The 2 Major Mistakes -- Fairfield Stags Hoops Forum

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Date Posted: 08:36:49am 01/10/06 Tue,
Author: DitchMitch
Subject: The 2 Major Mistakes
In reply to: JoeStag 's message, "The University dropped Football/Hockey, not Athletics" on 07:12:32am 01/10/06 Tue,

Here are, in my mind, the 2 major mistakes made in the Athletic Department in the last 10 years:

1) Starting a Football program: Whoever decided to axe football just 6 years after the program was started is saying the football program should not have been started in the first place. Sure, any student or alum is going to want a football team. But considering how much almost every school with a football team loses, why start one after so many years without a program? I would love to know what Fairfield thought it would gain with football, considering how much it knew the investment would be.
Unfortunately, the money that went to the football program likely could have been used to improve other facets of the athletic department. Perhaps ice hockey could have survived, for example.

2) AHY: The decision to have Fairfield's basketball teams playing at Harbor Yards is proving a major mistake. It's a beautiful arena, but it is not a fit for Fairfield basketball, outside of perhaps a game or two a year. It certainly has not helped recruiting-wise (for either the men or women), the average attendance of I'm guessing about 2500 - 3000 makes the arena cavernous and a poor home court advantage, and most important, the students are not there. The fact that the women would play a stand-alone game there makes me cringe.

I understand why the University has to try and put a positive spin on it, but if you are a Fairfield basketball fan, I'm not sure how you could make a case for AHY coming out as anything more than a net loss for Fairfield basketball.

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Replies:

[> [> [> [> [> Re: The University dropped Football/Hockey, not Athletics -- Running Man, 09:52:59am 01/10/06 Tue, [1]

I know that there is a tendency among some posters to blame Doris for the condition of the athletic program at F.U., but the blame is misplaced. Every significant decision flows from the head honcho who uses those around him in an advisory capacity. Several years ago I talked with Doris about the state of Cross Country in particular and Fairfield sports in general and he described the situation as I have above. I believe that he would do more if he weren't hamstrung by the university.

Unfortunately Catholic universities live by the principle that the president calls the shots and if you don't like it, then that is your problem. I remember back in the 70s that F.U. conducted a survey among its alumni asking whether the respondents would prefer that the institution remain with a student body all male or become coed. The published results indicated that the alumni decided overwhelmingly that it should remain all male. The next year the school was coed. Obviously the university did not care one iota what the alumni thought. The president and the Board of Trustees ignored the survey results and did what they had intended doing. So it is the president whom we should praise or blame. Expect decisions on important aspects of university life, like athletics,to come from the president's office.

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