Black Friday Bash

So, when the Black Friday Bash was announced last April I wasn't a fan.  I had a lot to say about it, and none of it was good.  You can go back and read what I had to say here.

I was there yesterday, and while I don't think it was a huge success, it certainly succeeded beyond what I predicted it would.  I give the administration credit for having the idea and then putting the effort into making sure a credible effort was achieved.

The announced crowd was 11,000+.  I didn't think it was that big but it was certainly not embrassassing.  (I'm not even sure if they announce tickets sold or people actually in attendance.  Note that after I wrote this I read in The Blade that John Wagner estimated there were 5,000 people physically present.)  For comparison, two years ago at 2-9 BG drew an announced crowd of 5,121, which, while not good and probably inflated, is twice as high as people have been making it sound this week.  The weather yesterday was as brutal in Columbus as it was in BG and I don't expect it would have helped.

On the other hand, this team wasn't 2-9.

You'd want to be more than a little higher in order to justify all the effort that goes into something like this.  I'm not sure it reached that level or the level of the "university-wide" event that was predicted, but it certainly was a moderate success and not the abject disaster that I thought it would be.

The best part:  The Crew have figured out how to have hot drinks available after the first quarter.  Our people should meet with them on this topic.

The worst part:  My "comparable" tickets moved me from the 50 to the 25.

I guess the question is what will happen in two years when BG has another home game the day after the holiday.

That stadium is ideal for a event like this, because it is a classy venue that isn't too big.  I don't know if something similar exists in other cities.

I still don't think that you should automatically charge season ticket holders for a game outside your stadium.  It should be an opt-in on the order form.  Yes, I know you could exchange them, it isn't the same thing.  Maybe now that we know people will come, we can move to that.  I don't think it is fair to beat people up to buy season tickets and then they find out after they buy that they have already paid for tickets to a game two hours away from home.

And, I would hate to see us play a very important game on a neutral field when we could be on home field--and there's more to a home field advantage than having your crowd in an unfamiliar venue.

For comparison, EMU had an announced crowd of 1,349, Kent reported 18K and Miami report a little over 8K.

Anyway, just wanted to close the loop on that.  We had a good time, for whatever it is worth.  It was a lot of driving but it was a pretty good time and a nice place to watch a football game.