George O'Leary Has An Interesting Game Plan To Fill Bright House Networks Stadium On Saturdays
by A.J Black on Aug 1, 2011 12:00 PM EDT
in Boston College Football
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PrintGeorge O'Leary and UCF certainly have an interesting football program. One of the biggest problems for the Knight's program has been attendance. Like Boston College, they struggle to fill the seats despite an 11-3 season capped off with a bowl win over Georgia. In fact, both schools have had almost identical 2010 home attendance figures -- BC 38,000, UCF 39,000 -- though to be fair to the Eagles, Alumni Stadium can only hold 44,500, while Bright House Stadium holds 56,000.
BC has tried to address this issue by increasing marketing and selling cheaper season tickets to young alumni. George O'Leary, on the other hand, has come up with a new "novel" idea to try and fill the seats of Bright House Networks Stadium.
This year, head coach George O'Leary has a new plan to fill BHNS: invite the enemies and create hybrid fans. "You should be a Gator-Knight," O'Leary told an audience at the Rotary Club of Orlando.
"If the Gators aren't playing, we're the hometown team. I'm not telling you -- don't root for your team... But, Seminole-Knight, Hurricane-Knight. Support your hometown team."
The Knights have only been a Division-I team since 1996 and are playing 'catch-up' in several regards in comparison to the major football programs in the Sunshine State, especially the 'tradition' category.
"We've come a long way in a short period of time, we really have," said O'Leary in front of a crowd of about 75. "But, you have to get behind your hometown team."
Aren't we glad that BC's situation hasn't gotten so dire that Gene DeFilippo and Coach Spaziani had to do something so desperate? Can you imagine GDF begging transplanted fans of other colleges to root for Boston College? This is just lame, and well, stupid. This just makes the entire UCF program look like they can't keep their head above water in a state that lives and breathes college football.
Miami, Florida, Florida State and even USF fans must be getting a real kick out of this.
As we all know, the Knights will be hosting Boston College this season on a Saturday night at 8 PM. This should be a big time game for the Knights -- a game in primetime on a Saturday night against an ACC opponent. A chance for a fledgling program on the rise to silence a few doubters. If O'Leary has his way how many seats will be Seminole-Knights, Hurricane-Knights and Gator-Knights fans? Or more likely, how many seats will be just be completely empty?
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It's a trap!
Man, sounds like the Eagles are walking into one hell of a hostile environment in week 2, what with all those Seminole-Knights, Gator-Knights, Hurricane-Knights, Bull-Knights, Owl-Knights and Panther-Knights packing Bright House Networks Stadium on September 10!
Editor, BC Interruption
This begs the question
After this debacle, and the wrongful death suit in which O’Leary made the entire UCF staff look terrible…how the hell does George O’Leary still have a job?
Writer at BC Interruption SBN's Boston College Eagles blog
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$$$
He has buyout clause that the previous administration signed off on. That buyout clause was at the time of signing (I kid you not) greater than the entire athletic budget. The buyout amount drops each year of his contract but it’s still more than the school can afford. It was a desperate move by an administration that is no longer there.
He's the best thing to ever happen to that school.
MiNDSET? SWAG-ER-ISM!!!
---------------------------------------------------------
Wherever you are, Trick, you are wise, indeed.
Correct, Sir Trick.
You truly are one of God's treasures, Trick
This isn't the worst idea
Not that we are in the same situation as UCF – being in Florida with traditional powerhouses – but the idea of appealing to other local schools to back the D-1 football program in town could potentially work. There was even a fan post about it last week if I remember.
We have Northeastern, BU, MIT, Bentley, UMass Boston, Berkley, Harvard (those games suck), all programs without football (or good football) that BC could appeal to for fan support. Even the marching band currently has non-BC students playing it. Students and alumni of these schools make a good portion of the greater Boston area, so why wouldn’t want to try and snag some of these fans?
I guess though this harkens back to the problem of getting the casual Boston sports fan to come root for BC, not just a BC student or alum. But there might be current students at those universities who would want to spend their Saturdays watching and enjoying major college football.
Oh I get trying to attract fans from schools without D1 football programs, that makes a lot of sense. But mind you O’Leary is trying to attract FSU, Florida, Miami and USF fans.
That is a whole other level of desperate.
Writer at BC Interruption SBN's Boston College Eagles blog
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Agreed
Attracting local college kids who don’t have college football as part of their college experience is one thing. It’s another thing entirely to gear your marketing push towards fans of other more established local college programs who you are looking up to.
Struggling to come up with a comparison … maybe a plea from UMass to fill Gillette with Eagle-Minutemen, Huskies-Minutemen and Orange-Minutemen fans in a few years …
Editor, BC Interruption
I'm getting a kick out of this too...
Because UCF is already the third most popular program in the state ( USF no.5 ). We doubled our attendance in ten years and we are pumping out more alumni than any other school in the eastern U.S.
lol………Voodoo
Uh....SRSLY?
“UCF is already the third most popular program in the state”
UF
FSU
Miami
They say hello, and WTF are you talking about.
Of course they are the third most popular program in the state, BCMike!
I mean, how could you not be that popular with all the Gator-Knight, Hurricane-Knight and Seminole-Knight National Championships the program has won in the last 20 years!
Seminole-Knight National Championships: 1993, 1999
Hurricane-Knight National Championships: 1983, 1987, 1989, 1991, 2001
Gator-Knight National Championships: 1996, 2006, 2008
Editor, BC Interruption
He was referring to a recent public polling study that showed that UCF had more supporters in the state of Florida than USF or UM. The UF and FSU supporters dwarfed the UCF numbers however (by something like 12 points). It was really more of a testament to what terrible fan support UM has.
I could buy 3rd most popular team in Orlando, but not in Florida.
MiNDSET? SWAG-ER-ISM!!!
---------------------------------------------------------
Wherever you are, Trick, you are wise, indeed.
Correct, Sir Trick.
You truly are one of God's treasures, Trick
Coach not marketer
George O is obviously not good at marketing. However, it is also obvious that he can coach. He recovered nicely from the debacle at ND over his resume and a Master’s degree. He will have the Knights ready to go when BC comes into town. If BC can meet the challenge, then they will have a great start over a quality opponent to start the season after NW of course.
UCF Stadium
UCF’s stadium holds 45000 not 56000. UCF has a plan to expand the stadium to 56000+ in the next 10 years. We are expecting huge growth over the next 10 years. Don’t forget UCF doubled its attendance average from 20k to 40k in the last 10 years. O’Leary should have not made those crazy comments.
Not quite.
They were D-III from 1979-1981, D-II from from 1982-1989, I-AA from 1990-1995, and I-A since 1995… and are 0-4 vs. USF (which started later).
Yeah, I know.
Was being sarcastic. The Knights sure don’t like to stick in one place for very long.
Editor, BC Interruption
Soon at UCF
We will have the 56,000 seat in most likely 6 to 7 years, but as for now we only have a 45,000 persons stadium, though during the Miami game we managed to fit just over 48,000. I am actually surprised to hear that BC only has 38,000 average. I am a UCF and have alway heard nothing but sucess at BC since I was in grade school so I am surprised there aren’t more ppl at the games. Like I always say I would rather have 38,000 real fans than 50,000 mixed with real fans and bandwagners that will abandon you as soon as the road ahead doesn’t look so bright. There are mad bandwagners down here for the Gators, I didn’t see half of the stickers and crap on cars still they won 2 championships in 3 years.
have alway heard nothing but sucess at BC since I was in grade school so I am surprised there aren’t more ppl at the games
Never have (well except for the Flutie years), unless BC pulls off some miracle run, they are always relegated to the backpage of the newspapers, and never mentioned on sports shows in Boston.
Writer at BC Interruption SBN's Boston College Eagles blog
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I understand what O'Leary is doing, but...
I don’t think we need to convince people to be fans. If we win on the field… people will come. Plain and simple. This makes UCF look desperate for fans, and we’re not. A writer for UCF athletics recently posted a really good article on UCF’s rise in attendance/fan support over the past 10 years. UCF is doing quite well, when compared to other programs in the country (minus the traditional powers). Even with the economic slump, UCF is posting better numbers than quite a few BCS schools.
With that said. If someone wants to come and support UCF… you’re more than welcome. Just don’t wear your UF/FSU/UM jersey to the games. ;)
by TheKingStampede on Aug 5, 2011 11:26 AM EDT reply actions
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