Bill Marsh wrote:jaxalum wrote:Out of curiosity I looked up the following using New York City as the Big East HQ/"center" and used Creighton as a comparable in terms of time and travel distance:
NY to Spokane= 2566 miles/37.5 hrs
NY to Omaha= 1256 miles/19.5 hrs
I played a college sport (tennis) where it could work I believe, but I have no idea about the other olympic sports. I'm sure the powers that be have crunched the numbers endlessly to try and make this work somehow, as the Zags are far and away the best fit. Except for that whole Spokane thing. I could see why Gonzaga would jump at the chance to be in the Big East as it would be considerably more money, better exposure in and around the media capital, open up fertile recruiting grounds in the east, and they would retain their native recruiting grounds (so far away from other conference members) and become that much more attractive to area talent due to their new conference affiliation. I would love to have them in the league, I just don't know how feasible it is.
JA X Alum, here's another way of looking at it:
NY to Omaha = 1160 air miles
NY to Spokane = 2190 air miles.
Modern jets fly at 500-600 mph. So, let's assume 550 mph for this calculation.
NY to Omaha = 2.1 hours
NY to Spokane = 3.9 hours
Charter is the only way that travel to Spokane makes any sense. So, that have to spring for a charter once a year per team of they don't use charters already. Gonzaga on a mid major budget uses charters for all their teams.
Omaha is about half way between NY and Spokane. A NY team that schedules Creighton and Gonzaga Thursday/Saturday would make their normal flight to Creighton on Wednesday. Instead of returning home after the game, they fly approximately the same distance and the same amount of time to Spokane on Friday as they would have spent on the return trip. No added travel. The team then makes the 4 hour flight back home on Sunday. That one-way, 4 hour flight is the only extra travel that's been added for the entire season for that team.
Bluejay wrote:Bill Marsh wrote:jaxalum wrote:Out of curiosity I looked up the following using New York City as the Big East HQ/"center" and used Creighton as a comparable in terms of time and travel distance:
NY to Spokane= 2566 miles/37.5 hrs
NY to Omaha= 1256 miles/19.5 hrs
I played a college sport (tennis) where it could work I believe, but I have no idea about the other olympic sports. I'm sure the powers that be have crunched the numbers endlessly to try and make this work somehow, as the Zags are far and away the best fit. Except for that whole Spokane thing. I could see why Gonzaga would jump at the chance to be in the Big East as it would be considerably more money, better exposure in and around the media capital, open up fertile recruiting grounds in the east, and they would retain their native recruiting grounds (so far away from other conference members) and become that much more attractive to area talent due to their new conference affiliation. I would love to have them in the league, I just don't know how feasible it is.
JA X Alum, here's another way of looking at it:
NY to Omaha = 1160 air miles
NY to Spokane = 2190 air miles.
Modern jets fly at 500-600 mph. So, let's assume 550 mph for this calculation.
NY to Omaha = 2.1 hours
NY to Spokane = 3.9 hours
Charter is the only way that travel to Spokane makes any sense. So, that have to spring for a charter once a year per team of they don't use charters already. Gonzaga on a mid major budget uses charters for all their teams.
Omaha is about half way between NY and Spokane. A NY team that schedules Creighton and Gonzaga Thursday/Saturday would make their normal flight to Creighton on Wednesday. Instead of returning home after the game, they fly approximately the same distance and the same amount of time to Spokane on Friday as they would have spent on the return trip. No added travel. The team then makes the 4 hour flight back home on Sunday. That one-way, 4 hour flight is the only extra travel that's been added for the entire season for that team.
You keep saying these things are facts, when they simply are not.
First of all, I have checked flights from Omaha to Spokane. ALL flights are more than two hours. Every. Single. One.
Second, you are improperly focusing on basketball travel. Basketball travel isn't really the problem as those teams fly charters. The non revenue sports will not fly charters. Read that again. It is just too expensive to load up a baseball or softball team, plus support staff on charters (just the larger numbers alone require bigger planes). I don't think the eastern schools fly these teams on charters to Omaha now, but they will spend the money to fly charters all the way to Spokane?!? They will fly commercial, which means few direct flights, long layovers and significantly greater travel times. Conservatively, you can double the travel times and probably still not be close.
Third, you completely ignore the impact of time zone changes. For example, let's say that St John's baseball team flies out for a weekend series against Gonzaga. The Sunday game might get over about 4:00 pm pdt or so. After showering, getting a bite to eat and getting to the airport lets say it is 5:00. You then have a long flight (we'll assume for the sake of this example you can find a commercial flight that ONLY takes 5 hours to get back to NYC, which would make it 10 pm Pacific time (hopefully you dont encounter any weather delays). Of course, you arent in the Pacific time zone anymore so add three more hours and it is 1 am. After retrieving bags and getting back to campus, it is now 2 am.
Bluejay wrote:Bill Marsh wrote:jaxalum wrote:Second, you are improperly focusing on basketball travel. Basketball travel isn't really the problem as those teams fly charters. The non revenue sports will not fly charters. Read that again. It is just too expensive to load up a baseball or softball team, plus support staff on charters (just the larger numbers alone require bigger planes). I don't think the eastern schools fly these teams on charters to Omaha now, but they will spend the money to fly charters all the way to Spokane?!? They will fly commercial, which means few direct flights, long layovers and significantly greater travel times. Conservatively, you can double the travel times and probably still not be close.
Third, you completely ignore the impact of time zone changes. For example, let's say that St John's baseball team flies out for a weekend series against Gonzaga. The Sunday game might get over about 4:00 pm pdt or so. After showering, getting a bite to eat and getting to the airport lets say it is 5:00. You then have a long flight (we'll assume for the sake of this example you can find a commercial flight that ONLY takes 5 hours to get back to NYC, which would make it 10 pm Pacific time (hopefully you dont encounter any weather delays). Of course, you arent in the Pacific time zone anymore so add three more hours and it is 1 am. After retrieving bags and getting back to campus, it is now 2 am.
Bluejay wrote:Bill Marsh wrote:jaxalum wrote:Out of curiosity I looked up the following using New York City as the Big East HQ/"center" and used Creighton as a comparable in terms of time and travel distance:
NY to Spokane= 2566 miles/37.5 hrs
NY to Omaha= 1256 miles/19.5 hrs
I played a college sport (tennis) where it could work I believe, but I have no idea about the other olympic sports. I'm sure the powers that be have crunched the numbers endlessly to try and make this work somehow, as the Zags are far and away the best fit. Except for that whole Spokane thing. I could see why Gonzaga would jump at the chance to be in the Big East as it would be considerably more money, better exposure in and around the media capital, open up fertile recruiting grounds in the east, and they would retain their native recruiting grounds (so far away from other conference members) and become that much more attractive to area talent due to their new conference affiliation. I would love to have them in the league, I just don't know how feasible it is.
JA X Alum, here's another way of looking at it:
NY to Omaha = 1160 air miles
NY to Spokane = 2190 air miles.
Modern jets fly at 500-600 mph. So, let's assume 550 mph for this calculation.
NY to Omaha = 2.1 hours
NY to Spokane = 3.9 hours
Charter is the only way that travel to Spokane makes any sense. So, that have to spring for a charter once a year per team of they don't use charters already. Gonzaga on a mid major budget uses charters for all their teams.
Omaha is about half way between NY and Spokane. A NY team that schedules Creighton and Gonzaga Thursday/Saturday would make their normal flight to Creighton on Wednesday. Instead of returning home after the game, they fly approximately the same distance and the same amount of time to Spokane on Friday as they would have spent on the return trip. No added travel. The team then makes the 4 hour flight back home on Sunday. That one-way, 4 hour flight is the only extra travel that's been added for the entire season for that team.
You keep saying these things are facts, when they simply are not.
First of all, I have checked flights from Omaha to Spokane. ALL flights are more than two hours. Every. Single. One.
Second, you are improperly focusing on basketball travel. Basketball travel isn't really the problem as those teams fly charters. The non revenue sports will not fly charters. Read that again. It is just too expensive to load up a baseball or softball team, plus support staff on charters (just the larger numbers alone require bigger planes). I don't think the eastern schools fly these teams on charters to Omaha now, but they will spend the money to fly charters all the way to Spokane?!? They will fly commercial, which means few direct flights, long layovers and significantly greater travel times. Conservatively, you can double the travel times and probably still not be close.
Third, you completely ignore the impact of time zone changes. For example, let's say that St John's baseball team flies out for a weekend series against Gonzaga. The Sunday game might get over about 4:00 pm pdt or so. After showering, getting a bite to eat and getting to the airport lets say it is 5:00. You then have a long flight (we'll assume for the sake of this example you can find a commercial flight that ONLY takes 5 hours to get back to NYC, which would make it 10 pm Pacific time (hopefully you dont encounter any weather delays). Of course, you arent in the Pacific time zone anymore so add three more hours and it is 1 am. After retrieving bags and getting back to campus, it is now 2 am.
BEwannabe wrote:Bluejay wrote:Bill Marsh wrote:
While on the right track you're off on your travel time from Spokane to East of the Miss by several hours for all but charter flights. As someone that spent 10 years flying back and forth to the west coast (direct), start to finish (unless you redeye) it takes the better part of your hours awake. First you can't complete a baseball game and get 30 people to the airport in an hour and even if you could you're departure wouldn't be until at least 6pm. Checking flights there is only 1 commercial flight from Spokane to NYC after 6pm and that's a 6:30 flight connecting in Seattle arrives NYC 5:20 am. But the biggest issue isn't with eastern teams taking single road trips to Spokane (even though it would be dreadful and likely have hang over like impact on season) it's the Zags non charter Olympic sports teams regularly making the treks east and back. It would be the end of Zags non Olympic sports teams as parents and kids would soon come to the realization that participating in sports at Gonzaga is not in their best interest and they would simply choose another to take their services elsewhere. So unless the WCC is going to let the Zags compete in basketball only in the Big East and why would they then how are the Zags going to make the Big East work?
BEwannabe wrote:charter for m/w hoops is not a problem but their not going to charter for baseball, xcountry,soccer,golf,volleyball. their men particpate in 6 sports and the women 8 in wcc so the Big East makes little to no sense for 12 of their 14 teams and it would jeopardize participation in all of their women's and Olympic men's sports unless WCC allows them to play in Big East in their marquee sport. And why would the WCC be inclined to bow to the Zags wishes? It could happen but if the Zags leave then do you think BYU sticks around? I would think the WCC would make the move uncomfortable for the Zags not be accomodating.
GreatDaneAttorney wrote:Everyone gets hung up on the travel distance to Spokane, but I don't think Gonzaga would be first on the list anyhow--I still think BYU would be targeted ahead of any other western teams. It has a much larger fan base, it would actually help the league's average attendance, and we all know how well their fans travel.
Would Provo be too far? I assume Salt Lake City has a relatively major airport, especially compared to Spokane. Looking at their destinations list from Wikipedia, they have direct flights to the following Big East cities:The only flights that are not direct at least part of the year are to Marquette/Milwaukee and Providence. Simply in terms of travel, I think BYU would be ahead of Gonzaga.
- Butler/Indianapolis (seasonally)
- Creighton/Omaha (seasonally)
- DePaul/Chicago
- Georgetown/Washington
- Villanova/Philadelphia
- St. Johns & Seton Hall/New York
- Xavier/Cincy
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