No, I think you are wrong about the number of people who want it dropped. Because:adam914 wrote:I think the amount of people who truly want football at URI dropped are very very few. And I am also willing to bet that the vast majority of those people are simply speaking out of anger and embarrassment at what our football program has become. I think if given the choice between a respectable football program (I'm not talking national titles here, just a competitive team most years) and dropping football, many of those people would choose a respectable program.ramster wrote:I specifically said they were there because of Homecoming, because of Family Day. They were there in spite of a winning program. There are people who want football dropped at URI. There are people who think we should drop to a lower division. People think we should drop football because URI fans do not care about winning, only want to see the fall leaves, and love to misquote or take words out of context.adam914 wrote:Lets please stop pumping up a homecoming and family weekend attendance number like it means anything. You had thousands of students who were forced to spend the weekend with their parents and couldn't think of anything better to do. A winning program wouldn't bring the majority of those people back unless it was family weekend and homecoming again.
Do not think for a minute that there are not people who want football at URI discontinued and have all the money magically go to the basketball program
As for the whole "fall leaves" thing, you have to realize that's just an easy line to grasp onto when trying to make a bigger point about how pathetic URI Football has become. I've done it before as well. Hell in a lot of your comments about the game on Saturday you continue to talk about what a beautiful day it was. It's just sad that on the list of things to be happy about when it comes to URI Football one of the main recurring themes is weather related. It sure would be nice if that wasn't the case.
If Thor had not come out and said, on more than one occasion, that URI is not dropping Football under his watch, you would hear more complaints. If the Projo article had not come out a year or two before in which Thor clearly stated that the Football Program cost URI $500,000 per year, you would hear more complaints. And that $500,000 does NOT include some of the donations that would drop to the University if the Football program were dropped. Thor also said that the Scholarship Money that goes to Football would not be saved - but used for the general Scholarship funds - just would go to different people.
Before Thor made this statement that he would not drop Football and before the $500,000 annual cost came out and before Thor said that money saved from Football Scholarships would not go to the Basketball Program there was a much stronger drumbeat to drop Football. I still have to bring out the Articles and Quotes from Thor and some people still do not believe the numbers.
My point on the beautiful day is that the crowd of 7200 was enhanced by that. If 50 degrees many would have stayed inside. Many would not have stayed for the entire game.
But if no Football Program the beautiful day would not matter. The 7200 would not be at Meade Field. I certainly would not be there.
But maybe they would go to see Bill Nye and Whoopie Goldberg......maybe attend a soccer game. But would these current students at URI would ever come back for Homecoming if there was no Football Team? No Tailgating? None, they would never come back.
It would be a crying shame if URI became like Alaska and Vermont to be the 3rd State University without a Football Team