Seawolves Fans

Quote from: ecasadoSBU on October 19, 2021, 07:52:33 pm

you guys wanna move up?

Gonna have to have people showing up to games. boycotting and not donating wont help us get there any sooner.

So... back up your U and commit to helping it get there.

No one is gonna take SBU to an FBS conference when we average 6k fans at best on saturdays. JMU can do it, so did Liberty and Coastal Carolina... because their fans are receptive to winning. When they have good seasons fans quickly respond to it and flood the gates. meanwhile even when we made the playoffs multiple years the fans didn't exactly flood the gates. The college football market just sucks here in the Northeast. Its NOT easy.

That 6K fan attendance is bullshit. We've discussed it time and again. Without having attended a single game this year, but seeing tons of pictures and having friends and colleagues who went this year, I'd estimate SBU has averaged maybe 3K a game. Some games clearly have been more, but one has certainly been much less.

It’s not our job as alumni to show up to games. It’s the students! When I was in college, so many other students would tell me, “Aren’t we D3?” Which speaks to a lack of understanding of us and our opponents created by the treatment of FCS and America East scheduling. To the community, FCS might as well be D3, because it’s not the FBS games in mega stadiums that people associate with true Division I.

Quote from: Chairman of the Board on October 19, 2021, 11:19:28 pm

i think youre both right, actually.  there are times i think we are lucky we can even afford a team, given the massive expense.  bingo doesnt.  vermont too.  UML, UMBC, SJU, Hof, Manhattan, Hartford, Jersey Tech, QU, etc.

let's be honest now.  in many ways, these are our peers.  may as well throw in providence and drexel.

how marist, fairfield, bryant, wagner, SHU, CCU, monmouth, and others afford it i really dont know.  donors???

http://sbufan.createaforum.com/stony-brook-football/richmond-at-stony-brook/msg16468/#msg16468

THIS!

People don't realize how expensive is to run a football program, even at the DI-FCS level with 65 schollies and a ton of staffing to meet NCAA regulations. Its a big money loser and the only reason we get away with it is because Stony Brook has a large student body for which it charges an athletic fee to every student in the university to subsidize the athletics department. Even with that subsidy it still loses money. The fact we even have a football program in this environment should tell us there is a good level of commitment to participate in college sports by the administration.

Our regional peers like UMass, Buffalo, UConn are also losing a ton of money. Rutgers only makes money because of the Big Ten but its not really a draw on its own. Temple has a crop of loyal fans (25-30k typically) that keep it afloat but also loses a ton of money. Syracuse only makes money because the ACC gave it a lifeboat but it doesn't draw much either and it is fortunate enough that upstate politics gave it a nice state-subsidized dome back in the day.

I get the desire for a better program by the fanbase here in this board. But at times I almost get the sense people here are not being realistic. This isn't the Southeast United States or the midwest. We are in the Northeast where college football is an after thought for the average person.

Did anyone look into the football history of the University of Central Florida? Did you guys see how quickly that University grew its program and how it now landed in the Big12? That's what being in a college football hotbed does. People in Florida are extremely receptive to college football. Stony Brook, UConn, UMass, Buffalo would kill to have that kind of fanbase growth in just 40 years

Quote from: Chairman of the Board on October 19, 2021, 11:19:28 pm

i think youre both right, actually.  there are times i think we are lucky we can even afford a team, given the massive expense.  bingo doesnt.  vermont too.  UML, UMBC, SJU, Hof, Manhattan, Hartford, Jersey Tech, QU, etc.

let's be honest now.  in many ways, these are our peers.  may as well throw in providence and drexel.

how marist, fairfield, bryant, wagner, SHU, CCU, monmouth, and others afford it i really dont know.  donors???

http://sbufan.createaforum.com/stony-brook-football/richmond-at-stony-brook/msg16468/#msg16468

THIS!

People don't realize how expensive is to run a football program, even at the DI-FCS level with 65 schollies and a ton of staffing to meet NCAA regulations. Its a big money loser and the only reason we get away with it is because Stony Brook has a large student body for which it charges an athletic fee to every student in the university to subsidize the athletics department. Even with that subsidy it still loses money. The fact we even have a football program in this environment should tell us there is a good level of commitment to participate in college sports by the administration.

Our regional peers like UMass, Buffalo, UConn are also losing a ton of money. Rutgers only makes money because of the Big Ten but its not really a draw on its own. Temple has a crop of loyal fans (25-30k typically) that keep it afloat but also loses a ton of money. Syracuse only makes money because the ACC gave it a lifeboat but it doesn't draw much either and it is fortunate enough that upstate politics gave it a nice state-subsidized dome back in the day.

I get the desire for a better program by the fanbase here in this board. But at times I almost get the sense people here are not being realistic. This isn't the Southeast United States or the midwest. We are in the Northeast where college football is an after thought for the average person.

Did anyone look into the football history of the University of Central Florida? Did you guys see how quickly that University grew its program and how it now landed in the Big12? That's what being in a college football hotbed does. People in Florida are extremely receptive to college football. Stony Brook, UConn, UMass, Buffalo would kill to have that kind of fanbase growth in just 40 years