I Bleed Blue and White

I totally agree with this. As a ‘95 grad living in northern NJ, I myself, and a few of my other fellow ‘Nova grad friends would buy season tickets immediately if we were to make the jump. It’s unfortunate, but no matter how good our football team is, you’re just not going to get the fan participation when facing the likes of UNH, W&M and Richmond. Join the Big East, and watch the interest level and turnout rise exponentially. Nova Nation will be much more motivated when playing hoops rivals ‘Cuse, UConn, Pitt, WVA etc. Just think, we can fill the Wachovia Center with 20,000 people for hoops against these rivals. I also think the Linc would solve the stadium issue, and also make it much easier for out of towners to get to the games. Not that I would ever want opposing teams to outnumber Nova fans at our own home games, but the fans of those BE teams travel (Rutgers is right up 95)and they will definately buy tickets and fill seats. In addition, Philly is a huge market, and offering something other than Temple football on Saturdays would go a long way in the area, especially if that alternative is Big East football.

I also think Villanova is perfectly positioned right in the middle of a recruiting hotbed. Making the jump to the BE would make VU an attractive alternative, especially given it’s academics.

The university and it’s alumni should revisit the subject and take a good hard look at the feasibility of this. I can tell you with 100% certainty that if the move were made today, I would show my support by purchasing season tickets, and I know I would not be alone in doing so.

Great post K-Fan. It almost makes too much sense to do this, especially if an offer is on the table from the BE (which I’m pretty sure it is).

It is a risk, but a risk that will offer huge rewards down the road.

Glad to see you are on board with the support like we are.

I have attended 3+ home games each year since the 06-07 year (my freshman year), and agree with the season ticket statements listed above. Also, there is a new MLS stadium opening in Chester which seats 19,500 for football. Might be a nice alternative. Check it out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Field_at_Chester

That stadium looks awesome by the river. Wouldn’t be a terrible alternative I guess, but getting all the students out there is another problem.

and i don’t know about this year, but historically, the students just don’t care.

I think part of the reason they don’t care is that it is an FCS team. If we become a legit D-1 program, the students will care.

One of my biggest complaints about ‘Nova when I was there was the lack of a big-time football atmosphere.

Addressing the three main issues from a kid who used to work in the athletic dept while at ‘Nova.

1. Fanbase – will end up being the largest problem. I definitely agree the attendance will jump if we join Big East football however it will still be tough. Remember we are only a school of about 6,500 undergrads. So pulling from that bunch is going to be tough, not a lot of students to pull from in the football fan world. Alumni participation will be really important and having the big teams on the other side of the bill will help this (instead of UNH and W&M). But its hard to equate yourself with schools with big student bodies. Even a comparable Div. I-A Catholic School like BC has 9.5k undergrads.

2. Stadium – Villanova Stadium is too small. I thought it was a bigger problem as well but if Chris is right and we only need 15k than small additions could make it possible. A massive overhaul on Villanova Stadium is out of the question b/c the town of Villanova will not allow it. The Linc is their second option and something the Athletic Dept has thought about. Renting it on Saturdays (lord knows how much that costs) but it would be massive for years for our initial fanbase. The soccer stadium in Chester is a nice thought but I think that would be even more difficult than the Linc to get fans too b/c it is not centrally located. However, its true we pull 20k pretty easily for big WAC games so we could do well with football after a few years (optimism here).

3. Money – The football team does consistently lose money. Last figure I heard was roughly 500k a year (that might not be as bad this year). However, I think almost every sport except Men’s bball loses money but Men’s bball pulls in such an ungodly sum that it funds the rest of the athletic dept. Joining the BE would hopefully get the -500k to at least break even with energized fans, merchandise sales and of course most important … TV contracts. It is a big decision the school has to make, whether to invest in it and push it all the way or let it linger in college football purgatory

Hit the nail on the head Kevin.

i find it strange that one of my favorite posts on this blog is actually about football, but i couldn’t agree more. i definitely feel like there are some intangibles that would be tough to work around and might deter the administration to make the move. however, as you mentioned, i think the positives outweigh the negatives. as a current undergrad, i fully support the football team and make it out to every game i can. however, i know many other students would be much more willing to attend a game (even if it was off-campus), if we were playing some better competition like the Big East. the most important thing is that i think we just cannot wait. NOW is the time to do it. its time.

I’m not sure of the details, but I thought the school looked into expanding the stadium in the 90’s and the township was just adamantly opposed to it. Don’t forget that adding capacity to the stadium means more parking will be necessary, and with more fans and more cars inevitably will come more tailgating and more debauchery in general spilling over from our campus into the town. None of those are things that the good citizens of Villanova and Bryn Mawr enjoy or want more of from our University.

Yes the main reason why we still have a stadium built for 1927 football is because of the town of Villanova and evil Radnor Township.

Although at some point they expanded and made that press box which is nice and relatively new I don’t know when that was.

The town has all sorts of limitations on how ‘Nova can build. For instance there are some zoning ordinances for height, that is why the pavilion is shaped like a Circus big top and why the Football stadium cannot be built upwards. Also it is why the apts on West are only three floors.

There are also time ordinances. West apts were finished around 2000-2001 I believe and part of us being allowed to build them was that the town of Villanova required that we were not allowed to build on west for 20 years (when all the people in mansions near west (like Allen Iverson haha) would be dead or moved out). There was a big debate when ‘Nova build the new law school b/c although we might call that West, legally the school doesn’t so it didn’t fall into the 20 yr ordinance. Needless to say the town was pissed.

There are a lot of things they need to do, like build more dorms in main lot and make pike a garage but the town nixes these things as eyesores on Lancaster before blueprints are even draw.

Long story short I wouldn’t be surprised if there is some agreement where Villanova cannot add capacity to the stadium ever or for a certain number of years as part of a deal that allowed them to build the press box.

Okay, my main question (which I raised on Twitter a little while ago) is how does the town still have control here?

I get that when these laws were made, the people were probably there before the school really got big, so they wanted to control it.

But all of those people have to be dead or moved away by now. Did Villanova really get involved with a law that says they can’t build – EVER AGAIN?

If so, that’s atrocious management by the school itself, and frankly, wouldn’t be terribly surprising.

While I was in school I wrote a paper about how even though Radnor hates Villanova, their economy depends on it a lot more than they realize, and how an increase in people for football would actually benefit the town as a whole, because they would be flooded with more money.

Its not about rebuilding per se. Its about height and size. What Radnor really doesn’t want is giant dorms that you can see from everywhere and a giant stadium.

I think you’re right it would greatly benefit their economy but these are old rich people they don’t really care. They’d rather not have 50k rolling down lancaster on a Saturday afternoon drinking and going to a football game even if it would bring in business.

The laws aren’t some archaic ordinances from the turn of the twentieth century. They are most likely far more recent. At some point when they saw Villanova was going to start really expanded (I don’t know when this was 70s 80s?) they wanted to curtail giant structures being built near their homes so they passed ordinances that limit the height of structures. So building stadiums, whether it be basketball or football gets effected the most.

St. Thomas of Villanova Church is probably the largest structure on campus right? And that was build in the 1800s when there were only farms surrounding us. I wonder would that fly today.

Eventually these ordinances will have to be bend, broken or voted out. Villanova will become too big and will have too much swag, I think we’re getting close.

we have too much swag already