Spring Football starts March 30

[OrangeAl]

A spring game is just one of those things you do to generate off-season interest and get people interested in buying tickets. In and of itself it isn't a significant game, but the public relations opportunity is important.

 

[Ozone!]

Athletics could partner with Newhouse & Falk, Sport Management to do profiles on student athletes which could be aired in easily accessible ways that bring fans into an enhanced awareness of the individual student athletes and their stories. Perhaps profiles on the assistant coaches. It’s time to be creative!

 

[bnoro]

The school is probably hemorrhaging money. They're not going to open up the Dome for a meaningless spring game. An open Dome is costing them money when there's only going to be 500 people there IF that. Also, you have to have proof of vaccination or a negative covid test 72 hours before the game in NY, which is even more of an impediment.

Do I think it would be nice if they broadcasted it? Sure. But some of you are massively overreacting here. I'm sure we'll get a post-spring depth chart. I'm sure there will be some spring game highlights.

I'm sure once we're out of a GLOBAL PANDEMIC, things will return to normal...

 

[721Comstock]

The school is probably hemorrhaging money. They're not going to open up the Dome for a meaningless spring game. An open Dome is costing them money when there's only going to be 500 people there IF that. Also, you have to have proof of vaccination or a negative covid test 72 hours before the game in NY, which is even more of an impediment.

Do I think it would be nice if they broadcasted it? Sure. But some of you are massively overreacting here. I'm sure we'll get a post-spring depth chart. I'm sure there will be some spring game highlights.

I'm sure once we're out of a GLOBAL PANDEMIC, things will return to normal...

I hear and understand all of that.

That said - how is it that ALL of our peer schools are able to do these things?

Syracuse isn't some magical unicorn of a program where these issues are uniquely ours.
And yet, ALL of our ACC peers are doing WAAAAAAAAY more related to Spring practices, scrimmages, and games than we are.

Which isn't a high bar, since we're doing less than zero currently.

 

[LeMoyneCuse]

The school is probably hemorrhaging money. They're not going to open up the Dome for a meaningless spring game. An open Dome is costing them money when there's only going to be 500 people there IF that. Also, you have to have proof of vaccination or a negative covid test 72 hours before the game in NY, which is even more of an impediment.

Do I think it would be nice if they broadcasted it? Sure. But some of you are massively overreacting here. I'm sure we'll get a post-spring depth chart. I'm sure there will be some spring game highlights.

I'm sure once we're out of a GLOBAL PANDEMIC, things will return to normal...

The problem here isn't the spring game or rosters or depth charts. The problem, to a less extreme degree, is similar to the reason the Super League fell apart in Europe this week.

The question: Whose team is this?

I've been following since Pasqualoni was coach and have been following intensely since Marrone was here. Some on here have been fans for 8 coaching regimes. Our fandom is not limited to coach or players - it's tied to an idea that exists regardless of who the coach is or who executes the plays representing the concept of Syracuse football.

So why are we just supposed to accept what a coach wants to tell us about the program? We were here before him and will be here after him - so why do we have to just accept his vision? Especially if it seems arbitrary and petty?

 

[bnoro]

The problem here isn't the spring game or rosters or depth charts. The problem, to a less extreme degree, is similar to the reason the Super League fell apart in Europe this week.

The question: Whose team is this?

I've been following since Pasqualoni was coach and have been following intensely since Marrone was here. Some on here have been fans for 8 coaching regimes. Our fandom is not limited to coach or players - it's tied to an idea that exists regardless of who the coach is or who executes the plays representing the concept of Syracuse football.

So why are we just supposed to accept what a coach wants to tell us about the program? We were here before him and will be here after him - so why do we have to just accept his vision? Especially if it seems arbitrary and petty?

Lol comparing it to the super league's collapse is quite a stretch. If every single person that's complaining about this cancels their season tickets for next year they'd lose maybe 50-100 seats.

There is such limited demand for this game its incredible. Of course the fans matter, and getting fans in for the real games are important. But to broadcast the spring game on the ACC Network/open up the dome so 500-1000 fans can watch it is losing far more money than it's bringing in.

I'm a huge fan of the program but the spring game does nothing for me. The highlights are all I need to see.

Also, do you not think 500 people at a spring game is bad for recruiting? Definitely doesn't impress any visiting recruits.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

Lol comparing it to the super league's collapse is quite a stretch. If every single person that's complaining about this cancels their season tickets for next year they'd lose maybe 50-100 seats.

There is such limited demand for this game its incredible. Of course the fans matter, and getting fans in for the real games are important. But to broadcast the spring game on the ACC Network/open up the dome so 500-1000 fans can watch it is losing far more money than it's bringing in.

I'm a huge fan of the program but the spring game does nothing for me. The highlights are all I need to see.

Also, do you not think 500 people at a spring game is bad for recruiting? Definitely doesn't impress any visiting recruits.

Eh, I mean... we're raking in ACC money. The rate of money coming in has to be a boost, but comes with some sunk costs we just have to eat because it's part of the deal. I can't believe there isn't a requirement to hold a spring game broadcasted on ACCN.

ACCN - "Hey Dino, when's your spring game so we can get it on the network broadcast schedule."

Dino - "Oh, we're not having one."

ACCN - "B*TCH THAT'S NOT WHAT I ASKED"

 

[UpstateSM]

25k kids paying full tuition and housing, multimillion dollar donations, and ACC TV $$$ isn't enough to afford to open up the Dome to let 500-1k diehards that have followed the program through hell in to watch a Spring game? Bs excuse.

Not shooting the messenger. I just don't buy that it's a legitimate impediment to an ACC school having an open Spring game.

 

[LeMoyneCuse]

Lol comparing it to the super league's collapse is quite a stretch. If every single person that's complaining about this cancels their season tickets for next year they'd lose maybe 50-100 seats.

There is such limited demand for this game its incredible. Of course the fans matter, and getting fans in for the real games are important. But to broadcast the spring game on the ACC Network/open up the dome so 500-1000 fans can watch it is losing far more money than it's bringing in.

I'm a huge fan of the program but the spring game does nothing for me. The highlights are all I need to see.

Also, do you not think 500 people at a spring game is bad for recruiting? Definitely doesn't impress any visiting recruits.

Did I not caveat it enough in my comparison to call out that it's obviously not apples to apples? I also could care less about the spring game, and that is not at all my point.

The point is that we're being told how to consume a product and are expected to like it all the same. That's where my comparison to the Super League comes in.

 

[UpstateSM]

Eh, I mean... we're raking in ACC money. The rate of money coming in has to be a boost, but comes with some sunk costs we just have to eat because it's part of the deal. I can't believe there isn't a requirement to hold a spring game broadcasted on ACCN.

ACCN - "Hey Dino, when's your spring game so we can get it on the network broadcast schedule."

Dino - "Oh, we're not having one."

ACCN - "B*TCH THAT'S NOT WHAT I ASKED"

Even if there isn't a requirement we can't bitch about our ACCN coverage when this is how we operate. With the performance over the last two seasons and the apparent apathy we've shown towards football lately we deserve to play at noon on ACCN every week.

Sucks but is what it is

 

[LeMoyneCuse]

Eh, I mean... we're raking in ACC money. The rate of money coming in has to be a boost, but comes with some sunk costs we just have to eat because it's part of the deal. I can't believe there isn't a requirement to hold a spring game broadcasted on ACCN.

ACCN - "Hey Dino, when's your spring game so we can get it on the network broadcast schedule."

Dino - "Oh, we're not having one."

ACCN - "B*TCH THAT'S NOT WHAT I ASKED"

I liked your post because I really like the hypothetical conversation.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

I liked your post because I really like the hypothetical conversation.

That's how it played out in my head, so that's how I typed it.

 

[orangepassion]

Do I think it would be nice if they broadcasted it? Sure. But some of you are massively overreacting here. I'm sure we'll get a post-spring depth chart. I'm sure there will be some spring game highlights.

I'm sure once we're out of a GLOBAL PANDEMIC, things will return to normal...

I think Covid is an excuse for Dino to close things up more than normal. What does Covid have to do with having no interviews-Corona is going to spread through a virtual PC (like he did on the first day of Spring camp)? How are most other schools doing much more than we are?

 

[Trueblue25]

spring game attendance is low partially because they’ve hardly done ANYTHING to advertise it to non season ticket holders. Even at that, just emails.

This isn’t 1995. Leverage your social media presence and incentivize students/young families to go.

The La Familia Episode 1 youtube video had 36,000 views. Eye balls are out there. Word of mouth spreads. The instagram post for the videos launch had over 15,000 views.

This program invests in social media and graphic designers, use it. Generate hype.

 

[rrlbees]

We are hemorrhaging money and one thing to keep in mind is that we are a private school. Many of our “peers” are state schools.

 

[PhatOrange]

The school is probably hemorrhaging money. They're not going to open up the Dome for a meaningless spring game. An open Dome is costing them money when there's only going to be 500 people there IF that. Also, you have to have proof of vaccination or a negative covid test 72 hours before the game in NY, which is even more of an impediment.

Do I think it would be nice if they broadcasted it? Sure. But some of you are massively overreacting here. I'm sure we'll get a post-spring depth chart. I'm sure there will be some spring game highlights.

I'm sure once we're out of a GLOBAL PANDEMIC, things will return to normal...

if they're hemorrhaging money that's on them, the kids are all still paying tuition. I don't believe they are and it's a convenient excuse.

 

[PhatOrange]

We are hemorrhaging money and one thing to keep in mind is that we are a private school. Many of our “peers” are state schools.

explain how they are hemorrhaging money.

 

[0.2 YNdeeR]

explain how they are hemorrhaging money.

They probably lost more than half of their ST revenue last year for FB and BB. And the covid tests cost a couple million. Just to name two examples.

 

[rrlbees]

explain how they are hemorrhaging money.

both in the loss of income bigly and also the money having to be put into their whole pandemic response.

 

[PhatOrange]

They probably lost more than half of their ST revenue last year for FB and BB. And the covid tests probably cost a couple million. Just to name two examples.

That doesn't explain how everyone else is playing AND allowing reporting access, updating their rosters etc etc. And B) "probably" ? you don't even know, you're just guessing. I highly doubt covid testing cost that much either. little rinky dink D3 schools are administering covid testing as well. I highly doubt schools with endowments of 15 million dollars are paying millions in covid testing. I get that life shut down in NY but the excuses have zero to do with spring football or spring football access.

 

[PhatOrange]

both in the loss of income bigly and also the money having to be put into their whole pandemic response.

A zillion other schools are managing though. Schools south of NY State just played a football season. How much money do you think schools the size of LeMoyne have? Check out the SAC conference. D2. No public institutions. Every spring sport a go with complete testing protocols. I know people live in their little bubbles but my argument isn't for opening the Dome to a spring game. Simple requests, update the roster, allow some reporters access to practice (outside and wearing a hazmat suit) and have a scrimmage outside that is live streamed. These requests would cost literally zero dollars.

 

[rrlbees]

A zillion other schools are managing though. Schools south of NY State just played a football season. How much money do you think schools the size of LeMoyne have? Check out the SAC conference. D2. No public institutions. Every spring sport a go with complete testing protocols. I know people live in their little bubbles but my argument isn't for opening the Dome to a spring game. Simple requests, update the roster, allow some reporters access to practice (outside and wearing a hazmat suit) and have a scrimmage outside that is live streamed. These requests would cost literally zero dollars.

i didn’t comment on any of that. Just commenting on the financials which are tougher on a private school than a state school. I don’t disagree about rosters, reporters, or even streaming a practice or scrimmage.

 

[SuFTW]

25k kids paying full tuition and housing, multimillion dollar donations, and ACC TV $$$ isn't enough to afford to open up the Dome to let 500-1k diehards that have followed the program through hell in to watch a Spring game? Bs excuse.
Not shooting the messenger. I just don't buy that it's a legitimate impediment to an ACC school having an open Spring game.

For the sake of accuracy, the fall 2020 number for all university enrollment is 21,322 with 14,479 undergrads, and I would have to imagine a significant number are not paying full tuition or are living off campus.

 

[0.2 YNdeeR]

That doesn't explain how everyone else is playing AND allowing reporting access, updating their rosters etc etc. And B) "probably" ? you don't even know, you're just guessing. I highly doubt covid testing cost that much either. little rinky dink D3 schools are administering covid testing as well. I highly doubt schools with endowments of 15 million dollars are paying millions in covid testing. I get that life shut down in NY but the excuses have zero to do with spring football or spring football access.

I wasn't making "excuses" for anyone, or linking SU's financial losses to Dino's media blackout. That's your surmise. As you can see from the board, we're all hoping for more access and information. But the fact remains that, with gross revenues exceeding $100M (mostly from FB and BB ticket revenue), losing an entire season of FB and basketball attendance, with many of the same fixed costs ($80+M?) and only a fraction of STH's "donating" their ticket costs (I was one of them), easily put them in the red by multi-millions and probably > ten million.

The covid tests are also not cheap - remember that SU not only did thousands of individual (probably rapid saliva) surveillance tests, they were also conducting constant pool testing as well. The latter included non-athletes but the costs add up quickly. The lab SU built to handle all its testing cost $1 million alone.

Syracuse University starts own lab so it can triple the number of Covid-19 student tests

All students will be tested every seven days during spring semester.

www.syracuse.com

 

[OrangeinBoston]

I just want to hear that half the offensive line didn't finish Spring practice on scooters.