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Okay - With a voucher for four free tickets a buudy of mine and I headed to Homecoming in Oxford this weekend with our sons. (I did my undergraduate at BG and Graduate work at Miami - My friend played for Miami and was on the '86 MAC Championship team - and yes he graduated). Having made it to BG's Homecoming - I thought I would give a little comparision.

First the free vouchers (Corporate Preview Vocuhers). I actually have three of them. Each one is for four Genreal Admission tickets. The vouchers are good for two games, Homecoming and Toledo. The Toledo game is on election night and is an ESPN game. It is billed as Youth Football night. Another fellow Miami grad sent the vouchers to me. I think he got them through our local Wee Football program. So as of right now, I have eight free GA tickets to the Toledo game. We're going. What to put fans in the stands - free tickets to youth programs.

Second - the pre-game activities. Our boys had an out-of-town soccer game and we did not make it until Kick-off. But Miami does have an area in front of Milleti Hall for food and family fun and Miami Gardens where they serve beer and food prior to the game. But there is no field of tents ever.

Third - The weather. Here in SW Ohio it rained all day. Luckily it stopped by game time in Oxford. It did start to rain some in the third, but most folks stayed. A large group of alums sitting next to us let at half time (Class of 1971). They came, had their campus experience, watched alittle football and left. The gentleman next to me was from Strongsville. That's a four-plus hour drive. So.... No sleet, no wind chill, some rain. Slight lapse in the crowd at half time.

Fourth - Game Time/Opponent - 7:00 PM under the lights. Central Florida. Tight game until the fourth quarter. Good Night and Good Bye UCF!!

Fifth - Attendance. Official Box Score said 8.012. Let me say that again. Eight Thousand Twelve. Yes Miami has a smaller enrollement (less than 15,000 and is located in a cornfield and is not the easiest location to get to - it's not off I-75 by any means.) But 8,012 on a Saturday night where there is a no car rule for Freshman and sophmores. It seemed like more, but....I am NOT going to complain about 17,000 for BG's Homecoming.

Sixth - Concession seemed to be part of earilier threads. I did not make it to the west side of Doyt this year, but Miami has a hand full of special vendors for the game. TV monitors at the concession stands and serve Montgomery Inn Bar-b-que sandwiches. Good stuff. The Kroger Family pak is another good deal.

Seventh - the intangilbles or some what...... Recent Alums are in the stadium. Big Ben. Ron Harper and the gentleman who donated over $18 Million to the athletic department. The new scoreboard and the new student stands will be/are a gift from this guy, plus much more. The FieldTurf was a gift last year from two brothers/former players. The new scoreboard makes BG's look like a Sony Watchman. The color, clairty, size, graphics are unbelievable. The Scoreboard is above the south endzone and is about 80% of the lenght of those stands. The actual video screen is about twice the size of BG (In other words you can fit 4 of BG video screens in this thing).It was impressive. And behind it light up like a christmas tree is the fairly new Student Athlete Center overlooking the stadium, As my friend/former Miami Player said " Can you imagine coming here as a recruit? The coaches walk you out of the locker room area and you see your name and picture on the scoreboard, and then the SAC behind it."

NWLB is on track. What is the experience of attending a BG football game for alumni and those players we are trying to recruit. And how can it be improved.

Just thought I would share what I saw. Now to start playing our trip to BG for the Marshall game.

I was wondering if someone was gonna post their attendance....their concession stands are great in Oxford, though.

17,000 for Ball State? Compared to 8,000 for MU/UCF? Hmmmm.....

aren't there new recruiting rules reguarding scoreboards during recruiting visits? If i'm not mistaken i believe i heard somewhere that ya can't do the whole scoreboard schindig with recruits anymore.

The first time I saw BG's video board was the Ball State game two weeks ago. The first thing that came to my mind after I saw it was......"look how small it is".....not, "wow, that thing is cool." Don't get me wrong, it's 100 times better than what we had before, no doubt. But that videoboard at Perry Stadium is just too small. It's by far the smallest one I have seen in a football stadium from places I have visited that have them. I can't help but wonder why we didn't get one that was larger? Yes, I realize it would cost more, but even few feet in either direction would be better. Is it nice to have one? Absolutely! But the size of BG's is more suitable for something like Anderson Arena, not Perry Stadium. I have to wonder why we went so small.

However, I was unhappy about 17,000 for our Homecoming game. If BG would have had 8,000, I would have blown a gasket!

YES!!

truth wrote:If i'm not mistaken i believe i heard somewhere that ya can't do the whole scoreboard schindig with recruits anymore.

That could be the case ... this was just two guys who don't know any better (my friend and myself) talking on the field at the end of the game.

Excellent post, Tech! I have toured Miami's facilities including their Student Athlete Center. They are wonderful. This past weekend, we got a look at some of Ohio's renovated facilities at their Homecoming. Our new Robert and Karen Sebo SAC will be the key to "raising the bar" at BG for recruiting (and other) purposes. It will be a dynamite addition. No, we do not have the hill to build it into etc. like Miami, but I believe we will be able to make it a very nice, useful and good looking addition for our athletes and others.

Don't forget we already have the super indoor field at the Perry Fieldhouse (something many MAC teams including Miami do not have). When you add in recent success, TV appearances, big names on the schedule (yeah, I know- on the road), offensive and defensive schemes, coaches, a focus on graduation rates and a darn good place to get a degree in a number of fields, I'm figuring we should sign 20 plus good players- every year. Of course, I do something else for a living!

Yes, they are just going nuts in Oxford on this 8,000 crowd for last Saturday's Homecoming. Absolutely horrible for a program as good as the Redhawks. The AD, coaches and players have worked too hard there for that kind of "treatment"- particularly by students. One observer told me that less than 2,500 students were at the game. Ridiculous.

Go Falcons!

falconfan1 wrote:Don't forget we already have the super indoor field at the Perry Fieldhouse (something many MAC teams including Miami do not have).

And let me tell you, this is a BIG issue within the Miami program. They would LOVE to have a fieldhouse and they feel it hurts recruiting. Word is that they had a donor, but the Board of Trustees would not dedicate funds for maintenance. Unbelievable!!

Concerning Facilities - We need to get serious about hiring a "Sports" architect. No offense to my fellow Ohio architects, but no one can hold a candle to the expertise an HOK Sports (http://www.hoksve.com) can bring to a project. We need to require an Ohio Architect to team with a "Sports" Architect. If I had more time, I would respond to NWLB's post about Game Day Experience and how quailty design fits into that senerio.

I thought Miami home games were a big deal because of all the wine and cheese they serve?

NWLB wrote:I thought Miami home games were a big deal because of all the wine and cheese they serve?

LOL

The best class I never got to take was Geography of Wine. It was a 400 level course that was filled with Graduate Students (we got first choice in everything before Undergrads). It was a wine tasting class.

You should go to Miamihawktalk.com. They are gnashing their teeth over attendance. Sound Familiar. They are averaging less than 15,000 per game.

You are correct, we are very disappointed with HC attendance, however, the jury is still out on whether it was because it was the first night game for homecoming. Historically, HC games are VERY well attended, irregardless of how the team is doing. Also, the opponent wasn't exactly a big draw, but that shouldn't deter people from wanting to see the RedHawks play. Thanks for the nice comments about the 'sprucing up'. We think it's great. Incidentally, word is that the attendance average being below 15,000 doesn't include the Indiana State game. Apparently, since it was DII, the attendance doesn't count. There were about 22,000 warm bodies that day. All I can say is, the people that didn't come to the game missed a great time! Hope Tech83 got to see the video highlights of Ben's games last year (and this year!) prior to kickoff, that was neat, too. See you all on the 6th! (I'll be in ATTENDANCE.)

mualum78 wrote:Hope Tech83 got to see the video highlights of Ben's games last year (and this year!) prior to kickoff, that was neat, too.

Damn, we came too late and missed it. We went upstairs to the Coach's Reception for Alumni players (because of my friends connections, not my connections in Alumni Hall - the Architecture faculty does not know Miami has a football team - LOL) after the game hoping to run into Big Ben and Ron Harper, but they were either gone or doing interviews somewhere else.

But the boys got to meet Big Ben last year after the BG-Miami game. That was a tough game for me to attend.

It wasn't a tough game for me...I attended! I took my (BG alum) friend's son and it was a tough game for him. He did pretty well sitting in the midst of all of us Miami people, though. We were chanting for Ben to go 'one more year' but it didn't work.