Olympic Fan
11-18-2007, 12:42 PM
I you are like me and believe that ACC expansion was the worst idea since New Coke, then you had to be happy to see BC edge Clemson last night to win the Atlantic (or is it Coastal, who cares?) Division title.
A little background. When the ACC was looking to expand, there were those who thought the league could shore up football by just bringing in Miami. But the expansion proponents were in love with the idea of a conference championship game and needed to bring in three teams -- any three, so long as it got us that wonderful championship game.
Well, going into the third year with a championship game, the Jacksonville event has been a MAJOR disaster. The first two games drew mediocre TV ratings and terrible crowds.
Well, let me amend that. The crowd for the first game was merely disappointing. They had Virginia Tech -- with a great fan base that travels -- and Florida State, an in-state school with a strong presence in Jax. The result was a good, but not great crowd -- announced as 72,000 capacity, it was in reality closer to 62,000.
Then last year, the title game matched Wake Forest and Georgia Tech, with two of the smallest fan bases in the league. Again the crowd was announced as 62,000 -- that was a joke ... the place wasn't near half full ... it was more like 25-30,000. (I asked a conference official about this and his explanation was that the attendence figure was in both cases 'tickets sold' and that the ACC had good corporate sales -- just none of those tickets were used).
Going into last night's game, league officials were anticipating a bonanza if they could get Clemson and Virginia Tech -- the two ACC teams with the best traveling fan bases -- into the title game. Both could be counted on to sell 25-35,000 tickets.
Matt Ryan spoiled half of that matchup. Now BC, which has the second smallest traveling fan base in the league will sell 2-3,000 tickets. And even if Virginia Tech wins this week at Virginia, the Hokie fans will only have seven days to buy their tickets and make their travel plans. If Virginia, another poor traveling team, wins, we could see a micro-crowd in Jacksonville to match last year's disaster.
Now, Ryan may be enough to boost the TV audience, but there's a reason that after two straight prime-time slots for the ACC title game, this year's game was switched to 1 p.m.
Personally, I'll be watching the Duke-Davidson basketball game at noon, followed by the UNC at Kentucky game at 2 p.m. I might switch over during TV timeouts to check on the BC vs. VPI/UVa score ... and chortle at another example of the ACC's expansion screwup.
A little background. When the ACC was looking to expand, there were those who thought the league could shore up football by just bringing in Miami. But the expansion proponents were in love with the idea of a conference championship game and needed to bring in three teams -- any three, so long as it got us that wonderful championship game.
Well, going into the third year with a championship game, the Jacksonville event has been a MAJOR disaster. The first two games drew mediocre TV ratings and terrible crowds.
Well, let me amend that. The crowd for the first game was merely disappointing. They had Virginia Tech -- with a great fan base that travels -- and Florida State, an in-state school with a strong presence in Jax. The result was a good, but not great crowd -- announced as 72,000 capacity, it was in reality closer to 62,000.
Then last year, the title game matched Wake Forest and Georgia Tech, with two of the smallest fan bases in the league. Again the crowd was announced as 62,000 -- that was a joke ... the place wasn't near half full ... it was more like 25-30,000. (I asked a conference official about this and his explanation was that the attendence figure was in both cases 'tickets sold' and that the ACC had good corporate sales -- just none of those tickets were used).
Going into last night's game, league officials were anticipating a bonanza if they could get Clemson and Virginia Tech -- the two ACC teams with the best traveling fan bases -- into the title game. Both could be counted on to sell 25-35,000 tickets.
Matt Ryan spoiled half of that matchup. Now BC, which has the second smallest traveling fan base in the league will sell 2-3,000 tickets. And even if Virginia Tech wins this week at Virginia, the Hokie fans will only have seven days to buy their tickets and make their travel plans. If Virginia, another poor traveling team, wins, we could see a micro-crowd in Jacksonville to match last year's disaster.
Now, Ryan may be enough to boost the TV audience, but there's a reason that after two straight prime-time slots for the ACC title game, this year's game was switched to 1 p.m.
Personally, I'll be watching the Duke-Davidson basketball game at noon, followed by the UNC at Kentucky game at 2 p.m. I might switch over during TV timeouts to check on the BC vs. VPI/UVa score ... and chortle at another example of the ACC's expansion screwup.