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Date Posted: 16:40:21 02/17/03 Mon
Author: jenningsbeach
Subject: Re: USAToday scores.
In reply to: Cindy Crawford 's message, "Re: USAToday scores." on 15:52:45 02/17/03 Mon

Then play the games Monday, March 3. St. Peter's can travel to Poughkeepsie.

The decision to play is a joke. The MAAC is a joke. There is no basketball being played from Maine to North Carolina. Endangering the welfare of arena employees, security personnel, etc. is disgraceful. Plus, there are 2,000+ Fairfield fans who would happily attend the makeup game. Why are we getting screwed?

Because Ensor wants to be on TV. Rich, you want publicity? The media is going to skewer the MAAC over the next few days. (Then again, maybe not. No one actually cares about this freakin' league.) Total incompetence.

I'm even more disgusted at Fairfield's part in all this. Someone has got to say no. Doris? Fr. Kelly?

Everyone dropped the ball.

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Replies:

[> [> [> [> [> Re: USAToday scores. -- Peacock, 18:22:51 02/17/03 Mon

I think you people need to investigate who has the responsibility for wanting the games played. It is always the responsibility for the home team to make that decision. Of course you need the opposing team to be able to show up. Consider the financial liability to Fairfield if the game was not played. They need to pay their carrying cost whether the games are played or not. They have no intention to want to do it again and incur another additional expense. Marist stayed over from Saturday's game. What do they care about the weather. SPC was there so they wanted the game. SPC was not interested in expending more money to travel to Marist. How long ago was some team castigated for not getting to Buffalo because of a storm. When you boil it down the league had little decision powers in this matter, and your own school was a prime player as host in that decision. It always is the responsibility of the schools to make those decisions, and not the comissioner. Of course the other three schools also agreed. So before you rant and rave, try understanding the issues behind the decision and not the fact that you believe they play the games just for you.


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[> [> [> [> [> Re: USAToday scores. -- emmaleigh, 23:53:20 02/17/03 Mon

Actually - not skewered at all...got good time on ESPN Sport Center...as part of the "weather" report...both games covered,,,and players given good publicity. I'm sure David Bennett isn't complaining. This is MAAC time and school time they wouldn't normally have gotten...

and are you willing to help pay the bill for extra bussing.

also...you are aware that at most of the schools in this conference the athletes do attend classes...this isn't Miami you know.


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[> [> [> [> [> [> Re: USAToday scores. -- jenningsbeach, 10:43:51 02/18/03 Tue

Ever heard of doing the right thing?

I'm not naive. I realize this was a TV- and money-related decision, the MAAC refusing to give up its MSG showcase and Fairfield refusing to swallow the building-rental fee. But this is one of the worst storms in recorded weather history. You don't force 10, 20, 50 people to come into work. You don't put people at risk to play two basketball games. No one else on the east coast played yesterday (except for Maryland-Wake Forest, which was postponed on Saturday). Even the NBA shut down the nationally televised Washington Wizards game, on Michael Jordan's 40th birthday.

The argument to play yesterday's games, in those conditions, is indefensible. Who cares if the MAAC rule says if the teams and officials are in place, the game must go on? The ACC has the same rule; they broke it. The Big East has the same rule; they broke it.

What about us Fairfield fans? I'm a season ticket holder. I wanted to see the game live. I would go to the makeup game. I got screwed. The MAAC—and Fairfield, evidently—couldn't care less.

Just reschedule. It's not difficult. I suggested Monday, March 3, but whatever works for the schools is fine. St. Peter's has to travel to Poughkeepsie. Whoop-di-doo. (St. Peter's recently played a rescheduled game vs. Seton Hall, and Rider rescheduled its game at St. Peter's to allow St. Peter's-SHU to happen). Rider comes back to Bridgeport or, failing to find an arena date, Fairfield to play at Alumni Hall. Big deal. Of course, now there's no doubleheader and no MSG.

What makes this decision even more heinous: Fairfield could have shut this fiasco down and didn't all because the school had already rented the building. Work something out with the arena. Or just swallow the money. What a joke.

Extra bussing? These schools have athletic budgets; they can handle contingencies. It's unfortunate the three schools would have incurred unnecessary hotel expenses, but there are worse things in life than spending a weekend in Bridgeport.

Classes? No classes would be missed if the games were rescheduled.

Storms like yesterday's come along once every ... 20 years? 50 years? Keep people safe. Do the right thing. The decision to play yesterday's doubleheader was a disgrace. The MAAC and Fairfield University dropped the freakin' ball.


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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> Re: USAToday scores. -- caller, 13:01:55 02/18/03 Tue

Jenningsbeach - you've been spending a bit too much time with your head stuck in the snow - your brain seems to have become frozen.... The NBA shut MJ's game down because their games depend on the income of fans attending the game. The MAAC didn't. And if you looked at the number of FFD fans who made it to the FFD game, I would think the roads couldn't have been TOO bad. And by the way - the decision to play is ENTIRELY defensible to anyone who is SENSIBLE, which you, it is quickly becoming apparent, are not.
No way would Marist agree to moving the SPC game for any time in the week before MAAC's.... I'm sure you are asking why at this point? "It's going to be a home game in poughkeepsie... what's so rough about that?" The fact that they will have JUST returned from their Western NY trip on sunday NIGHT (most likely late knowing the weather in Western NY at this time of year). And with championships coming up just three days later, no way would either MC or SPC want to play that day. So no, the games could not have easily been rescheduled. As for classes - how can you say "no classes would be missed?" The games would have to be on a weekday. There are classes on weekdays. The travelling team would have to miss them in order to go to the away game.
I'm sure the fact that FFD had already rented the building was not a major factor in deciding to play the game. Too many things worked in favor of having the game. And I would expect the lawyers to have worked something in to the contract that includes acts of God in order for FFD to not have to pay an entire rental fee.
Plus you don't know what the status of the home arenas are for the days of the reschedule.
As for budgets, you must be living in the world of a Big East/ ACC/ SEC/ PAC 10 fan, because while yes there is a contingency allotment, why WASTE that when you don't have to? The necessary people got there without any problems through intelligent planning and pre-setting of the necessary personnel.
Nobody got hurt. Everything turned out fine. The MAAC made the proper decision in this one. While I can see your point of view, it's really minor in the grand scheme of things. I'm sure if injury were imminent, things would have been stopped, and I'm sure it was not a one person decision. The MAAC and Fairfield would have asked the arena management if they could get enough workers in, since if there was not enough personnel to cover the game, they couldn't have held it. But obviously the arena management felt it could get enough people and obviously did (although I have a feeling the clock operator hadn't used the arena system before). So the MAAC and FFD decided to go on with the game because multiple entities felt they could go on with it safely - which in the end turned out entirely correct.


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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Re: USAToday scores. -- jenningsbeach, 15:08:13 02/18/03 Tue

Caller: if you're going to torch me at least get your geography straight. Poughkeepsie is not in western New York; it's between New York City and Albany. Metro North goes there. It's a 90-minute train ride from Grand Central, less on a nonstop bus.

It's just not a big deal to get there from Jersey City. If March 3 doesn't work, pick another date. Just like the St. Peter's women's team will pick another date with Fairfield. Yesterday was supposed to be a tripleheader, remember?

Of course MAAC budgets are smaller than the major conferences, but they're still in the $2 million to $4 million range. We're talking a couple thousand dollars here. The three schools can afford the money and inconvenience brought on by a once-every-50-years weather phenomenon.

When you say Fairfield fans attended the game, what are you talking about? The attendance figure listed under the box score is the season-tickets number. There were only a handful of fans in attendance yesterday. The roads were impassable.

You make some good points on the arena. Perhaps employees were "prepositioned" the night before, though I tend to think most traveled in during the morning hours (and, of course, had to travel home at night). My guess is they were needlessly put at risk. And I'm sure Fairfield could have worked around the rental fee and not lost the money. Which makes it all the more disgraceful that the games weren't postponed.

I had four tickets to yesterday's game. It was impossible for me, impossible for anyone, to get to the game. Is the MAAC going to write me a $72 check? Is Fairfield? I enjoy going to these games and, through no fault of my own, won't get to see the last home game of the 2002-2003 season. I think (in the grand scheme of things) I matter, and I think I got screwed. Do the fans count for anything?

The answer is no. But the MSG TV contract counts. And the irony is, MSG had signal problems. Many people only say the last 15 minutes of the first game and the first 20 minutes of the second.

Don't know this for a fact, but I suspect the Washington-Orlando game was sold out long ago. The ticket money was already in the bank, and so was a huge ratings day for ABC and the NBA. This is Michael's last year, after all, and there aren't that many opportunities left to show His Airness in full flight.

You know what? I think The Wizards did the right thing postponing the game.


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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Hooked on Phonics worked for me -- caller, 15:48:18 02/18/03 Tue

Now I definitely deserve to torch you. But I have also come to realize why you are so far off base. You don't appear to read very well. Being a graduate of Marist, I know very WELL where Poughkeepsie is. So perhaps you should go back and read what it is that I ACTUALLY wrote. MARIST has to go on THEIR western NY trip that weekend. They have a game AT Niagara at 2pm Sunday March 2. Therefore they WILL be driving late on Sunday. Get it now? As for the length of the train ride - it's actually an 1:45+..., and the bus is minimum 1:30. I didn't look at SPC's schedule which is why I only said that MARIST would not agree to changing the date.
As for yesterday being a triple header - I remember very well that it was supposed to be one. However, it was only cancelled because the SPC women's coach said he didn't want to bring the team up on Sunday night as he was asked to do by the AD. As a result, they were unable to get up there on Monday. Had the SPC coach decided to come up Sunday, there without question, would have been a third game. But it's also easier for FFD to move that women's game to Alumni hall than it would be for a men's game.
As for the attendance, I know very well that the number in the box score is the sold tickets. But I'm counting the number of people actually there as viewed by someone I know who was there. There were about 55 people who came to see the FFD/RU game. Not all that bad on roads you are saying were so treacherous, and obviously not impossible (one of the beauties of 4WD). I'm not disagreeing that the roads were bad, but if 55 people had the desire to make the trip to see a game, I'm sure it wasn't that bad for people who were getting paid to be there, especially since they were getting holiday pay. Additionally, I was on the UConn Rivals site, and there were at least three posters who posted yesterday at about 12 about how pleased they were with the plowing job of the DOT - saying that while there was only typically one lane clear, the roads were "in typically good shape."
As for you getting screwed - that is up to you, and that is something you can take up with the school... but they have a legitimate case in saying "other people got here. You chose to not come."
As for the signal, the end of the second game was on too (I didn't get to see the first half of it as I was out shovelling.)
As for the NBA 1) they can handle a postponement a lot easier 2)the owners have a union to be concerned about 3) more people need to come in for an NBA game 4)rain check policy is a lot easier for an NBA team to handle and eat.
While entire athletic department budgets are over $1,000,000, free amounts are nowhere NEAR that amount. Most athletic departments don't have that much free cash to pay what they ended up paying this weekend PLUS more travel costs. Since the teams were already there on Monday, they would have incurred the additional expenses anyway, having to stay monday night before coming home tuesday. And this way, they now don't have to pay an EXTRA amount for an additional game to travel to. (and I wouldn't be surprised if the hotels worked out deals since they were probably losing out on business for people coming in to town)
I think what it really boils down to is that you are sore that the game was able to go on without you. Well, I know the feeling, and I think you are overreacting. Just my personal opinion.


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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Re: Hooked on Phonics worked for me -- jenningsbeach, 16:49:58 02/18/03 Tue

Touché. I did read the beginning of your original post incorrectly.

Fifty-five people? That doesn't make the argument that the roads were passable and that fans could attend. I'd say it proves the opposite.

Anyway, this is obviously an agree-to-disagree deal.

I enjoyed the exchange.

Good luck to the Foxes the rest of the way.


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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> It's all good -- caller, 16:59:29 02/18/03 Tue

I was just about to post the exact same thing - was certainly a lot of fun. And seeing as I don't expect Marist to make it in the tourney, my cheering is going to FFD and Canisius - two of the three classiest programs in the conference.


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