Opening on Saturday

[SBU72]

I may be way off on this, but when was the last time that SU opened it's season on a Saturday? I can't remember if they had especially a game that isn't even part of a tournament. Doesn't make sense. It seems that the admin would like mid week openers to have an excuse opportunityfor a larger crowd.

 

[OttoMets]

I might be misunderstanding your wording, but you think that a weeknight game would draw better than a Saturday game? I think the opposite is true, and I'm optimistic that we'll get 24,000 next Saturday.

Last year we opened on Friday and drew surprisingly well - better student turnout than 75% of our Big East games. We don't historically play on Fridays (save for the odd Carrier Classic or this year's Big East/SEC game), though, much less open on them .

I think the 2002/2003 team had its home opener on a Saturday afternoon (Valparaiso) after opening in New York against Memphis. 1995/1996 opened at home on a Saturday against Lafayette, I think. And it sticks in my head that we opened at the Dome against Tennessee on a Saturday (could've been Sunday, though) afternoon in either 1992 or 1993 when Wade Houston was still their coach and they were horrible (Charlie Lockwood got some playing time for us).

It's been mostly midweek games of late, though, probably because our opener has often been the first round of one of those artificial tournaments.

 

[SBU72]

You understood correctly. My view may be more from a professional sports slant in that the very first game of the season classicaly draws better than other regular season games. Having the the first game on a week night would draw better than other week night games with the excitment of being the first. Now would it draw better than any other Sat, I don't know. Now does a first game on a Saturday draw better than other Satuday games? I guess since SU can pretty much dictate when the OOC games are, then they would know best. But if this is the case, then why isn't opening on Sat more routine than it is. I mean the date of when a first game can be is pretty much standarized now with first practice always on a Friday. Another puzzling thing is the 4 o'clock start time. Isn't that a bit unusal too?

 

[OttoMets]

You understood correctly. My view may be more from a professional sports slant in that the very first game of the season classicaly draws better than other regular season games. Having the the first game on a week night would draw better than other week night games with the excitment of being the first. Now would it draw better than any other Sat, I don't know. Now does a first game on a Saturday draw better than other Satuday games? I guess since SU can pretty much dictate when the OOC games are, then they would know best. But if this is the case, then why isn't opening on Sat more routine than it is. I mean the date of when a first game can be is pretty much standarized now with first practice always on a Friday. Another puzzling thing is the 4 o'clock start time. Isn't that a bit unusal too?

Got it - the season opener should be a draw in and of itself, so it's a good way to pack them in on a night that otherwise might see a bad turnout.

4:00 is a kind of strange start time; we used to play occasional CBS Saturday games at that time. Fordham and Colgate sure aren't CBS games, though.