Boston College Suffering in Pro Market

image credit @UFSallyKit

$10 for 2 BC vs Northwestern and Persastrong? Really? This sad Groupon deal was one of the first things I saw on my Twitter feed this morning and needless to say, as a Boston College alumni (Class of ’03), I am outright disappointed and embarrassed that our program has come down to this.

Boston College is credited for having created the first college fight song (“For Boston”) for God’s sake.  BC started playing football in 1892, compiling a history that goes back 120 years, but we quickly forget this because lets face it, they’ve been mediocre in recent memory (not including ’07 with Matt Ryan aka “Matty Ice”).

image credit bcinterruption.com

The seating capacity at Alumni Stadium is 44,500 (since 1995 renovation) and BC averaged attendance well below 40,000 the last several seasons. When I was in Chestnut Hill during my college days, a BC ticket wasn’t all that easy to get and Alumni Stadium was as loud and vibrant as ever before, selling out most games. We would wear our “BC Superfan” T shirts (I still have my original one from ’99) proud and cheer until we lost our voices because we were winning, most of the time.

Programs with much bigger stadiums and deeply rooted histories sell out their stadiums left and right, why shouldn’t Boston College?  Today, things have changed a bit and perhaps we can blame it on the move to the ACC in July, ’05, but either way BC plays in a pro town and that will never change.

“When you have the Bruins playing for the Stanley Cup, and the Celtics have just won a championship several years ago, the Patriots have won three Super Bowls and the Red Sox have won two world championships in ’04 and ’07, there’s no question that we take a backseat to the professional sports,” DeFilippo said the day before the Bruins won Game 7 of the Cup finals. “We don’t ever try to replace one of those teams. We know our place, and we want to be right in the mix.”

–Gene DeFilippo, BC Athletics Director

image credit collegeinterruption.com

DeFilippo realizes Boston is a pro town first, but his argument as to why BC attendance has declined is pure bollocks to me.  He claims its due to high unemployment rates and difficult economic conditions, making it more difficult for the average Joe to spend their “entertainment dollars.”  He further goes on to blame the HD TV revolution in the living room, asserting

“You know what, the thing that’s hurt all of us–pro sports, college sports, everything–is that 52-inch, high-definition television screen. That has hurt as as much as anything. I watch Patriots games on television and in high definition; I feel like I’m in the huddle with Dan Koppen and Tom Brady and Wes Welker. You’re right there, you can see the sweat on their faces under their masks.”

image credit bcinterruption.com

I don’t even know how to respond to that, Gene- have you become senile?  Penn State, Ohio State, Boise State, USC, Florida, Virginia Tech..hell, even Rutgers doesn’t have that problem.  Harvard sells out its game for Christ’s sake and that’s across the Charles from us!   The only answer to the problem Boston College has is -GET BETTER and do it fast.  I fully expect BC to leave the ACC and head back to the Big East in the coming years and that will certainly help because alumni don’t care about playing schools like FSU or Wake Forest.  They would rather play UCONN, Syracuse, Rutgers, etc.  I believe one day BC will get it together and i’m hoping it starts with this upcoming season, which already looks grim with the injury bug at bay.

Raju Kansagra
Raju is a former Wall St. trader turned renaissance man living and working in the New York City area. He graduated from Boston College with degrees in Finance and Philosophy. Born and raised in NJ, he's traveled the globe. He's an ambitious entrepreneur who has worked with some of the brightest minds in business, IT, medicine, real estate, hospitality, law, finance, and most importantly college sports.