Virginia Tech's ticket is stamped.
We're still waiting on the other participant.
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Virginia Tech's ticket is stamped.
We're still waiting on the other participant.
Boston College... come on down.
So it's two expansion schools playing for the title. I guess we can't say they add nothing to the football prowess of the conference. Gee, without them, the ACC could have had only eight .500ish (5-3/4-4/3-4) in-conference teams instead of eleven. More mediocrity, I say!
I'll preface this by saying that I was pro-expansion back in 02-03 or whenever the debates were going on. I would have preferred Syracuse to BC, and I think VaTech, overall, has been a good add to the conference despite Seth Greenberg and Deron Washington. That being said, the shiny golden egg of expansion -- the football championship game -- looks bleak next week:
Yikes!
That's what you get for assuming that one or both of FSU and Miami will be in the conference championship game each year. Since geographical conference realignment is unlikely, I think the ACC needs to take a hard look at having a flexible location each year for the CCG among, say, Jacksonville, Charlotte and DC, with a set of rules based on matchups as to where the games would be. If one of FSU, Clemson, or Carolina aren't in the CCG each year, it will always have attendance problems when the game is this far away from the participating schools.
If I were to care about this kind of thing I'd want it somewhere warm or indoors, as the Super Bowl does. This limits the choices to pretty much Miami, Jacksonville, Tampa and Atlanta. And who really wants to spend a weekend in Jacksonville.
Yes, how could anyone possibly survive 55 degrees in Charlotte in December. They'd die of exposure.
One of the major problems is the relative paucity of neutral (thus, professional) stadiums in actual ACC country. You're pretty much looking at the Ravens, Redskins, Panthers, Falcons, and the state of Florida. (I'm discounting Boston and central/south FL as 'actual ACC Country') And the SEC has a monopoly on Atlanta that weekend, so it's basically out.
Charlotte's probably the most central to the most people.
You're preaching to the choir. (I'll be spending half of December in NC myself. Sure beats Chicago.) My point is these are people who already live in ACC country, so why not have the game somewhere relatively warm and (my other point) with enough other stuff to do during a weekend.Quote:
Originally Posted by throatybeard
I got an email this morning ACC Championship tickets. Buy one get one free what a joke.
Charlotte will host the ACCCG in 2010 and 2011 in case you all weren't already aware of that. Tampa does get it next year again though.
http://www.theacc.com/sports/m-footb...121207aaa.html
Making it flexible is probably a no go because you'd basically have 4 places on call with one week's notice. But not having regional divisions, or a flagship major city like Atlanta, is what really kills the ACC attendance. Big XII moves back and forth between North and South locations regularly every other year. If we decide the Miami and FSU in separate divisions experiment is over, it is really a pretty easy and painless realignment:
North: BC, MD, VaTech, UVa, Duke, UNC
South: Wake, NC State, Clemson, Ga Tech, FSU, Miami
(or you can swap Duke/UNC for Wake/NC State -- I don't care)
Then bounce it back and forth among Charlotte, DC, and Florida locations, you'll at least have some possibility of a fanbase of one of the participants close by.
But, unless Miami or FSU is in the game next year or we have a matchup akin to what the SEC has this year, the ACC is looking at 3 staight years of quarter full stadiums.
Quote:
Originally Posted by A-Tex Devil
The Washington Post had an article in today's Sports section about the ACC's significant efforts to fill the Tampa stadium for its championship game, including banner web ads at the front of the VT and BC websites, advertising to fans of schools other than just the 2 participating teams, etc...
It appears to be working, somewhat, as ticket sales are ahead of last year's pace - but still doesn't look like a sellout? (Does the SEC sell out every year in Atl.?)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/sports/
They make many of the same points as TexDevil. Last year the announced crowd in Jax was around 50K - about 2/3 full -- though many DID appear to come dressed as empty blue seats...
The move from Jax to Tampa should help - Jax capacity around 75K and in Tampa it's closer to 60K. And there's arguably more attractions to Tampa. And I think the move to Charolotte in 2010 will help even more (given its central location in the ACC).
Of course, by that time I expect to see at least one N.C. school in that championship game...namely Duke! (Hey, I can hope can't I??!)
I understand the attraction of having a "flexible location" plan, but I don't think that is practical. These stadiums are booked well in advance, and a LOT goes into all of the behind-the-scenes support and planning at a site for weeks leading up to the game there. The League simply needs to decide how important attendance is for the championship game. (I DO agree with the poster arguing that a North-South geographic divisions alignment, with N-S alternating game locales, would help a lot too. ) But mostly, just having the game WITHIN REASONABLE DRIVE DISTANCE OF MOST LEAGUE SCHOOLS would help the most - hence Charlotte leaps to the front, though FedEx (or RFK) in DC might make sense too. Question: Would the league ever do anything flexible to get the game into Atlanta - like having the game on the Championship weekend SUNDAY or Friday??
:confused:
-BDBD
I think the biggest problem with Jacksonville was that there were essentially no local/neutral fans at all. Obviously, the last couple of years included smaller schools and last year BC only had a few thousand there, but VT didn't do too well either. But when you have 1 week notice, 1000 miles to travel, all the flights are booked, and the fact that jax isn't exactly an appealing locale you're just never going to get too many traveling fans. The game simply has to be within day car trip distance of one or both schools and have significant local interest.
Atlanta is easy car-trip range for virtually all the SEC schools and there is always significant local interest and attendence at the SEC championship. Right now, Jax and it appears that Tampa will provide neither for the ACC.
If they can barely fill 70% of the 77,000 seats in Jacksonville, there is no way they would come close to filling all 91,000 seats at FedEx Field in DC. It would look worse than the UNC-Michigan State game at Ford Field tonight.