FB: New England Small College Athletic Conference

[nescac1]

Williams announces massive $22 million dollar new football / athletic complex:

http://athletics.williams.edu/sports/General_News_Items/Weston_Field_Project_to_Begin_Fall_of_2013?preview=true

Huge, huge news.  Williams has not invested in this sort of massive athletics upgrade (other than squash courts) since, I'd say, the 1986 Chandler Gym construction.  It is badly needed, and should instantly vault the football facilities from at the very bottom of the conference to the very top.  It seems like this is just a rough rendering, and that the final plans are still to-be-completed.  But I like very much the idea of removing the track from around the football field, which should really help with the sight lines.  Looks like Williams will be bulldozing a few of the smaller properties adjacent to the field on Water Street (if my memory of the site is correct) to maximize the land available for playing fields and fan/player facilities and to move the football field closer to the street.  My only question regarding this rendering, if it ends up looking roughly like this, is where will the parking and tailgating be?  Maybe by the side of the football field?  In all events, it's criticial to keep a tailgating area adjacent to the playing field. 

[frank uible]

At The University of Michigan on game day football fans (and at Michigan there are a ton of them) are parked (and tailgate) on the fairway of the University's golf course across the street from the stadium. I don't believe that something like that would be allowed to happen at Williams.

[oldhamfan]

http://www.nationalchamps.net/Helmet_Project/nescac.htm  is the link to a page chronicling the NESCAC teams helmet logos over the years, or at least from the 1990s forward.  Hamilton has had the buff/blue uppercase H on their helmets since the 1980s.  The only helmet that seems consistent is the Ephs on side of Williams helmets.  A few pages back the uniform changes were debated, I peronally think the teams should stay old school with both unis and helmets, not try to match the more Nike commercial ready helmets of so many DI teams.  Just my 2Cs.

[TheHerst2and4]

The Williams upgrade looks impressive and in my opinion better than the previous projection (I understand the rendition might not be accurate as the plans are still being laid out)

Great little site re: helmets, I wish Amherst would have stuck with the Old English script A, but the athletic department decided to make a move to the (plain/boring) A back when we were seniors. Interstingly enough the coaches allowed the senior class to decide what we wanted on our helmets. We chose the Old English A and were told the athletic director wanted uniformity among the teams. We were stuck with the plain A.

The reasoning was shotty-as the women's volleyball team was then competing as "The Fire Dogs" and not the Lord or Lady Jeffs- but with the new Nike uniforms we figured it wasn't worth fighting.
Poor Bobbo the equipment manager was a little more disgruntled, apparently he had just finished applying the old English days to the last helmets and had to scramble to make the last minute change before the season.

As an aside I think Bobbo had worked with the college for 20+ years and it seemed (just from my short experiences on other campuses) that many members of the athletic staffs remain at the colleges for long tenures. Stan Zieja has been with the training staff at Amherst for 20+ years as well. Something that I think may be unique to small college athletics.

[oldhamfan]

As an aside I think Bobbo had worked with the college for 20+ years and it seemed (just from my short experiences on other campuses) that many members of the athletic staffs remain at the colleges for long tenures. Stan Zieja has been with the training staff at Amherst for 20+ years as well. Something that I think may be unique to small college athletics.

Free college tuition for the staff's children may be one reason. And NESCAC schools have reciprocal agreements with each other for faculty (teach Math at Trinity, your son goes to Colby free), perhaps athletic staff as well.

[Gr8ful1]

William attendence...I would have thought there were much more than 600+ against Middlebury.  How do they count anyway since admission is free? In any event, I would be less frustrated with the turn out if those that did attend actually cheered.  Especially the student body!  Trinity had a couple dozen students on their side of the field and you could hear them loud and clear the whole game. Especially in the 4th qtr when then chanted, "this is our house". Ouch!  Come on boys and girls, we feed you for free, the least you could do is earn your burger.  Let the boys know it's a home game. New facitity should pipe in crowd noise    I kid on that one but seriously...it's pathetic.

Lastly, lighten up on the Ephs "D" or let me quote you next year when they are shutting down other teams!  Maybe gave myself away with this one

[lumbercat]

2 things-

Based on Frank's input I guess the attendence at many Williams Football games is indeed......pathetic. Could have fooled me as an eastern New Englander who hasn't been in Williamstown for 15 years. I stand corrected following my disbelief of the paltry attendence number last week. I don't mean to sound naive but I just assumed the support for Williams Football was consistent with the great success of their overall athletic program. My memories of a couple of visits there in the late 70's included big, vocal crowds in but I guess things change.

They had close to 3,000 this week at Bates for the Wesleyan game so the Williams info baffles me.

Also Frank- I have been to tailgates at the likes of Michigan State and USC where golf courses are committed to parking but they should never harm so much as a single blade of grass at beautiful Taconic and I'm sure they won't.

At the end of the day the "space race" continues.....following the Amherst stadium announcement how far behind could the Ephs be?

Early edge to Williams for not making their facility a Football-Track facility. I recently attended games in successive weeks at a facility with a track followed by a visit to Bates with no track for the Williams game and the difference is striking. So much closer to the action without the Track. There seemed to be a number of spectators at Bates preferring to stand around the perimeter of the field- can't enjoy those sight lines at a facility with a track especially in the end zones. Tough to find a top Football facility these days (other than high schools) with a track.

Believe Colby, Tufts, Bowdoin and Amherst are the only schools left in the NESCAC setting their Football stands set back behind tracks now that Williams is taking this step up.

[frank uible]

Since the 1950s Williams as an institution has become increasingly feminine, increasingly international, more scholarly, less social, more cooperative, less individualist - among other trends.

[lumbercat]

Frank- Sounds like a prototype for the prevailing NESCAC philosophy but kudos to Williams and their AD for preserving a piece of jock culture.....at the end of the day diversity includes jocks too!

[quicksilver]

Attendance at Amherst games is apparently as pathetic as attendance at Williams' games. When you are only drawing 600 or so to a game is a fancy new facility a wise investment?? Trinity does very well at the gate (4700 at the home opener) and Bates does well too (2300 and 2400 at its two home games) so attendance is not a NESCAC-wide problem.

[frank uible]

To paraphrase the late, great Jim Ostendarp - "we (Amherst football) are in the education business, not the entertainment business".

[frank uible]

Lumbercat: The advocates for diversity studiously avoid defining diversity - consequently it is not clear whether NESCAC style diversity includes athletics and athletes.

[nescac1]

I don't think Williams will ever have big attendance numbers for football outside of Trinity and homecoming games.  First of all, there are already 1-2 games which are big "events" per year, so alumni coming back to campus tend to congregate for those, and very, very few students will really ever have an interest in watching D-3 football on a consistent basis, especially when there are SO many competing events and obligations on a typical Saturday.  Remember, you are talking about 2000 students in a really small town, there just isn't a huge population out there to draw from.  Basketball games (especially vs. Amherst and NESCAC / NCAA games) will always be a bigger deal on campus.  Much easier to draw in winter, D-3 hoops is a lot more fun to watch for a casual fan, and the crowd can be a lot more involved packed into Chandler than dispersed at Weston Field.  I also think that banning students from bringing alcohol for tailgating SERIOUSLY diminished the interest in attending football games, that was really have the appeal for most in the first place.  If there has been a decline in attendance (and I've seen no evidence either way, so I'm not sure), that is without any doubt the primary contributor.  And, as Frank notes, demographic changes whereby Williams is a lot less prep-school centric, and more racially, geographically, and economically diverse. 

All that being said, I also think the abominable fan experience can't help.  The restrooms are disgusting and there is always a line, the tailgate area is often a mud-pit, the sight lines in the stadium, thanks to the track, stink, the food options are limited other than when there is a ton of tailgating, and as previously mentioned, students can't even bring booze to the tailgate area any more.  The last game I went to I brought a non-football-fan, who was decidedly unimpressed.  Most of that will be fixed with the stadium (there will also be the possibility of more events happening simultaneously, like down on Cole Field, which could further spur attendance).  There is just not a lot of reason / incentive for anyone save for hard core football fans and friends of the players to come out to what is currently a very uncomfortable complex.  I hope that, with a new state of the art stadium with better seating, site-lines, restrooms, and  just a more inviting environment overall, at least a few more students and townspeople will be interested in coming to the games.  I think that enclosing the stadium on three sides with a street on the fourth side may help also to make it feel louder, intimate, and a lot more energetic when the crowd is engaged.  Right now it's like a mediocre high-school field. 

[madzillagd]

Excuse my ignorance but as someone new to the conversation that hasn't even visited any of these places yet, I'm confused by the attendance conversation because to me this seems very straight forward.  Williamstown has a population of 8,000 that I'm assuming doesn't include the 2,000 students.  So within the area you're talking about 10,000 people total.  If you're able to draw the equivalent of 10% of the local population to your football game I would say you are doing pretty good.  If Trinity can pull in 100,000 to a football game I'd be pretty impressed.

[TheHerst2and4]

  Basketball games (especially vs. Amherst and NESCAC / NCAA games) will always be a bigger deal on campus.   

Agreed. However at Amherst we wouldn't draw for many of our non-top-tier-opponent/rival games. Especially on the weeknight/weekend day games.
I think part of it all is the social appeal of a Friday/Saturday night game. Its something to do in the dead hours before students go out. Also an excuse to get the pre-game festivities started earlier in the day.
With seemingly all the new fields installing lights, I'd love to see the first NESCAC night game. I think it will certainly increase attendance and probably help in recruiting.
I know tradition is a big factor here, but Harvard now plays 1-2 night games a year-and we all know if Harvard does it, it is cool.