Permanent Site For MAC Championship game

Orange Crush · Post by **Orange Crush** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 6:49 pm

I watched Toledo 13 sports tonight, (Wednesday) and Rob Powers had a small blurb about the MAC agreeing to a deal with Ford Field to host the Championship game. He said that an "official" announcement would be made tomorrow.

This is great news IMO. It was great to host it last year, but in all fairness it should be held at a neutral site.

Tis also just adds additional credibility to the game and the conference. Ford Field is a first class facility, and now it's hosting a first class conference's football championship game.

And the thought that Marshall had a chance to host that game again was almost too much to stomach!

falcfan · Post by **falcfan** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 7:10 pm

Great... so you win at Ford Field and you get to play at... Ford Field. That won't be redundant at all.

orangeandbrown · Post by **orangeandbrown** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 7:41 pm

Well, actually, if you win at Ford Field you might play in Mobile. Or, you could lose at Ford Field and then play at Ford Field.

I like it for mostly selfish reasons.

1. Its indoors, and the MAC Championship is in December.
2. Its closer to BG than Cleveland, Columbus, or Cincinnati.

Did they say it would start this season? If so, its even better for us.....

TG1996 · Post by **TG1996** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 8:14 pm

from Huntington TV:

http://wowktv.com/news/index.cfm?newsItemID=1286

CapitalFalcon · Post by **CapitalFalcon** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 8:49 pm

I am glad they have a neutral site. I do not like the decision on Ford Field. I still think C-bus would have been the best locale! Oh well...

FalconKing · Post by **FalconKing** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 9:15 pm

I think this is a horrible move for attendance sake. Unless they manage to put the game on a Saturday or Sunday (not likely), it is going to be difficult to find enough people willing to travel with possibly less than a week's notice to fill up even the lower bowl of the stadium. With the home game you at least have a chance at a sellout. I think we're just going to end up looking silly with 20-25k fans in the stands and one of the two teams playing there two times in a row.

Schadenfreude · Post by **Schadenfreude** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 9:31 pm

falcfan wrote:Great... so you win at Ford Field and you get to play at... Ford Field. That won't be redundant at all.

I don't like that part.

But I think we'll get better crowds than we've gotten for the last few title games. Locals will have a ton of time to prepare for the game. They can promote the game on local radio and what not, like the MAC tournament. In a year or two, I'd expect this thing to exceed anything that's been done to date.

The best MAC title crowds were at Marshall back when the site was determined before the season started. Detroit can do better.

MAC Falcon · Post by **MAC Falcon** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 9:35 pm

I think it is great that a MAC team has the opportunity to play two times in a row in a market like Detroit. I know that everyone in Detroit is all about Michigan but this gives a school like BG great exposure to the market. Increased exposure in this type of market can lead to more lucrative media contracts and more televised games in the course of a season.

Columbus_Zak · Post by **Columbus_Zak** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 8:35 am

They really should've played at Columbus Crew Stadium. It's a great venue that only seats 22,500 people. The sightlines from the last row in the upper deck are arguably the best seats in the house. I'd be very interested to hear why MAC officials decided against holding the game at CCS.

Schadenfreude · Post by **Schadenfreude** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 8:41 am

There's no room to grow there.

My money says the crowd at Ford Field will be bigger than Crew Stadium's capacity from day one.

Dayons_Den · Post by **Dayons_Den** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 8:50 am

No way schad.... sorry I just have to flat out disagree there. I think it is unfair to expect the "locals" to support a bowl game and a conference title game less than three weeks apart. The attendance for MCB is good because of support from the auto makers offering cheap tickets to their employees. Oh well, I hope the prove me wrong. . .

Schadenfreude · Post by **Schadenfreude** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 9:08 am

Look at the numbers.

The best crowds the MAC has ever gotten for the basketball tournament are at Gund Arena. I was firmly in the naysayer camp. I didn't think it should be moved out of Toledo. I never thought we could draw more people than we were already drawing. And I was wrong.

Also, look at the history of the MAC title game.

The best crowds were for the first games, when the site was predetermined to be at Marshall. That gave locals a lot more time to plan to attend the game. Marshall also hosted a game as part of the East/West rotation... and the crowd wasn't as good.I'd chalk that up to the lack of time to plan.

The title game will draw 30,000 people this year, minimum, and we'll gradually start improving from there. That's my guess.

CapitalFalcon · Post by **CapitalFalcon** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 9:14 am

I'm still not thrilled with the FF pick, but I hope you are right Schad. Once again, Chryst has done some great things in the past for the MAC...I hope he's right on this one too.

Dayons_Den · Post by **Dayons_Den** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 9:32 am

Good manipulation of the numbers Schad- I hope that they do continue the trend you predict. Excellent point about Marshall drawing large numbers when it was pre-determined and slopping off when it was a rotate game. At first I would have thrown Marshall out because , well, because they are Marshall, but I see your point when you bring up the rotation numbers slipping there.

I hope you are correct in that we draw well and improve on it in the years to come. As far as the hoops thing, I think that is a little different of a comparison. That is somehting that involves a few days/weekend of action. I also think Cleveland area has more MAC alums not to mention teams that are likely to play and do well in the hoops tourney relatively close- Kent comes to mind as they have done fairly well in the tourney as of late. I questioned the Gund as well because I thought that Cobo was a perfect size and location for hte MAC tourney, but obviously it has exceeded most people's expectation at the Gund.

Maybe it is the redundancy of Ford Field for the MACC and MCB or maybe it is the fact that I think it would have been nicer to bombard another market with MAC football or maybve it is the fact that I am very leary about drawing fans to Detroit. . . We shall see though.

Post by **ZiggyZoomba** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 9:34 am

Well, I posted it a little early.

So sue me...

See the following thread for the official release regarding Ford Field as the site of the MACC game.

http://www.ay-ziggy-zoomba.com/phpBB2/v ... .php?t=375

Permanent Site For MAC Championship game

Permanent Site For MAC Championship game

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