BIG EAST Football??

[Hall2012]

Hall,

I am sure many people are able to find something in soccer. I view it as slow, low scoring and sleep inducing. I have however seen indoor soccer played. It is played with 5 players and the rules are similar. The difference is that it is a lightning fast, even furious game whose pace is closer to basketball than field soccer. I do not know if it is NCAA sanctioned. If it is we might try it as a non-scholarship sport. I assure you it is a much more rewarding game experience than field soccer.

There is a problem with TV however. Indoor soccer has few fans (field soccer has few fans in large sections of the US as well.) Hence interest from Fox or any other TV network would be minimal or non existent.

I have a question for you or any other poster who has an interest in the sport. What is the average attendance at home soccer games on your campus? I have a friend who has a son who plays at a small college (enrollment about 6K) in KY. He told me they average only about 50 people per game. I expect we do better in the BE. But how much better. In my opinion Fox will not televise a game with only a few hundred fans in attendance.

Despite this and other problems with soccer I am all in favor of having any and all of our sports on Fox.

Indoor soccer/futsal is a great game too, but it would take quite a bit more effort to essentially start up a new NCAA sport. I'm sure it exists on some campuses already as a club sport, but I haven't heard of it as a varsity sport. I don't want to get into why I like soccer/you don't like soccer/whatever, that's not really relevant to the point. The Big East could attempt to make any other sport it's #2, I just picked soccer because it's our only sport besides basketball that all 10 members field a team in and some of them are already among the nation's best.

As far as attendance goes, I can tell you that it's easily SHU's best outdoor sport (and the team isn't even good). They probably average about 1k at games and there's a couple a year that probably get upwards of 3k.

And this might be a bit of a pipe dream, but it would be awesome (IMO) to reach the point where the Big East is producing some of the nation's best young soccer talent resulting in a Big East flavor down the road on the US National team. I see it as an opportunity to go after a growing sport that the other major conferences are leaving on the back burner.

[bmorex]

Thanks muskienick.

Where did they play that game? On campus or at UC? I was not aware we had that kind of attendance for soccer. Pleased but surprised.

On campus.

[stever20]

I was just flipping the channel this weekend at some point, and a Villanova/I think it was Penn Soccer game was on ESPNU.

One thing stopping a Friday night game of the week package is Nascar quite frankly. A lot of weekends- Friday night is some Nascar either truck or even nationwide series race. Probably some qualifying in there as well(I don't watch much Nascar but know it's on Friday's quite a lot). I think there may even be more Nascar next year with the new deals.

[billyjack]

Providence, Brown and URI all get around 800 to 1000 fans for men's soccer home games. I think each would get more if there were more seats available. The fields at each of the three schools have aluminum bleachers which fill up, and then fans line the sidelines. It's a pain and it's inconvenient, otherwise I'd go regularly to more games.

- PC has strung together some good years recently, with NCAA appearances and some NCAA wins.
- Brown is usually ranked in soccer.
- URI is the alma mater of US National star Geoff Cameron, who plays for Stoke City.

At PC, last year they played at old Glay Field, and my sons and I would have to sit up on a wall on the west side at street level (20+ feet higher than the field). There was little to no room on the sidelines, and no room behind the southside goal. That goal was literally 25 feet in front of a main street. This year, I haven't been yet, but they are on a nice field on a different part of campus, but chances are we'd have to stand (limited bleachers). And my sons weren't thrilled when I told them they'd be standing for 2 hours during the game, so we haven't gone.

URI has a lot of space around their soccer field, but their bleachers fill up, and I've stood at games and it's a pain. URI would be better off playing soccer at their football stadium (Meade Stadium), which seats 3000 or so.

Brown gets good crowds too. The bleachers are packed, access to the field is terrible, and just walking from your car to the field is a grind... the neighborhood is great, but you have to walk behind the boiler house, past the receiving area of some crappy building... then once you "enter" the field, you pretty much have to walk under the aluminum bleachers to get to a seat or sideline spot. Brown has an old football stadium that seats 10,000 or more, but it's a 20 minute walk off-campus through the East Side and would be a pain to access.

I guess my point is that college soccer around here can draw fans. It's a great fall sport. I wouldn't have an interest in indoor soccer... seems like a totally different sport than regular soccer... closer to ice hockey, since it's played with boards and in a small area.

[marquette]

Attendance numbers thus far: average (number of home games)

Butler: 792 (2 games)
Creighton: 2426 (4 games)
DePaul: 319 (2 games)
Georgetown: 1002 (4 games)
Marquette: 718 (3 games)
Providence: 988 (3 games)
Seton Hall: 342 (2 games)
St. John's: 1234 (3 games)
Villanova: 227 (2 games)
Xavier: 1257 (3 games)

I expect the numbers to go up for conference play.

Stats from Bigeast.com

[Hall2012]

Attendance numbers thus far: average (number of home games)

Butler: 792 (2 games)
Creighton: 2426 (4 games)
DePaul: 319 (2 games)
Georgetown: 1002 (4 games)
Marquette: 718 (3 games)
Providence: 988 (3 games)
Seton Hall: 342 (2 games)
St. John's: 1234 (3 games)
Villanova: 227 (2 games)
Xavier: 1257 (3 games)

I expect the numbers to go up for conference play.

Stats from Bigeast.com

Wow, SHU soccer attendance looks well down from when I was a student. That or one of their 3 games was played in the rain to factor a zero into the average. Weather may be the biggest predictor of SHU soccer attendance.

[hoyahooligan]

Attendance numbers thus far: average (number of home games)

Butler: 792 (2 games)
Creighton: 2426 (4 games)
DePaul: 319 (2 games)
Georgetown: 1002 (4 games)
Marquette: 718 (3 games)
Providence: 988 (3 games)
Seton Hall: 342 (2 games)
St. John's: 1234 (3 games)
Villanova: 227 (2 games)
Xavier: 1257 (3 games)

I expect the numbers to go up for conference play.

Stats from Bigeast.com

Wow, SHU soccer attendance looks well down from when I was a student. That or one of their 3 games was played in the rain to factor a zero into the average. Weather may be the biggest predictor of SHU soccer attendance.

Seton Hall Soccer has fallen on hard times since Sasha left.

[Chalmers0]

Xavier has definitely put a bit of an emphasis on the soccer team over the last 5-6 years and has seen some great growth, including putting something like 3 players in the MLS over that time frame. I like that Xavier is putting some emphasis on some sports outside of basketball (baseball has also gotten some focus), but largely if you are pulling any money at all away from the basketball program to do this it is a waste of resources. There is basically no demand for college athletics outside of basketball and football and while some programs like Xavier are growing in things like attendance I think there is definitely a low ceiling on that. The Big East will succeed (or fail) solely on the results of the basketball programs.

[hoyahooligan]

Georgetown Men's game @ princeton tonight will air on ESPNU at 7pm

The Big East Digital network will air the following Soccer games:

Men's:
Providence @ Marquette Sept 27th 8pm
Marquette @ Georgetown Oct 4th 1pm
Butler @ Creighton Oct 11th 8pm
Providence @ Georgetown Oct 15th 3pm
Butler @ DePaul Oct 18th 2pm
Georgetown @ Creighton Oct 25th 8pm
Marquette @ Creighton Oct 29th 8pm
Villanova @ Xavier Nov 1st 7pm
Seton Hall @ St. John's Nov 6th 7:30pm
1st round- semifinals of the BET


Women's:
Georgetown @ DePaul Sept 25th 5pm
Vilanova @ Marquette Sept 28th 2pm
Providence @ Creighton oct 2nd 8pm
Butler @ St. John's Oct 5th 1pm
Marquette @ Georgetown Oct 12th 1pm
Seton Hall @ Marquette Oct 16th 8pm
Butler @ Xavier Oct 19th 1pm
Villanova @ Georgetown Oct 26th 1pm
St. John's @ DePaul Oct 31st 4pm
1st round- Semifinals of the BET

[Hall2012]

Seton Hall Soccer has fallen on hard times since Sasha left.

oh so true...