 |
| Gene DeFilippo |
Ask The Athletics Director
Do you have a question about BC Athletics? Now's your chance to go straight to the top.
Submit your questions now, then join Director of Athletics Gene DeFilippo for a live chat beginning at 4:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday, November 11.
|
 |
 |
 |
Moderator: Welcome to today's online chat with Boston College Director of Athletics Gene DeFilippo. We are ready to begin. |
|
|
| John (Falmouth): Do you believe that most alumni and fans would rather play stronger out of conference teams (and risk the opportunity to become football bowl eligible for a lesser bowl) than to continue scheduling easy wins like Buffalo, Hofstra, Northeastern, Rhode Island, Central Michigan, Kent State, etc. to play in a half empty stadium? What are we trying to achieve by scheduling such teams and why is it in the long term best interests of the program? |
 |
|
Gene DeFilippo: John, I think that many people are uninformed about the outside competition scheduled by some schools across the country. Let's begin with three schools in the Big Twelve. The Texas Longhorns played Louisiana-Monroe, Wyoming, Texas El Paso and Central Florida. Kansas played Northern Colorado, Texas El Paso, Duke and Southern Miss. Let's go to the Big Ten. Penn State's outside opposition was Akron, Syracuse, Temple and Eastern Illinois. Let's move to Michigan. Their outside opponents were Delaware State, Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan and Notre Dame. Let's move to the SEC. Arkansas played Missouri State, Eastern Michigan, Troy and Texas A&M. Auburn played Louisiana Tech, Ball State, Furman and West Virginia. Florida, the number one ranked team in the country, played Charleston Southern, Troy, Florida International and Florida State. Back to the Big Twelve, Nebraska played Florida Atlantic, Arkansas State, Louisiana Lafayette and Virginia Tech. At Boston College, we have played eight difficult ACC opponents plus Notre Dame. As illustrated by the other schedules I mentioned, our schedule is every bit in line with the rest of the country. |
|
|
| Wesley (Huntsville,Al): I am certain you tire of getting this question repeatedly. But what is currently being done to improve the BC fan experience? How is BC Marketing itself more to the general Boston crowd. As an out of towner it is depressing when the stadium is about half full during a football game, the team works thier butt off, and we do owe them. |
|
|
Gene DeFilippo: Our staff has continually tried, and will keep on trying, to improve the game atmosphere, as well as the BC fan experience. We have no trouble creating an electric and exciting environment when we play Notre Dame or Virginia Tech in football and North Carolina or Duke in basketball or BU in hockey. Since our fans know how to do it, how about if they jump in and provide that same kind of atmosphere for all of our home contests? Since we know how to do it, let's all encourage everybody to arrive on time to our games and provide that type of atmosphere all the time. |
|
|
| Ralph Giordano: How long will the yearly BC and ND football game schedule continue into the future? Will it continue to be alternatng home field sites each year? |
|
|
Gene DeFilippo: Notre Dame will play at BC on October 2, 2010, and that's the last game we have scheduled. Scheduling happens when it's mutually beneficial, and Notre Dame has decided that they no longer wish to play Boston College on a yearly basis. I'm confident that we will resume our series sometime around 2018, 19 or 20. |
|
|
| John, MIlford: Gene
Over the past few years, we have witnessed a steady and dramatic decline in attendance and game day experience.
Does the administration acknowledge there are issues? If so, what is being proposed to address them for the coming season? |
|
|
Gene DeFilippo: Yes, we have witnessed a decline in attendance this year, which we will continue to address as we go forward. Some reasons for the decline, we think, are as follows: 1) The economy. 2) The home schedule, which was not as attractive as in previous years. 3) The weather. We have had rain on the day of five of our games, and that has definitely hurt our attendance and our walk-up crowd. I think you will see a vast improvement next season with a home schedule that will include Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, Clemson, Maryland and Virginia. |
|
|
| DJ Boston: WHat can be done to get more people that buy tickets to attend more than just 2 basketball games a year? You really did lose a lot people that just liked to watch basketball at a high level when you went the DBS route and they were replaced with people who may donate but they really arent fans of basketball they really just want tickets for 1 or 2 games a year. This has effected attendence and the atmosphere at the games. |
|
|
Gene DeFilippo: I really don't know the answer to that, if you can help us, please send me an email. As I said a few moments earlier, our fans certainly know how to provide a real home court, home ice, or home field advantage. In our case, they do it several times a year, and we need to do everything possible to get them to do it every game. We are confident our true fans will attend every game, regardless of the opponent, as they do at most other big-time athletics programs. |
|
|
| Dale (Dover): It's clear BC has been repeatedly shafted by the bowls over the last several years because of the travel reputation. It's also clear that the only way for BC to get invited to a quality bowl is to win the ACC Conference to automatically qualify for a BCS bid. With this in mind are there any plans to upgrade the non conference schedule since those games have limited impact on any bowl selection other than the 6 win requirement? |
|
|
Gene DeFilippo: It's true that, in past years, we have not been chosen to play in some of the so-called better bowls because of a lack of people that we bring to the bowl game. Many people don't understand that we must purchase approximately 10,000 tickets to most any bowl game, so it is not a matter of ticket sales, but rather how many out-of-town fans will attend the bowl game during the week between Christmas and New Year's. Two years ago, we played Michigan State in the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando. Michigan State has approximately 350,000 alums, and Boston College has approximately 145,000 alums. Michigan State has nearly 35,000 undergraduate students, and Boston College has approximately 9,000 undergrads. Which team do you think will travel better? The answer, of course, is Michigan State. It's not that Boston College doesn't have outstanding fans. It's not that BC fans don't care, because they really do. Percentage-wise, BC travels better than most of the large institutions. The problem is, we don't have the numbers of students, alums and fans that many of those institutions have. |
|
|
| Chesco (Stoneham): Gene, when is the AC going in to Conte? This summer? |
|
|
Gene DeFilippo: The AC should have been added to Conte Forum when it was built. It would have been very inexpensive to install it at that time. The cost for installing air conditioning will be somewhere between $5.5 and $6 million. At this point, we have other higher priorities than to spend $6 million to put air conditioning into Conte Forum. |
|
|
| Pedro (Boston): Gene, I am under the impression the Hajjar Football Museum is closed on gamedays to the general public. Is that true? And if so, why? That makes no sense! |
|
|
Gene DeFilippo: The museum is closed on game days so that we can secure the building for our student-athletes. The museum is open daily and on weekends of non-football games. It's very important that our players have privacy and quiet when preparing to play a football game. |
|
|
| Steve Bowers (Jacksonville): Could any football coach have done a better job than Spaz has this year? We were picked for last place, but are still in contention for the conference title. |
|
|
Gene DeFilippo: Coach Spaz continues to do a phenomenal job with our football team. Our players love him, and I hear time and again how hard our players play for him and his staff. We're thrilled to have Coach Spaz as our coach, and the best is yet to come. |
|
|
| Henry - Cape Cod: How much effect is the poor economy having on the BC athletic department? |
|
|
Gene DeFilippo: The economy has impacted our entire institution. The Athletics Department has looked closely as to how we are spending every dollar, and we have made some cuts in most areas. The last thing that we would ever like to cut would be positions, and I'm hopeful that is something we won't have to do. |
|
|
| Geoff Chatham, NJ: will we be able to have a division 1 mens lacrosse team in the future. |
|
|
Gene DeFilippo: No. I do not see a men's lacrosse team in the future. Only four institutions in the ACC offer men's lacrosse, and none of those institutions offer 18 scholarships for men's ice hockey and 18 scholarships for women's ice hockey. Hockey is a big and iimportant sport here at Boston College, so I do not see the addition of men's lacrosse any time in the future. |
|
|
| Tom Mahoney: Much is made about loyalty and having a strong fan base. The user fees imposed on the fans has destroyed that loyalty as BC has put its loyal fans out of seats and has imposed heafty seat fees. Long standing fans have turned away by the 100's (witness the lack of season tickets for football, bball and even hockey[nice ads by the way]...wish they were not needed) Is there any chance of reaching out to former fans and trying to win them back or are we going to continue to have empty stands (ie vs Maryland bball last year)? Is there any chance of BC being loyal to the fans? |
|
|
Gene DeFilippo: The last three years, there has been a decrease in the sale of season hockey tickets, and there is no user fee, as you call it, imposed on the fans. Donor-based seating in basketball is only for those seats in the lower level which, by the way, are the seats that are sold out. The seats that are not sold out are in the top level, and there is no user fee imposed. In football, our stadium seats 44,500 people, and we only have 6,000 donor-based seats. In a 44,000-seat stadium, there isn't a bad seat in the house, and the user fees, as you call them, are not the reason why there has been a decline in the sale of season tickets. My staff and I feel that the economy, the weather and the occasional less attractive home schedule are the reasons for this decline. |
|
|
| Danny (Stamford, CT): There have been various reports over the years regarding "unsportsmanlike behaviour" by the BC football team at ND. While it seems like we tend to recruit very high quality young men (and women), what is done by the athletic department and coaches to make sure BC's athletes operate by the highest code of conduct? |
|
|
Gene DeFilippo: I don't know of these various reports of which you speak, but I do know one thing - everywhere that our football team travels, we are complimented about the type of men we have, whether it is by the flight attendants on the plane, the people who work at the hotel, or the people who handle game management. They have absolutely nothing but great things to say about our football players and football program. We are also told consistently by media and TV announcers who cover our team that we have the finest young men in all of college football. |
|
|
| Steve (Boston): Where would you like to see the football team go? How fast could the program achieve this goal? |
|
|
Gene DeFilippo: I'd like for our football program to be the very best that it can be. Two years ago, we won 11 games and were ranked 10th in the final poll. It is our goal to work and to leave no stone unturned as we try to make the BC football program the very best it can be. |
|
|
|
Gene DeFilippo: Thank you for joining us today. We'll have another one of these chats in the near future. Have a nice evening.
Gene |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
