For those who still think Friday Night Games are Bush league

[Orangemen]

You probably should skip ESPN on Friday nights in November.

In addition to SU on the 11th, USC is playing Friday the 4th, and Okla St is playing Friday the 18th.

Mizzou and ASU also played a Friday nighter earlier this year.

Friday night games are here to stay, and there's no question that they should be. Big fired up crowds, no football competition. It's a no brainer.

With the NFL moving in on Thursday nights, I can easily see Friday night becoming the big non-Saturday college football showcase night.

 

[dollarbill44]

Friday night is far better than Thursday night, imo. At least in areas where HS football isn't a way of life, i.e. Western PA, Texas, FLa, etc. There's no conflict with class schedules and it's a great prelude for students before going out to the bars. And, like you said, very little sports-related competition on TV.

 

[NKR1978]

I've never watched a friday night game that didn't have an amazing atmosphere. The people who still whine about Friday night games as being a little league are the same people who probably think Colgate is a great rival for syracuse and lament the forward pass.

 

[rrlbees]

I've never watched a friday night game that didn't have an amazing atmosphere. The people who still whine about Friday night games as being a little league are the same people who probably think Colgate is a great rival for syracuse and lament the forward pass.

I don't think anyone felt like it was a bad thing to have a Friday night game. For me personally, they are great. The complaint was that we had 3 weeknight games and that is a big negative for those who travel from out of town.I know a LOT of people who travel 2-4-6 hours for a game and have season tix and are missing 2 if not all 3.

 

[Cusefan95]

I don't think anyone felt like it was a bad thing to have a Friday night game. For me personally, they are great. The complaint was that we had 3 weeknight games and that is a big negative for those who travel from out of town.I know a LOT of people who travel 2-4-6 hours for a game and have season tix and are missing 2 if not all 3.

Exactly. I don't think there are enough fans in CNY to sell out the Carrier Dome consistently, which means they need to market to Binghamton/Rochester/Utica/and maybe Albany to get sufficient numbers of people coming to the Dome. Having Friday night or Thursday night games make it hard to market to those fans, which means they are less likely to come to games at all.

What I fear will happen is that the Friday night games will be "events" that all the bandwagon CNY fans show up for...then when they're playing Eastern Michigan on a Saturday those fans will disappear, the ones from out-of-town won't bother to come...and they'll have created a hell of a marketing challenge to overcome. In the end I think this approach puts pressure on the local fans to do something they have NEVER done - show up for a non-event game like a MAC opponent on a Saturday at noon. If they actually choose to go to a game and put off raking leaves until Sunday, this approach will be a spectacular success. If those leaves gotta get raked up on Saturday at noon...not so much.

 

[Upstate]

I was considering season tickets before realizing that 3 games were weeknight games. Would have been impossible for me.

 

[dollarbill44]

I don't think anyone felt like it was a bad thing to have a Friday night game. For me personally, they are great. The complaint was that we had 3 weeknight games and that is a big negative for those who travel from out of town.I know a LOT of people who travel 2-4-6 hours for a game and have season tix and are missing 2 if not all 3.

I recall there were some locals on here complaining that Friday night games would keep people away due to conflicts with local HS football games.

 

[Fjoinkay]

Friday night games are better than Thursday night for the fans and I would imagine for the players and the coaches. I'll take a Friday night game over a Saturday nooner.

 

[NKR1978]

I don't think anyone felt like it was a bad thing to have a Friday night game. For me personally, they are great. The complaint was that we had 3 weeknight games and that is a big negative for those who travel from out of town.I know a LOT of people who travel 2-4-6 hours for a game and have season tix and are missing 2 if not all 3.

I was just talking from an atmosphere perspective and mostly railing against the people who don't like them out of an out dated principle that college football must be played on Saturday.

I agree with everything else in your post. As an out of town fan, the Friday games would be tough to get to, and 3 week night games is a lot.

 

[rrlbees]

I was just talking from an atmosphere perspective and mostly railing against the people who don't like them out of an out dated principle that college football must be played on Saturday.

I agree with everything else in your post. As an out of town fan, the Friday games would be tough to get to, and 3 week night games is a lot.

Gotcha. And of course there will be more drunk rowdy fans on a Friday @8pm than a Saturday @noon (well except maybe Retro and IB).

 

[Fjoinkay]

Yeah, and on Saturdays at noon most of the student population is hung over and slow moving.

 

[billsin01]

Exactly. I don't think there are enough fans in CNY to sell out the Carrier Dome consistently, which means they need to market to Binghamton/Rochester/Utica/and maybe Albany to get sufficient numbers of people coming to the Dome. Having Friday night or Thursday night games make it hard to market to those fans, which means they are less likely to come to games at all.

What I fear will happen is that the Friday night games will be "events" that all the bandwagon CNY fans show up for...then when they're playing Eastern Michigan on a Saturday those fans will disappear, the ones from out-of-town won't bother to come...and they'll have created a hell of a marketing challenge to overcome. In the end I think this approach puts pressure on the local fans to do something they have NEVER done - show up for a non-event game like a MAC opponent on a Saturday at noon. If they actually choose to go to a game and put off raking leaves until Sunday, this approach will be a spectacular success. If those leaves gotta get raked up on Saturday at noon...not so much.

I know it was WVU but wasn't that our biggest attendance for a game -- BY FAR -- this season? That would seem to dis-spell the notion of not being able to sell tix. And as far as those being events and fans not showing up for Eastern Michigan, isn't that what has already happened for as long as anyone can remember?

Not trying to knock anyone, but I think people like going to weeknight games and I think you have a far better chance -- albeit just a chance -- of finding yourself on sports center or something. I mean we were the lead on sports center for knocking off WVU -- never happens on saturday.

 

[billsin01]

I was just talking from an atmosphere perspective and mostly railing against the people who don't like them out of an out dated principle that college football must be played on Saturday.

I agree with everything else in your post. As an out of town fan, the Friday games would be tough to get to, and 3 week night games is a lot.

I know people will crucify me for saying this, but I'd rather do a friday night game I think. I'm an out-of-towner who, admittedly, would much rather go to NYC and watch the team b/c I have zero love loss for the dome. But, if I'm local and can swing it, I'm fired up to duck out of work at 3 on Friday, tailgate for a while, go to the game, go out for a beer and go home with my whole weekend in front of me. The idea of my entire saturday being swallowed up indoors at an SU/Eastern Michigan game is not enticing. Maybe it's because I have kids -- in fact that's a big part of it, but I've turned down free skins tix a ton and maryland tix b/c I'm just not that into a general sporting event if I don't have a significant rooting interest.

 

[sutomcat]

You probably should skip ESPN on Friday nights in November.

In addition to SU on the 11th, USC is playing Friday the 4th, and Okla St is playing Friday the 18th.

Mizzou and ASU also played a Friday nighter earlier this year.

Friday night games are here to stay, and there's no question that they should be. Big fired up crowds, no football competition. It's a no brainer.

With the NFL moving in on Thursday nights, I can easily see Friday night becoming the big non-Saturday college football showcase night.

I am okay with Friday night games. Prefer them to Saturday noon games, which are the worst for me (they take the whole day away, the crowd is always smaller, the atmosphere is at its worst, etc.).

The best game times for me are the 3:30 PM or 8:00 PM Saturday kickoffs. Good atmosphere, crowds are better and my of my out of town friends can make it.

 

[Cusefan95]

I know it was WVU but wasn't that our biggest attendance for a game -- BY FAR -- this season? That would seem to dis-spell the notion of not being able to sell tix. And as far as those being events and fans not showing up for Eastern Michigan, isn't that what has already happened for as long as anyone can remember?

Not trying to knock anyone, but I think people like going to weeknight games and I think you have a far better chance -- albeit just a chance -- of finding yourself on sports center or something. I mean we were the lead on sports center for knocking off WVU -- never happens on saturday.

I'm pretty confident that Friday night games against "name" teams are going to do really, really well. But if that means that it discourages out-of-towers from coming and we're pulling in 30,000 for a Saturday game against Eastern Michigan and can't attract out of area fans for those games, Syracuse is no further ahead with this strategy.

If moving games against big name opponents to NYC has local fans freaking out and debating if they should still get season tickets to less attractive games, playing your attractive home games on weeknights will probably have the same impact on out-of-town fans.

If Syracuse is cool with selling out Friday night games and playing in a library environment on Saturdays, then fine. But I do recall Syrause getting ripped on nationally for poor attendance vs Eastern Michigan back in the 90's when Syracuse was top 25.

 

[kingottoiii]

You probably should skip ESPN on Friday nights in November.

In addition to SU on the 11th, USC is playing Friday the 4th, and Okla St is playing Friday the 18th.

Mizzou and ASU also played a Friday nighter earlier this year.

Friday night games are here to stay, and there's no question that they should be. Big fired up crowds, no football competition. It's a no brainer.

With the NFL moving in on Thursday nights, I can easily see Friday night becoming the big non-Saturday college football showcase night.

It was never about Friday night as much as it was about the BE not being able to get onto TV. You rarely see the BE on ABC, ESPN, or ESPN2 anymore. Even ESPNU. The BE couldn't get on Saturdays so it got bumped to Thursdays. Then that day became popular and the BE got bumped to Fridays. Now Friday is becoming popular so I expect the BE to get bumped again. In fact Pitt vs UConn is on this Wednesday. The MAC is now playing on Tuesdays. The MAC is playing then because they cannot get on TV any other time. I am sure the few fans they have totally hate it. That is the definition of bush league. So yes the BE is bush league as well.