It's hard to say with any precision what the cost of a trip like this is, because costs are so variable. 

Say $400 pp for the flight times the number of people you take, 60 players + 15 staff/etc, 75*$400 = $30K.  And $400 is probably on the low end.
Hotel costs, two nights, so maybe you put 4 players in a room (15 rooms if you take 60) and double up everyone else except the HC (8 rooms).  Maybe $140/night with tax & fee if you're lucky, $140 x 23 x 2 = $6.4K
Add bus cost (2 buses x 2 days) - no idea but it ain't cheap
Add food cost - hopefully you get free breakfasts at the hotel!
Miscellaneous incidental costs
Bus rental back home to get everyone from the school to the airport and return

When you fly you have to deal with the vagaries of commercial air travel, especially in smaller airports where service is less frequent and smaller equipment (like Embraer 17x/19xx) is used.  What happens if the airline cancels the flight you scheduled six months in advance and can't accomodate everyone on the available flights, or forces you to split the team on different flights?  And, oh by the way, since you're booking closer to departure you may have to pay more.

If you do get some costs I'd love to see what reality is. 

Also, Greg Thomas covered this topic from a different angle last week in his ATN column and mentioned that Central IA players/staff did some fundraising to help cover the costs of a trip to Cal Lutheran:

QuoteCentral's trip to California was made possible not by ballooning department budgets, but in part due to Central players and coaches putting in their own sweat equity to make the experience possible. "We have a food stand at our Tulip Time Festival," McMartin said referencing an annual Pella, Iowa festival celebrating Dutch heritage. "So we sell steak sandwiches and barbecued pork and brats and the money that we make goes to different activities like this. So we, we fundraise for this and we all, we all work at it, coaches and players. That in itself is pretty fun, and then to be able to utilize those funds to do something like this is really cool."

Quote from: Ron Boerger on September 24, 2024, 10:14:18 AMAlso, Greg Thomas covered this topic from a different angle last week in his ATN column and mentioned that Central IA players/staff did some fundraising to help cover the costs of a trip to Cal Lutheran:

QuoteCentral's trip to California was made possible not by ballooning department budgets, but in part due to Central players and coaches putting in their own sweat equity to make the experience possible. "We have a food stand at our Tulip Time Festival," McMartin said referencing an annual Pella, Iowa festival celebrating Dutch heritage. "So we sell steak sandwiches and barbecued pork and brats and the money that we make goes to different activities like this. So we, we fundraise for this and we all, we all work at it, coaches and players. That in itself is pretty fun, and then to be able to utilize those funds to do something like this is really cool."

That's a lot of sandwich meat to pay for that trip!

Saturday's UMHB game against John Melvin has been canceled due to JMU not having enough available players. The Cru will have an open date, and start ASC play against ETBU on Oct. 5.

Lol

Does the cancelled game against John Melvin count as a forfeit win for UMHB? Would the "lost game" work against UMHB comes to post season play for not having a 10 game season?

Quote from: zipmac22 on September 24, 2024, 06:28:41 PMDoes the cancelled game against John Melvin count as a forfeit win for UMHB? Would the "lost game" work against UMHB comes to post season play for not having a 10 game season?

They aren't a countable opponent anyways.  According to the NCAA UMHB is only playin 8 "games" this season.  Wonder if they could've done a intersquad scrimmage or something to let the guys get more practice reps in?

Quote from: Riley Zayas on September 24, 2024, 05:16:44 PMSaturday's UMHB game against John Melvin has been canceled due to JMU not having enough available players. The Cru will have an open date, and start ASC play against ETBU on Oct. 5.

I'm relieved. As much as I love to see the Cru play, this game was a joke. I honestly thing our JV team (looking pretty darned good, by the way) could hang 100 points on them. Let's use the extra time to prepare for ETBU.

Quote from: Ron Boerger on September 24, 2024, 10:14:18 AMAlso, Greg Thomas covered this topic from a different angle last week in his ATN column and mentioned that Central IA players/staff did some fundraising to help cover the costs of a trip to Cal Lutheran:

QuoteCentral's trip to California was made possible not by ballooning department budgets, but in part due to Central players and coaches putting in their own sweat equity to make the experience possible. "We have a food stand at our Tulip Time Festival," McMartin said referencing an annual Pella, Iowa festival celebrating Dutch heritage. "So we sell steak sandwiches and barbecued pork and brats and the money that we make goes to different activities like this. So we, we fundraise for this and we all, we all work at it, coaches and players. That in itself is pretty fun, and then to be able to utilize those funds to do something like this is really cool."

I know some schools that do stuff like annual golf outing fundraisers to help defray trip and other team costs. Hold it the same time of the year and it can become a tradition. Those events can double as nice alumni gatherings and raise tens of thousands in one swoop.

John Melvin's roster listed 43 players on it, and of those, there were just 5 offensive linemen listed, and 4 players listed as being on the defensive line.

Additionally, there are just 15 players on the roster above 200 pounds. If they've been hit by the injury/attrition bug, they probably do not have enough players they could safely put along the lines.

Quote from: zipmac22 on September 24, 2024, 06:28:41 PMDoes the cancelled game against John Melvin count as a forfeit win for UMHB? Would the "lost game" work against UMHB comes to post season play for not having a 10 game season?

I have no idea what the playoff rules are, but I see UW Lacrosse routinely plays 8 D3 games and 2 non-D3 games and it hasn't impacted their playoff position.

A game against a D2 or NAIA school is a game.  A week off or a scrimmage against a non-NCAA/NAIA affiliated program is not. 

I'm thankful this game was canceled. Playing UWW, no matter the outcome, will wear on your body. It's a good call. Let the boys heal up and get ready for what really matters.

Meanwhile, HSU puts up a 90 burger on whatever NAU is.

I'll tell you what, UMHB better not sleep on what looks like a very confident and very good ETBU team coming into town next Saturday. If they win tonight they'll be undefeated and they've averaged 60 PPG vs quality opponents so far.

ETBU got some good players in the portal as well including their starting QB Kaden Brown from South Dakota State, he has been cookin'.