hoyaloya
Century (over 100 posts)
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Post by hoyaloya on Feb 10, 2014 6:47:55 GMT -5
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GUMBA
Silver Hoya (over 500 posts)
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Post by GUMBA on Feb 10, 2014 8:58:37 GMT -5
They would be a good addition to the Big East in a solid media market.
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hoyaboya
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Post by hoyaboya on Feb 10, 2014 13:46:11 GMT -5
They would be a good addition to the Big East in a solid media market. SLU would be a solid add if the conference is looking to expand. Personally, I like the current round robin model of every team playing each other twice. |
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hoyaloya
Century (over 100 posts)
Posts: 156
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Post by hoyaloya on Feb 11, 2014 0:45:49 GMT -5
hoyaboya: agree there is something to like about equality in the schedule but it can be attained in a 2 division 6 team set up. If St. Louis were added to the West and VCU or Richmond to the East, then each of the six teams would play home and home within the division for 10 games and play the other division once for 6 more. To keep it equal, one year West would be at home and the next East would be at home for inter-division games. So each competing division team would face the same opponents. The advantages are: 1.add 2 good teams to the league; 2. add another non Catholic school so Butler not alone; 3.add 2 good media markets; 4.reduce conference play to 16 games so as to enable an additional 2 OOC opponents. For GU, I would like to see Syracuse either home and home or annually at the Garden and Gonzaga home and home. A West Coast trip every other year would help GU presence there and enable a piggy-back game with UDUB or Stanford or UCLA. What do you think?
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gunny
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Post by gunny on Feb 11, 2014 1:17:06 GMT -5
I was going to wait to comment on expansion based on how the Big East Tournament attendance plays out, but we may need some additional schools so we can sell out MSG. I would hate not to sell out MSG for the BE Tournament. This may force the conference's hand to expand.
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DFW HOYA
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Post by DFW HOYA on Feb 11, 2014 8:08:16 GMT -5
I was going to wait to comment on expansion based on how the Big East Tournament attendance plays out, but we may need some additional schools so we can sell out MSG. I would hate not to sell out MSG for the BE Tournament. This may force the conference's hand to expand. Selling tickets is not a good reason to expand a conference. If that's the criterion, call up UConn. The selection of Butler (and in some respects DePaul) was a bit of overreach for the Big East in adding a school that was not fully prepared for the jump. The Big East does not need schools in St. Louis or Dayton or Richmond to be a better conference, especially when their other sports are not very strong. After all, this is a conference that need to be considered, not a basketball scheduling arrangement. |
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calhoya
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
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Post by calhoya on Feb 11, 2014 8:20:09 GMT -5
The attendance at the Hoya games is pathetic. Part of the problem may be the lack of the defectors, but I suspect the attempt to revive Big Monday is also hurting the Hoyas. Monday night games at the Verizon are not going to be convenient for most fans. It is early in the week, the game is televised and it often involves an opponent that does not draw well in DC. Would like to see these games moved. It cannot help Hoya recruiting for the television braodcasts to show a cavernous and relatively empty Verizon Center on one channel and then the KU- K State sellout on the opposing station.
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DFW HOYA
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Post by DFW HOYA on Feb 11, 2014 8:56:47 GMT -5
The attendance at the Hoya games is pathetic. Part of the problem may be the lack of the defectors, but I suspect the attempt to revive Big Monday is also hurting the Hoyas. Monday night games at the Verizon are not going to be convenient for most fans. It is early in the week, the game is televised and it often involves an opponent that does not draw well in DC. Would like to see these games moved. It cannot help Hoya recruiting for the television braodcasts to show a cavernous and relatively empty Verizon Center on one channel and then the KU- K State sellout on the opposing station. I understand the frustration but Georgetown has no leverage on this. The Verizon agreement is all or nothing and the Big East (as far as I know) still mandates a minimum 6,000 seats for conference games. There are no available facilities west of College Park which can accomodate this unless you are willing to rent George Mason's arena. This is the price of doing business in the Big East. Another contributing factor? Ticket prices went way up this year despite the lack of opponents. A seat behind the student section is being sold on Ticketmaster for $67. An upper deck seat that used to go for $15 is now $45. A seat at home in front of the set? Free. |
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GUMBA
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Post by GUMBA on Feb 11, 2014 9:24:07 GMT -5
UCONN, UMASS, Memphis and VCU -- all large, non-Catholic schools with solid basketball programs - would add strength to the conference and sell tickets at Verizon and MSG. But nobody wants to go back to the mixed conference format (football schools vs basketball schools) where you have programs that could defect to power conferences when the next opportunity arises. This was the rationale for establishing the new Big East with like minded schools that are similar in size and focus. But the Phone Booth is empty. I agree that adding Richmond or Dayton (private schools in small media markets) to the mix isn't helpful at this point and won't fix the woeful attendance numbers at home games. As an aside you can ask the question, do we want opposing fans in Verizon in the upper deck? The answer could be yes if the other team brings out a strong local presence in support of the Hoyas who want to see a marquee match-up. I hated dealing with WVU and UCONN fans at home as much as the next Hoya fan, but it was a completely different atmosphere at Verizon than what I experienced last night when the place looked and felt more than half empty - which it was. Ten teams in the Big East is nice for home and home but powerful basketball conferences all have more members (ACC 15, Big Ten 14, SEC 14, PAC 12, AAC 11). Even the Atlantic 10 has 13 members. Only the Big XII at 10 schools and looking to expand, equals the Big East. So expansion is coming, it is just a matter of when it happens. So do we absorb the best of the Atlantic 10 in basketball - VCU, UMASS, SLU, and Dayton? Do we go back to UCONN and Memphis for everything but football? Do we look at Wichita State from the Missouri Valley? The most likely scenario is the first one. UCONN, Memphis and Cincinnati are not coming back and will all be trying to join any of the power conferences that will have them. Wichita State is only a fit if you live in Omaha and doesn't address any other issues. So we need to think about whether 12 or 14 makes sense and which of the Atlantic 10 schools we believe will build the conference - basketball tradition, media markets, fans at the BET, rivalries, all sports. The conference will probably expand to 12 in the next round - one from the east coast and one from the midwest. Now who do you want?
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hoyainspirit
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
When life puts that voodoo on me, music is my gris-gris.
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Post by hoyainspirit on Feb 11, 2014 12:55:54 GMT -5
hoyaboya: agree there is something to like about equality in the schedule but it can be attained in a 2 division 6 team set up. If St. Louis were added to the West and VCU or Richmond to the East, then each of the six teams would play home and home within the division for 10 games and play the other division once for 6 more. To keep it equal, one year West would be at home and the next East would be at home for inter-division games. So each competing division team would face the same opponents. The advantages are: 1.add 2 good teams to the league; 2. add another non Catholic school so Butler not alone; 3.add 2 good media markets; 4.reduce conference play to 16 games so as to enable an additional 2 OOC opponents. For GU, I would like to see Syracuse either home and home or annually at the Garden and Gonzaga home and home. A West Coast trip every other year would help GU presence there and enable a piggy-back game with UDUB or Stanford or UCLA. What do you think? Probably have to split the six other division games 3 home, 3 away. Otherwise, too many road or home games in one season. |
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drquigley
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Post by drquigley on Feb 11, 2014 13:27:55 GMT -5
Attendance problems with the new BE will continue because new teams, e.g. Xavier, Creighton, Butler just don't have the local alumni base like Syracuse, W.Va., UCONN, Pitt, N.D. Also, sadly, weeknight games just don't draw students to Verizon like they would to an on campus arena. Adding St.Louis or Wichita Stae won't help especially since those teams won't draw flies when they have down years. VCU would seem to be a better fit. I'm a loyal Hoya and BE fan but I really don't see our conference ever reaching the heights it used to. Hope I'm wrong but the house rocked at Syracuse, UCONN, Pitt games.
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hoyaboya
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Post by hoyaboya on Feb 11, 2014 13:55:39 GMT -5
No thanks on Richmond - do not see any good reason to add them. Poor program with little/no history, small student/alumni base, mid-sized market, OK academically but not great. If we have to get to 12, my vote would be Gonzaga or SLU in the West and VCU or UMASS in the East. I'd also be fine with figuring out a way to combine what will be left of the AAC after Rutgers and Louisville depart. Cincinnati, Memphis and UCONN are legit hoops programs and SMU is trending in the right direction. I know we don't want football schools for obvious reasons, but if there was any way to build some sort of basketball alliance with those top AAC basketball schools, I'd be looking to do so.
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drquigley
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
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Post by drquigley on Feb 11, 2014 14:13:24 GMT -5
Look, Verizon seats 18,000+. Gonzaga, UMASS or SLU will never come close to filling the place. VCU might. Instead of expanding let's schedule home and home with Syracuse, Duke, Kansas, Kentucky etc. also absolutely need a preseason tournament with Maryland, GW, and Mason or VCU.
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This Just In
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
Bold Prediction: The Hoyas will win at least 1 BE game in 2023.
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Post by This Just In on Feb 11, 2014 14:47:18 GMT -5
To me VCU is the obvious add and there would not be an attendance issue when they came to the Verizon...I do not understand why they were not added i the first place. Right now they are a better program than Butler and even in the long run Creighton.
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SSHoya
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"Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."
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Post by SSHoya on Feb 11, 2014 14:51:13 GMT -5
To me VCU is the obvious add and there would not be an attendance issue when they came to the Verizon...I do not understand why they were not added i the first place. Right now they are a better program than Butler and even in the long run Creighton. I recall a discussion prior to the formation of the currently constituted Big East that because VCU is state university, it would be subject to state FOIA laws/regulations, and perhaps other restrictions because of stat4e law. Don't know if that was a factor but I know it was subject to some speculation. |
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HoyaChris
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Post by HoyaChris on Feb 11, 2014 14:58:21 GMT -5
To me VCU is the obvious add and there would not be an attendance issue when they came to the Verizon...I do not understand why they were not added i the first place. Right now they are a better program than Butler and even in the long run Creighton. VCU was not added, nor even seriously considered, because it does not remotely fit academically with the schools in the conference. I do not understand why people continue to be confused by this. Moreover, who wants a full Verizon which is half VCU fans? I suspect we will remain at 10 for a while, while we watch how the landscape continues to shake out. |
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Post by ColumbiaHeightsHoya on Feb 11, 2014 15:35:41 GMT -5
We need a curtain for the 400 section to bring capacity down. That is the most viable solution. We need Teddy to pony up for this as it probably makes sense for Mystic games and other lesser attended Verizon events. This would also stabilize pricing on seats in the 100's & 200's. Why wouldn't this be an option?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2014 15:39:02 GMT -5
We need a curtain for the 400 section to bring capacity down. That is the most viable solution. We need Teddy to pony up for this as it probably makes sense for Mystic games and other lesser attended Verizon events. This would also stabilize pricing on seats in the 100's & 200's. Why wouldn't this be an option? |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2014 15:48:49 GMT -5
We need a curtain for the 400 section to bring capacity down. That is the most viable solution. We need Teddy to pony up for this as it probably makes sense for Mystic games and other lesser attended Verizon events. This would also stabilize pricing on seats in the 100's & 200's. Why wouldn't this be an option? Couldnt agree more. They shouldnt even sell the upper deck seats until the two lower bowls are sold out. Also, the pricing is just completely off. What deluded world is the ticket office living in that they think most people will pay 78 dollars for a floor level seat in the corner, especially coming off another off-season disappointment. The sad part is that with a more dynamic pricing strategy the athletic department could probably generate the same or even increased revenues while creating a better playing atmosphere, but that would actually require some hard work... |
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This Just In
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
Bold Prediction: The Hoyas will win at least 1 BE game in 2023.
Posts: 10,596
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Post by This Just In on Feb 11, 2014 16:05:34 GMT -5
To me VCU is the obvious add and there would not be an attendance issue when they came to the Verizon...I do not understand why they were not added i the first place. Right now they are a better program than Butler and even in the long run Creighton. I do not understand why people continue to be confused by this. Moreover, who wants a full Verizon which is half VCU fans? I suspect we will remain at 10 for a while, while we watch how the landscape continues to shake out. I think academics got thrown out the window a long time ago. |
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