatilize on the presence of Deng Gai and Ajou Deng on the stags roster. They didn't have a 20 win season. They didn't make the NCAA tournament. They didn't beat a big name opponent at home.
How many people go to Bridgeport to watch the Blue Fish or the Sound tigers play. Both programs are new to the area but draw much better than the stags. Why? Promotion. My kids get free tickets to the bluefish games all the time. Why do they give tickets away to kids. Because the parents have to bring the kids and pay to go the game. And a family of 4 will spend on average $55 a game on concessions. Fairfield however entered into an arrangement where they make nothing on concessions. They don't even make money on the shirts sold at the arena. So while the arena deal was a good idea, the stags didn't enter into a great contract.
With the deal coming up for renewal, The administration needs to decide if they are serious about this initiative. If so they need to negoiate a better deal, lower ticket prices and promote the program. Otherwise, fix alumni hall and have only a handful of games at Harbor Yard. While I am for having the majority of game at the AHY, I am not for it if they are going to draw only 1400 fans to play there.
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Re: Arena - overused by Stags -- Paulie74, 09:58:21am 01/16/06 Mon, [1]
JCM has hit the nail on the head. We have Homer Simpson negotiating with Henry Kissinger. Not that we have a lot of leverage with the product we are offering. However, the analysis of the past is right on. We missed the opportunity and have lost 5 years in the process. The other question I have is WHAT IS THE UNIVERSITY DOING TO ENLIST THE HELP OF ALL THE PASSIONATE VOICES WHO PARTICIPATE REGULARLY ON THIS MESSAGE BOARD. That's free labor folks!!
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Re: Arena - overused by Stags -- Stagophile, 01:25:33pm 01/16/06 Mon, [1]
What is the University doing? Not much. I personally believe that most at the University view the posters here as having nothing of value to add. We are seen as an annoying small group of crazy alumni who only want to complain. There have been several anonymous postings over the past couple of months by posters who clearly are from the University who have chastised us for being constantly negative and living vicariously through student athletes. Granted the posting can get out of hand sometimes and JoeStag does a good job of reigning things in, but, the majority of the posting here has been very constructive and dead on when evaluating the state of affairs at Fairfield. I think the University is doing a disservice to itself by not taking our commentary more serious. Many of us represent the diehard alumni that are in the stands supporting the athletic teams. As stated elsewhere, if they lose diehard Stags fans like us, then I am not sure where they are going to find the fans.
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Re: Arena - overused by Stags -- FU73, 04:30:48pm 01/16/06 Mon, [1]
Good points. If in fact the University does monitor these postings, then they now know ther views of the die hard "alumni fans" here. Maybe the University should let their vision and plan for Fairfield Athletics be known to the alumni. We whould to know about the AHY plans, the future of Alumni Hall in terms of using it again, renovating or replacing it, any long term plan for promoting and or upgrading teams. When football and hockey were dropped, the alumni views could have been solicited in advance. The University needs it's alumni in many, many ways; not the least of which is a means of funding!
How hard would it be to have Fr. von Arx send out a letter to us all if and when their plan is ready?
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Re: Arena - overused by Stags -- Stagophile, 04:59:13pm 01/16/06 Mon, [1]
Communications solves a lot of problems. A boosters clubs providing a little more commnications from the University and the opportunity for alumni to provide their input and donations would go a long way towards turning this situation into a positive. I think there are alot of alumni out there they do want to participate in improving the athletics program. The problem is that very little is being done to tap into this interest and to channel it in a positve manner. It's a valuable opportunity for the University and until something is done, the University is leaving alot on the table.
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Crazy Alumni -- JCM, 04:49:33pm 01/16/06 Mon, [1]
The university really ought to take a look at these Crazy Alumni. I'm one of those Crazy Alumni who has started 3 profitable businesses and run a company that has 52 million dollars in sales. Yeah, none of these companies is General Motors or GE, but when you take a business from zero to 52 Million in revenue over 5 years you need to know a little something about marketing. And while I feel I am clearly light years ahead of anyone involved in the Universities marketing activities, the truth is I am a rank amateur compared to other folks on this board.
I was involved in a promotion about 18 years ago where we brought 1400 Cub Scouts to a New Haven Nighthawks game. There were about half the number of Cub Scouts in the state then as there are now. Why hasn't the university done something like this? The truth is they have tried but have absolutely no idea how to make this kind of thing work. There are dozens of other organization like the cub scouts that could bring numbers given the right promotion.
Nor has the school ever had a successful "Employeer night wehre GE, SCGC, Sikorsky or some other large area employer promotes a game and offers discounted tickets to employees I have seen companies sell over 1000 tickets for a promotion like this.
They are completely lost. And we are complainers that have no idea what we are talking about.
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Re: Crazy Alumni -- RiverdaleEngineer, 09:25:04am 01/17/06 Tue, [1]
The Hudson Valley renegades minor league baseball team regularly sell out their 3 Scout nights before most of their other games are anywhere near sold out. Thousands of Cub Scouts go to Army Football Scout Day. Admittedly, Army wraps theirs up with their formation on the parade grounds and a tour - so I would never expect this level of success from a MAAC school. I take my Cubs to Manhattan games, even though there is nothing special done by the school. But any Div I college that were to give discounted admission and work with the local Boy Scout Council would do well. Attending a sporting event is a requirement for some levels. The Make up a Scout Day patch - not a lot of money even for small quantities.
I am also amazed that our MAAC schools don't do the same for CYO and Town Rec type basketball programs. My kids sometimes come home with a flyer for Nets tickets, with a small discount. Even with this, it is quite a chunk of money to bring the family. But a MAAC school could work out an affordable level for a family. Besides, if you introduce middle school age kids to your school, they'll be thinking about it when it's time to apply to colleges. Can't think of a better demographic for such an intro.
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