College Football Penn St/UCF Game confirmed 2014 in Croker

BKWDR · 09-07-2013 2:37pm

I'd say if they marketed it correctly they would easily be able to open the upper tiers (that's if they americans travel)

The Notre Dame / Navy game, in fairness i didn't hear or see ANY marketing for it at all...im not saying there wasn't any but it wasn't mainstream as far as i'm concerned.
Ticket pricing will be key too i think

themont85 · 10-07-2013 6:14pm

Croke Park is far far too big capacity wise and distance wise BUT;

I think you are underestimating Penn a bit. They would have a huge Irish fanbase (not as big as ND but big enough). And their Bowl ban means that their support will be looking at other ways to get out and support their team. The worry is the short time frame but I still think they will bring a decent number.

Now a smart thing for this game to have been tied into the Steelers in London this year so the crossover support could have made a good week out of it. Even if this was like the ND game this year and was the first week of the season you could have brought over the Steelers for their final pre season game and played a Florida NFL team or the Eagles the Wed or Thursday before the Saturday.

BaronVon · 10-07-2013 11:39pm

Penn State website all but confirms the game in Croker, the date seems to be an issue...

TO. · 11-07-2013 10:59am

infacteh wrote: »

Penn State website all but confirms the game in Croker, the date seems to be an issue...

Whats weird is up until May of this year Penn State had a few dates open and they were both in October 2014. This is their official schedule as it stands:

2014 Penn State Football Schedule

Aug. 30 - TEMPLE
Sept. 6 - AKRON
Sept. 13 at *Rutgers
Sept. 20 UMass
Sept. 27 - Northwestern
Oct. 11 at *Michigan
Oct. 25 *Ohio State
Nov. 1 *Maryland
Nov. 8 - at *Indiana
Nov. 22 at Illinois
Nov. 29 - *Michigan State

Going to have to re-shuffle somewhere to make it happen.

TO. · 11-07-2013 11:04am

Just found a good article talking about it:

http://www.fbschedules.com/2013/07/report-penn-state-ucf-play-at-croke-park-2014/

The Penn State Nittany Lions and the UCF Knights will face off at Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland in 2014, according to a report today by The Irish Times.

Croke Park is to host an American football colleges fixture in the autumn of next year.

Details are expected in the next few days of the meeting of Penn State and the University of Central Florida.

Back in February, Penn State head coach Bill O’Brien said that they were looking into playing a future football game in Ireland.

“We are definitely looking into playing in Ireland, no question about it,” O’Brien said. “We’re working on an opponent and we’re working with the Big Ten on that. So that’s something that’s definitely in the works.”

Then in May, it was reported by The Orlando Sentinel that Penn State was close to finalizing the overseas game against the UCF Knights.

Penn State has two open dates on their 2014 football schedule – Oct. 4 and Oct. 18. However, it’s unlikely the game in Ireland will be played on either of those dates because they precede games against Michigan and Ohio State.

More than likely, the game will be the season-opener for both schools, which also means that previously scheduled non-conference games will have to be moved or postponed.

Penn State is currently slated to open the 2014 season at home vs. Temple on Aug. 30, while UCF is set to host Florida International on the same date.

Croke Park is the home of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). Sports played at the stadium include hurling, camogie, Gaelic football, handball, and rounders.

The last American football game played at Croke Park was on July 27, 1997 between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Chicago Bears of the NFL. Notre Dame and Navy met at Croke Park in the Shamrock Classic in 1996.

Neil3030 · 11-07-2013 11:13am

Thread title changed per OP request.

Gweedling · 11-07-2013 10:37pm

Handball and rounders in croker? jaysus.

Madworld · 13-07-2013 2:10am

Not too excited about UCF.

However if there is any truth to this article, then this would be phenomenal.

http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2013/7/9/4507706/alabama-notre-dame-could-play-future-fixtures-in-ireland

jack presley · 13-07-2013 7:57am

The problem with the likes of Alabama is that it would more than likely be one of their non conference games and SEC teams usually pick walk overs for those games so the opposition would be very poor.

Guffy · 13-07-2013 4:00pm

What's the whole game fixture thing about?

ko4jm6y9iwv2lc · 13-07-2013 5:06pm

Tickets on sale now on Ticketmaster, priced from €20-€125, .

TO. · 13-07-2013 5:41pm

Milan Raspy Kilt wrote: »

Tickets on sale now on Ticketmaster, priced from €20-€125, .

Testing the waters it seems only a few sections on sale

http://www.ticketmaster.ie/penn-state-nittany-lions-v-ucf-dublin-08-30-2014/event/18004AEA9B082097?artistid=836126&majorcatid=10004&minorcatid=102

jack presley · 13-07-2013 5:46pm

TO. wrote: »

Testing the waters it seems only a few sections on sale

http://www.ticketmaster.ie/penn-state-nittany-lions-v-ucf-dublin-08-30-2014/event/18004AEA9B082097?artistid=836126&majorcatid=10004&minorcatid=102

I don't fancy going to a game starting at a minute to midnight...!!!

padraig_f · 13-07-2013 6:49pm

I'd have gone for the Aviva again after the success of last year's game, but maybe there was other interests involved.

Don't like to be negative, but I think this one has the potential to be much less successful than last year's game. Last year there was what, 35,000 Americans over, so less than 15,000 who attended the game were Irish. Now you have presumably much less Americans travelling over, a bigger stadium, less recognisable teams.

Also I think the interest in college football here is pretty small, even compared to NFL, which itself is a minority interest. I think there was a bit of a novelty factor to last year's game, and the fact that there was so many Americans travelling over, you knew it was going to be a bit of an event. I'm not sure the genuine interest is there from Irish people for following college football in large numbers.

Hope I'm wrong, but I'll be fairly surprised if this game is a success like last year's was.

eagle eye · 14-07-2013 3:30am

Penn State have one of the biggest weekly attendances of any team in any sport in the world. I cannot imagine that the stadium will not be full for this.

SantryRed · 14-07-2013 4:43am

eagle eye wrote: »

Penn State have one of the biggest weekly attendances of any team in any sport in the world. I cannot imagine that the stadium will not be full for this.

wtf does that have to do with a game in Ireland though? Not a chance it'll be full. Not even close.

padraig_f · 14-07-2013 1:31pm

eagle eye wrote: »

Penn State have one of the biggest weekly attendances of any team in any sport in the world. I cannot imagine that the stadium will not be full for this.

Just checking some of Penn State's road attendances from last year, not many sell-outs. In November they travelled to Purdue, a conference rival.

Attendance: 40,098
Capacity of Ross-Ade stadium: 62,500
Distance: 500 miles

For comparison, the previous Purdue home game vs. Wisconsin had an attendance of 46,000. The subsequent Purdue home game vs. Indiana had an attendance of 42,600.

Now you have a non-conference game against UCF, where you have to book trans-atlantic flights, several days accommodation, time off work, and you're predicting an 80,000 sell-out? That's not realistic.

Article on how attendances have fallen at Penn state consecutively for the last five years:
With 10,000 empty seats, Penn State takes another look at STEP program

A number of reasons like NCAA sanctions, but a big one is cost of tickets.

What does a trans-atlantic flight plus accomodation run to? You're looking at a starting point of several thousand dollars per-person. You have to be realistic, you can't just put on a game half-way around the world, and expect people to attend.

BaronVon · 14-07-2013 2:06pm

Milan Raspy Kilt wrote: »

Tickets on sale now on Ticketmaster, priced from €20-€125, .

That was quick!

Anyone buying any yet?

HigginsJ · 14-07-2013 2:54pm

Think I'm going to buy when I get paid at the end of the month. Lower tier of the Davin stand €40e

kingcobra · 14-07-2013 5:23pm

If I was to give someone my most preferred college team it'd be UCF solely because I've been to Orlando a few times so it's perfect for me to see them in Ireland

Lower tier tickets aren't too expensive either so it's something that I'd have to see!

jack presley · 14-07-2013 6:17pm

This was on the UCF press release, anyone have any memories of the Limerick and Galway games?

Regular-Season Games Played in Ireland
1988 - Boston College 38, Army 24 - Dublin - Attendance: 45,525
1989 - Pittsburgh 46, Rutgers 29 - Dublin - Attendance: 19,800
1991 - Holy Cross 24, Fordham 19 - Limerick - Attendance: 17,411
1992 - Bowdoin 7, Tufts 6 - Galway - Attendance: 2,500
1996 - Notre Dame 54, Navy 27 - Dublin - Attendance: 38,651
2012 - John Carroll 40, St. Norbert 3 - Dublin - Attendance: 4,877
2012 - Notre Dame 50, Navy 10 - Dublin - Attendance: 48,820

jvrk · 14-07-2013 7:58pm

Tickets bought not making the same mistake as the Navy Notre Dame game by waiting to buy them.

decies · 14-07-2013 11:39pm

Such negativity on this thread . Cheer up the lot of ye lol.

bobby wade · 15-07-2013 1:02pm

jack presley wrote: »

This was on the UCF press release, anyone have any memories of the Limerick and Galway games?

Regular-Season Games Played in Ireland
1988 - Boston College 38, Army 24 - Dublin - Attendance: 45,525
1989 - Pittsburgh 46, Rutgers 29 - Dublin - Attendance: 19,800
1991 - Holy Cross 24, Fordham 19 - Limerick - Attendance: 17,411
1992 - Bowdoin 7, Tufts 6 - Galway - Attendance: 2,500
1996 - Notre Dame 54, Navy 27 - Dublin - Attendance: 38,651
2012 - John Carroll 40, St. Norbert 3 - Dublin - Attendance: 4,877
2012 - Notre Dame 50, Navy 10 - Dublin - Attendance: 48,820

Have a programme from Fordham/Holy Cross game
Nespaper clipping from Bowdoin Tufts

Son Of A Vidic · 15-07-2013 1:40pm

I couldn't give a flying shít whether the stadium is packed or not tbh. I'll be going and that's all I care about. If any of you guys are interested in a Boards.ie get together thingy for the game, then count me in.

padraig_f · 15-07-2013 3:13pm

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

I couldn't give a flying shít whether the stadium is packed or not tbh. I'll be going and that's all I care about. If any of you guys are interested in a Boards.ie get together thingy for the game, then count me in.

Just kind of begs the question, if the fans of the team don't travel in large numbers, and the game doesn't attract sufficient local interest, what's the point of playing the game here? You're never going to grow a popular international following for college football, it's by it's nature a parochial thing, related to students & alumni of the university. As a relative one-off event, like last year, fine. As a more regular thing, I don't quite get the point of it.

What I would've done would be to try and parlay the success of last year's game into an NFL game, which would have a much broader appeal (and has more scope for international growth).

Anyway, I suppose the numbers who attend will tell if it's worthwhile or not.

Adamcp898 · 15-07-2013 3:28pm

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

I couldn't give a flying shít whether the stadium is packed or not tbh. I'll be going and that's all I care about. If any of you guys are interested in a Boards.ie get together thingy for the game, then count me in.

My criticism of having it in a larger stadium and the likelihood of it being half empty as opposed to having it in a near capacity smaller one is that when teams see how low the turnout is they'll be turned off from having another game here and so we won't see one for another 10/15 years.

If we want regular games we'll have to look as attractive as possible and make these games look like they've been big hits as opposed to pictures of a full tier of seating closed and plenty of visible empty seats in the rest.

SantryRed · 15-07-2013 3:32pm

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

I couldn't give a flying shít whether the stadium is packed or not tbh. I'll be going and that's all I care about. If any of you guys are interested in a Boards.ie get together thingy for the game, then count me in.

Well when it's as much as a disaster attendance wise as it will be, there won't be more games coming back here.

jack presley · 15-07-2013 3:32pm

I don't know for sure but I get the impression that this is been driven (on the Irish side anyway) by the GAA so it's always going to be on in Croke Park. It's not like some promoter who wants to put on the game on chose it over Landsdowne.

Adamcp898 · 15-07-2013 3:38pm

jack presley wrote: »

I don't know for sure but I get the impression that this is been driven (on the Irish side anyway) by the GAA so it's always going to be on in Croke Park. It's not like some promoter who wants to put on the game on chose it over Landsdowne.

Surely a team would draw up its own shortlist of possible venues and then factor in all the variables before making its decision.

Unless of course some promotor/the GAA have offered to pay them a flat fee regardless of attendance to play the game here and hope they can make some money out of it after seeing last years. Problem is they won't make a cent and will have ruined it for everybody.

College Football Penn St/UCF Game confirmed 2014 in Croker

Comments