"It's obvious that Pitt and Syracuse fans dont travel wll to bowl games. (which is pathetic given their football tradition/history)"

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PusherT Wrote:"It's obvious that Pitt and Syracuse fans dont travel wll to bowl games. (which is pathetic given their football tradition/history)"

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I am pretty sure WVU, UL and UCONN fans will travel for bowl games. Other BE schools have to step it up. if UCONN goes to a bowl game this year, you will see plenty of UCONN fans there. I went to an UCONN vs. USC women's bball game once cause I was in town in LA, and I can tell you there were more UCONN fans at that game than USC fans.

I really think it is a combination of a couple of factors. I believe that distance plays a role considering, that the BE is really isolated from most bowl games. I think that most traditional schools in the BE are basketball first and football second. If Syracuse fans had a choice between a home basketball game or a bowl game in Charlotte, they would probadly go to the basketball game. Lastly the NE is a pro market in everything except basketball. There isn't as much of a passion for college football as their is down south. UL, WVU, and UConn will travel very well regardless.

No its not fair to blame Su and Pitt fans.....the schools are what they are and probably will never travel well despite there great histories....but with that being said both schools provide great crowds for home games when there teams are competitive....Don't forget that the largest crowd in Heinz Field history (including two Steelers AFC title games) was the Backyard Brawl a few yrs back

-- Uconn, Louisville or West Virginia will always travel....but any further "above average" traveling teams will have to come though expansion: ECU or the academies etc



Jackson

I'm not sold on UConn or Louisville yet. Louisville brought about 150 fans to Syracuse in 2003 and UConn brought about 500 fans to Syracuse in 2004. Whereas I saw about 5-6k Cuse fans at UNC in 2003 and 3-4k at UVA in 2004. Syracuse has a fairly strong core of about 5,000 traveling fans for name opponents in nice destinations.

Lets see if UConn travel's to a middling Bowl Game in five years, same for Louisville. Distance and the ability to drive to a game is a big factor.

TexanMark Wrote:I'm not sold on UConn or Louisville yet. Louisville brought about 150 fans to Syracuse in 2003 and UConn brought about 500 fans to Syracuse in 2004. Whereas I saw about 5-6k Cuse fans at UNC in 2003 and 3-4k at UVA in 2004. Syracuse has a fairly strong core of about 5,000 traveling fans for name opponents in nice destinations.

Lets see if UConn travel's to a middling Bowl Game in five years, same for Louisville. Distance and the ability to drive to a game is a big factor.

Texas Mark we aren't talking about OOC regular season road games. We are talking about bowl games. Louisville shows up for big games and bowl games.

We brought 10-15K to the Motor City right after Christmas. Motor City said it was the largest crowd from a team out of the town and set attendence records. UCONN fans will travel. If they travel to see women's bball team all the way in Southern Cal, they will show up for a bowl game.

We took about 15,000 to friggin Boise, ID in 1999 at the Humanitarian Bowl.

PusherT Wrote:"It's obvious that Pitt and Syracuse fans dont travel wll to bowl games. (which is pathetic given their football tradition/history)"

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Check out the price of airline tickets from the Northeast sometime. It's not the only factor, but it is still a big factor.

MHSCard Wrote:

TexanMark Wrote:I'm not sold on UConn or Louisville yet.&nbsp; Louisville brought about 150 fans to Syracuse in 2003 and UConn brought about 500 fans to Syracuse in 2004.&nbsp; Whereas I saw about 5-6k Cuse fans at UNC in 2003 and 3-4k at UVA in 2004.&nbsp; Syracuse has a fairly strong core of about 5,000 traveling fans for name opponents in nice destinations.

Lets see if UConn travel's to a middling Bowl Game in five years, same for Louisville.&nbsp; Distance and the ability to drive to a game is a big factor.

Texas Mark we aren't talking about OOC regular season road games. We are talking about bowl games. Louisville shows up for big games and bowl games.

I understand that but it is related. I feel more confident about Louisville being a great traveling school for bowl games over UConn. However, as a program matures and if it drops a notch in bowl caliber (like Gator to Toronto) how many fans will travel then. As far as UConn: First ever Bowl game, (attendance figures for them have been all over the place--5k, 10k, 15k) lets see how they do going to Memphis or Shreveport in a few years. Like Syracuse, UConn fans are pretty far from most bowl games so car travel is limited.

Bowl travel is obviously the most important travel stastic for obvious reasons but some of the new programs haven't shown me anything yet for inseason travel.

Pitinoville Wrote:We took about 15,000 to friggin Boise, ID in 1999 at the Humanitarian Bowl.

Not to call you out but lets look at the logic of this. Attendance at the game was listed at about 29,000. The other team was Boise State playing in their firstever Div 1A Bowl game at home and Louisville brought as many (about 15000) fans 1500 miles away than Boise did across the street?

Precious

TexanMark Wrote:

Pitinoville Wrote:We took about 15,000 to friggin Boise, ID in 1999 at the Humanitarian Bowl.

Not to call you out but lets look at the logic of this. Attendance at the game was listed at about 29,000. The other team was Boise State playing in their firstever Div 1A Bowl game at home and Louisville brought as many (about 15000) fans 1500 miles away than Boise did across the street?

Precious

I was there.

L-yes Wrote:

TexanMark Wrote:

Pitinoville Wrote:We took about 15,000 to friggin Boise, ID in 1999 at the Humanitarian Bowl.

Not to call you out but lets look at the logic of this. Attendance at the game was listed at about 29,000. The other team was Boise State playing in their firstever Div 1A Bowl game at home and Louisville brought as many (about 15000) fans 1500 miles away than Boise did across the street?

Precious

I was there.

And?

Are you kidding me? We took 30K to Memphis, to abowl game we have played in a thousand times in a city that we have been to a thousand times to a city that is freezing cold in December sans last year, which it was pretty mild.

Don't worry your little self about UL traveling, we will top any other team in the New Big East in that department.

TexanMark Wrote:

L-yes Wrote:

TexanMark Wrote:

Pitinoville Wrote:We took about 15,000 to friggin Boise, ID in 1999 at the Humanitarian Bowl.

Not to call you out but lets look at the logic of this. Attendance at the game was listed at about 29,000. The other team was Boise State playing in their firstever Div 1A Bowl game at home and Louisville brought as many (about 15000) fans 1500 miles away than Boise did across the street?

Precious

I was there.

And?

We took 15k.

You can't believe you people fell right into Pusher Troll trap. He pulls this on the C-USA Board all the time.

and Boise State brought 14k to their firstever Bowl Game in their own stadium?

ohhh kay

:bang: :bang:

Maize Wrote:You can't believe you people fell right into Pusher Troll trap.&nbsp; He pulls this on the C-USA Board all the time.

True

He is giggling right now sitting in his underwear in a dark room at his Mom's house.

Right now I'd say Louisville is the 2nd best traveling team for Bowl Games in the BE. However, I was very surprised at the lack of fans you brought to Syracuse in 2003. It was no more than 150-200.

There are very few, if any, instances of a school maintaining outstanding fan support and success in both major college sports. Traditionally you're a football school or a basketball school. Doesn't mean the other sport can't experience peaks, but history says it's very tough to sell fans on both for extended periods of time. Count me among those who'll be very interested to watch what happens with Louisville and UConn as time marches on.

thus, blame Pitt and Cuse for the conference's bowl woes? Depends on your point of view. Yes, Cuse and Pitt have shown instances of brining only a few thousand to recent bowl games. But so had BC, and Miami wasn't known for traveling outside of, well, Miami unless it's a national title game. But on top of that the BE hasn't built the image of its football conference much beyond Miami, VT and WVU, and with home crowds in the low 40's outside of those three the bowls lined up for the BE weren't your high profile games in Tampa, N'Orlens, etc. Add in things like WVU's bowl performances and many conference fans turning their attention to Cuse and UConn basketball and the recipe is there for lackluster bowl support. Unlike SEC and B10 schools who live and breathe for every last second of football, that just wasn't the case with much of the BE.

Should it be? We all wish every game of every sport for our school was a standing room only raucus event, but that isn't always the case. We make trade offs and take the best we can get. I want the Orange to always have huge crowds for basketball and want those fans to always be there for every March Madness run. Even if it means turning away from football the attention and $ of those fans who can only support one sport. Likewise I don't think the fans in Morgantown would want to take the focus off their beloved Mountaineer football in return for becoming a basketball school. Wolverine fans would never trade a losing season in football for a Final Four, Jayhawks fans would never trade a New Year's bowl for failing to make postseason basketball.

For some strange reason, $, time, passion, whatever, it's very tough to be a proven winner and media darling in both sports. But the BE is a basketball minded conference, which is nobody's "fault," just a collective decision that may have proven erroneous and at least has its weaknesses.

Don't forget U of L sports, the Red's farm team and Horseraceing is about the only sports draws we have in Louisville. We are by far and away the biggest college town in America when it comes to sports. Even when we were down in Basketball and Football in the mid to late 90's we had great attendence in basketball and since we got PJCS in 1998 our #'s have been rising in football. The NCAA's market share during the last Basketball tourny was higher in Louisville then anywhere else. I know UK fans are about 37% of that but still University of Louisville sports are the venues to see and be seen at in the Ville. And because of that the people able to travel see it as a point of status as much as fandom to travel to the big venues, ie. bowls and such.