Buffalo expecting over 30,000 for BG game

[BigBulls]

Nice that Buffalo all but negated their home field advantage so their athletic director could build his resume by running a silly NFL stadium promotion.

What home field advantage exists in a MAC campus stadium on the day after thanksgiving?

This is not like playing a game half way across the state its moving the venue about 20-25 minutes south of campus to a parking lot/stadium where most football fans in Buffalo already have a favorite tailgating spot. I don't expect 30K but I also don't think we will have fewer fans at the Ralph than we would have drawn at UB stadium.

White's goal here is brand awareness. You can play a throw away game on a campus where everyone went home or you can play a throw away game at the most popular sporting facility in Buffalo. While the attendance will probably be about the same either way the media has been talking up the UB game which is unusual in the Buffalo sporting sections.

The fact the Bills are having a horrid season and are in Toronto for a "home game" this week might help as well.

24,000-30,000 at your stadium would be louder and tougher on the opponent than 24,000-30,000 in a 73,000 seat stadium. Be careful when White lectures about brand awareness and other platitudes he got from a Jim Collins seminar. The only brand he cares about making people aware of is his own, and by people I mean BCS athletic director search committees.

Thats assuming we could get 24-30,000 in our own stadium. The students are gone for Tgiving and if it were in our own stadium, the uninformed public would just assume its another regular game. If this game were in UB stadium, I would only expect 12-15,000 for the game TOPS. We are averaging a few thousand students and we would be lucky to get a few hundred for this one.

By putting it in the Ralph, it gives the impression that its a big game....as luck would have it, it actually is the biggest game of the year so far for both teams and they are marketing it that way. When this was scheduled for the Ralph before the season, the organizers could only dream that it would occur with this scenario.

If were being realistic, UB is hoping to put 20k+ in the stands....anything 25k+ will be considered a major success.

[Redwingtom]

To me, the only downside is having so many open seats in a cavernous stadium, which will likely hurt the atmosphere. Other than that, it seems like a good move for Buffalo.

[Schadenfreude]

I'm happy for Buffalo. This is a creative idea. I hope it works for them.

I also hope we kick their freaking !@#%.

[ubbullrun]

Nice that Buffalo all but negated their home field 24,000-30,000 at your stadium would be louder and tougher on the opponent than 24,000-30,000 in a 73,000 seat stadium. Be careful when White lectures about brand awareness and other platitudes he got from a Jim Collins seminar. The only brand he cares about making people aware of is his own, and by people I mean BCS athletic director search committees.

I don't agree

1 - Our stadium is not closed at either end its a lot like Ryerson... Rich Stadium is a bowl the acoustics are 1000* better there for fan noise than at UB stadium.

2 - The tickets sold are all in the lower section which hold I think about 30K... The fans will be as condensed at Rich as they would at UB stadium

3 - UB Stadium has a track and is big enough for soccer meaning there are eight lanse, a long jump pit/lane and a deep side line between the first row and Bowling Greens bench. At rich stadium you're maybe 10 feet from the bench.

4 - There is no way we get 24K to UB stadium for this game with 0 students on campus. The mere fact it's at the Ralph means there is a lot more interest. That interest has led to publicity and to I suspect a reasonably higher attendance.

[mscarn]

Nice that Buffalo all but negated their home field 24,000-30,000 at your stadium would be louder and tougher on the opponent than 24,000-30,000 in a 73,000 seat stadium. Be careful when White lectures about brand awareness and other platitudes he got from a Jim Collins seminar. The only brand he cares about making people aware of is his own, and by people I mean BCS athletic director search committees.

I don't agree

1 - Our stadium is not closed at either end its a lot like Ryerson... Rich Stadium is a bowl the acoustics are 1000* better there for fan noise than at UB stadium.

2 - The tickets sold are all in the lower section which hold I think about 30K... The fans will be as condensed at Rich as they would at UB stadium

3 - UB Stadium has a track and is big enough for soccer meaning there are eight lanse, a long jump pit/lane and a deep side line between the first row and Bowling Greens bench. At rich stadium you're maybe 10 feet from the bench.

4 - There is no way we get 24K to UB stadium for this game with 0 students on campus. The mere fact it's at the Ralph means there is a lot more interest. That interest has led to publicity and to I suspect a reasonably higher attendance.

You might be right. We'll have to see. Speaking of this topic, the following exchange occured at DC's last press conference:

Reporter: It shouldn’t be a real, terrific home field advantage for them. It shouldn’t be a real roaring, raucous crowd on campus on a Saturday. I’m don’t know how deep you want to get in to that. It seems like this should be a real opportunity for you, there shouldn’t be a real heavy home…
Clawson: Well, they say they have like 30-35 thousand tickets out. How many of those people show we’ll see, but it’s at an NFL stadium. You can have a great MAC football crowd there, but the nature of playing in an NFL stadium, which we have done with the Patriots and the Eagles, certainly reduces crowd noise. Is that your point?
Reporter: Yeah, it shouldn’t be much of a home field advantage for them. In other words, it’s not like you’re going to be going on the road, it’s likely a generic…
Clawson: It’s more of a neutral site game?
Reporter: Yeah.
Clawson: I mean, I’m sure there’s a part of them that wishes this game was in UB stadium. I’m sure they won’t say that. We did the same thing last year.

[ubbullrun]

Thanks for sharing, that is an interesting exchange.

Last year Bowling Green played in a soccer stadium half way across the state... Hard to compare that to playing in a NFL football stadium 20 minutes from campus.

If UB was going to play in the Carrier Dome... that would be a similar example to what BG tried last year.

The kids on he team from WNY always loved that stadium, many played there in high school playoffs. Nobody is pining to go play where the NY red bulls play.

If this game was on any other weekend I would agree with you play on campus.

[MarkL]

So how did that 30,000 crowd thing end up????

[Schadenfreude]

So how did that 30,000 crowd thing end up????

The Blade's John Wagner was implying on Twitter that there were far fewer there in person than the 25,000 or so tickets officially sold. But it didn't look that bad along the sidelines, and it sounded pretty good on those rare occasions where the Bulls made a play. I give Buffalo credit for trying this. It seemed at least as successful as what we tried to do in Columbus last season.

[factman]

I thought it looked pretty decent.......not great, but I really don't care about attendance at other schools.

[Siborg]

Yes it looked pretty decent, especially for a late November MAC game. A lot of blue in blue seats may have helped make it look better. Also as UBBULL pointed out they were all seated in the bottom rung of seats so that also helped it look a little better.