Obadiah wrote:
URI opened at home versus Maine and drew 5,410, UMass opened at home versus LSU and drew 5,182. Need I say more about Maine.
UMass held it’s A-10 home opener against St. Joseph’s and drew 4,621. URI opened versus Saint Louis and drew 4,510.
UMass’ smallest A-10 crowd was 4,345 for La Salle, URI’s smallest was 4,112 for Duquesne.
The LSU game was played at 11am on a Tuesday. The La Salle game was played in the middle of a snow storm that dropped 12 inches in Amherst.
I mention the UMass attendance because it reflects on their fan base and when they make accusations that we have a crappy fan base I am going to give it right back to them. I lived in that area of Mass for many years and have gone to over 25 games at Mullins so I am very familiar with their fan base.
As for MassHoops, you can stop with the excuses as you ignore the basic advantages UMass has - bigger school, bigger resident population, three straight 20 win seasons and a NCA bid. With that in mind now do the comparison.
And let me give you a news flash, the Ryan Center has been in operation for 12 years and in that period of time, and out of almost 200 games there, URI has drawn exactly two crowds of under 3000. Can UMass fans make that statement over the last 12 years at Mullins?
UMass has a small local fan base; it is why playing football games at Gillette is ok with them. Most URI alums live in the Greater Boston area. The bigger issue is that UMass has a much larger residential student community that doesn't support the team, good weather or bad. URI is also bad, but not as bad proportionally as UMass.
The only reason they've been playing games at Gillette is because it was mandatory to upgrade their on campus stadium before they could play games there, Kraft gave them the stadium rent free, and there was no other facility they could use. And Gillette attendance has been such a disaster in the two seasons that they'll be playing more games on campus this season than was originally planned. They were only supposed to play one game on campus each of the next three seasons, instead they'll be splitting the schedule 3-3.
There is always some excuse from UMass fans why they don't draw. The weather was bad. The time was bad. The opponent wasn't good enough. We didn't have a chance to win because the opponent was too good and we're not good enough. The game was too far away from our Boston alumni base. The game wasn't on campus so people figured if I can't see the campus there's no sense cheering on my college team. The fact is, no matter the sport, no matter if the game is played in Amherst, Springfield, Worcester, Foxboro, or Boston, their fanbase doesn't get the job done.
Take down the Robert Carothers banner and fix the concession stand lines
