According to Adam Lucas, on-campus logistics prevent UNC from hosting a Thursday night game. Allow me to translate: UNC’s general parking for Kenan and access to the stadium makes it impossible to host a football game on a weeknight when you have also have folks on campus for classes.
That really bites.
Lucas astutely points out that the ESPN Thursday Night Game is the college football equivalent of Monday Night Football in the NFL. It is a maximun exposure deal that UNC apparently must always play on the road because the campus setup in Chapel Hill would create one of the worst traffic nightmares since the Great Inch Snowfall of 2005 in Raleigh. It would be nice to host such a game with a full stadium to show UNC can present a rocking game environment in football. Unfortunately that simply is not possible under the current setup.
Which makes showing up in New Jersey and making an big impression even more important.
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It’s the price we pay for having the stadium in the heart of campus, and I personally wouldn’t have it any other way. You have to work to tailgate and no Thursday night home games, but students can attend games without need of a car, unlike at other schools. I heard Dick Baddour explaining this on the radio during the weather delay last weekend. The man may make some questionable hires, but at least he understands campus constraints.
Not that I support this, but perhaps the answer is to build a new stadium–name it Baddour-Moesser, or BM for short–somewhere on the Carolina North expansion campus. Then they can put something where Kenan is and stop erecting buildings so close together.
Someone should tell the basketball program that they can’t have games midweek anymore either and see the response.
I understand that traffic will be less than ideal, but it’s not traffic is nonexistent after a mid-week basketball game, and there are things that could be done to minimize the traffic area. Close a few lots and force people to park off campus. If parking at the park and rides would be encouraged, traffic could be handled much easier.
It’s a lot easier to move a few hundred buses to more accessible areas than it is to move tens of thousands of cars from inaccessible areas.
Cornbread,
The difference between football and basketball is the number of people. Kenan seats 60,000 and a high profile game would most certainly be a sellout. The Dean Dome only seats 20,000 or so. The campus can handle the influx of 12-15,000 people on a weeknight for basketball but not 40-50,000 for football.
It should be noted that it was a not-so-quiet secret on campus that Moeser was rather opposed to the prospect of hosting a Thursday night campus during his tenure. He apparently felt that hosting such a game would distract from the academic atmosphere because students would skip classes that day in an effort to get the best seating at Kenan possible for TV glamour shots. I’m not saying his logic is good, but that was apparently his feeling on the matter.
Who knows, perhaps this will change under the new chancellor. The easiest solution would be to schedule a Thursday night game the weekend of Fall Break. Thursday is the first day off that weekend, and I can tell you for a fact that there are lot of kids that would be willing to stick around an extra day and a half for a Thursday night game. Meanwhile, you wouldn’t have nearly the same parking logistics since you wouldn’t have commuting students, professors and staff trying to escape campus while thousands of fans take their spots. It would also give us a Thursday night slot right in the middle of the season.
A Thursday night game would be great for PR and for the students, but for adult fans who have to work the next day would be non-optimal. Overall, I favor the Moeser approach: a smaller campus where the students can walk everywhere. The best PR ultimately as we all know is just to have a great football team.
Off topic, it looks like Rutgers is favored by 4 points as of today. I’d take that bet in a millisecond……..I say we win by at least 10.
I appreciate your optimism Chris. And DSchwind, it is certainly worth a try isn’t it?
At least 10? Wow. Gimme some of that kool-aid.
Sorry DSchwind and JBowling, but in the radio interview, Baddour specifically talked about the possibility of a home game on Fall Break Thursday and how the Athletic Department didn’t want to schedule what would certainly a big game (at least in terms of national exposure, if not the match up itself) when the students were on a break (do they still close the dorms and kick the students out for break?). Of course, if Coach Davis can when enough games, he’ll be in a better position to dictate a Thursday home game–if that’s what he wants for the program–not so long down the road.
As a student, Thursday night games are appealing if we could host them, but realistically it is not going to happen. Campus parking is horrible as it is, but if we added a football game then other events couldn’t take place throughout the campus like plays or smaller sporting events.
Personally, I believe the stadium is perfect where it is. There is nothing finer then walking through the woods to Kenan during October. It still takes forever to get there with the human traffic so why make it difficult just for Thursday night opportunities?
Students would love to see more Saturday night prime time games, especially during September. Unfortunately, ABC dominates the schedule and I think OSU-USC seems a bit more interesting then UNC-Rutgers. More prestige will earn us better game times.
Thanks for letting me know Santiago!
wilson, i say 10 points becuase i think everyone has grossly underestimated the talent on the Mcneese State team. I think McNeese State could beat at least half of the ACC teams.
My general impression of the Thurs. night games was that the schools were looking for a payday by agreeing to play on a weekday. Given that UNC has one of the biggest budgets, I’m not sure it is too big of a deal we can’t play on Thurs. night. I supposed Adam makes the point that he would like the exposure this game would provide UNC’s campus, but the Sat. night ESPN game, in my book, provides the same exposure.