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New Classification Like or NOT


Reilavac1
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Alt1958,

I think you are kind of off when you say that the travel will affect gates in a negative way. Imo you will still see big crowds in this new region because most of these schools travel well. Science Hill and Dobyns Bennett will always bring a big crowd and Maryville and Bearden usually bring good crowds. Then you have schools like WB and Jeff Co that usually bring a decent crowd despite a lack of success on the field in recent years. And I was @ maryville for the bradley playoff game and I thought ya'll had a pretty big crowd. If ya'll can keep Cleveland and Mcminn on the schedule ya'll should still be bringing in plenty of gate money. IMO travel doesn't affect crowds as much as people think. The schools that have good fan support are still going to travel well and the schools that don't are still going to bring mediocre crowds regardless of the distance.

Things may have changed a little in the last 2 years but before that Science Hill traveled with a sparse crowd for football games. If they can keep up their current winning ways it won't be too bad but a couple 6-4 and 5-5 seasons is all it will take for the bottom to drop out again.

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The biggest problem that confronts Bradley Central is travel and expense. Being in the Region 1 Super 32 makes for long road trips, since Bradley is located in the SE corner of the state and the closest teams to us are 75 miles + away. The only teams south of Knoxville are William Blount and Maryville, and those are roughly 80 miles each way. Then you get Jefferson County at close to 150 miles and Science Hill and Kingsport Dobyns-Bennett at almost 200.

 

I read where the TSSAA thinks that the big schools can absorb that cost, but not so fast. Travel depends on gate receipts. In 40 years of following Bradley, I can say I have made a lot of long distance road trips over that time. But when the distance is that great, it's not just 'hey it's Friday night, time to head for the game'.

 

Last Friday night Bradley made the trip up to Johnson City to play Science Hill, a projected foe in the region. That trip, with for an individual, takes between 3 and 4 hours to drive. According to what I heard Bradley had maybe 200 fans make that trip. Fans cannot always leave work in the middle of the afternoon, to make this trip. I don't expect Science Hill or Dobyns-Bennett to bring any more than that to Bradley for the same reasons.

 

Not only does it destroy many natural games where fans can make the trip after work, which means much more gate, it means probably reducing the gate from a few thousand to a few hundred with the gate receipts plumenting.

 

I know that teams visiting Bradley will bring fewer fans, and therefore less income. I know this will happen because of the experience in the 5 classification system where we were grouped in the Knoxville region and saw the reduction in fans traveling to Bradley. So we will be much more heavily dependent on the 3 possible rivalry games we can schedule locally to make enough money to cover it all, along with fundraisers.

 

Competition, we are not scared of. We showed that playing Maryville last year, and Science Hill this year in the playoffs, and scheduling Blackman and Riverdale regular season the last few years.

 

But can the program afford it?

Would dropping to 5A solve any issues? I know it is too late now but was that ever an option for Bradley Central? If they could have dropped a class would that have put them in a 5A region with less travel?

Edited by milo118
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Would dropping to 5A solve any issues? I know it is too late now but was that ever an option for Bradley Central? If they could have dropped a class would that have put them in a 5A region with less travel?

if bradley was in 5A they have 2 other schools(cleveland and Walker Valley) in the same county, and 2 schools(ooltewah and McMinn) less than 30 minutes away..so yeah it would be way less travel. Edited by clevelandblueraiderfan
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if bradley was in 5A they have 2 other schools(cleveland and Walker Valley) in the same county, and 2 schools(ooltewah and McMinn) less than 30 minutes away..so yeah it would be way less travel.[/

 

I wonder if they considered that option? It's a tough spot to be in having your hand forced on you like that. It will be interesting to see how all of this pans out for the rest of the state. I know in 7AAA we are rumored to be picking up coffee co, warren co, and cookeville and we have lost Lavergne and Stewarts Creek to 5A. Depending on where you are coming from it could be over an hour drive to all three locations. That is nothing compared to BC and I understand that. I am curious to see what falls out from the new alignment.

 

Maybe some scheduling options would help. I saw someone had mention saturday games or maybe moving the start time back to accomodate for more fans to travel to the games. It's a tough spot to be in. But big picture is this going to be a better situation for the whole and is BC just the line school that is getting a raw deal? Can't make everyone happy.

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Would dropping to 5A solve any issues? I know it is too late now but was that ever an option for Bradley Central? If they could have dropped a class would that have put them in a 5A region with less travel?

If Maryville hadn't of moved up to 6A, they could throw in a trip to Cookeville. Or they would make Region 2 have 9 teams and Region 1 7 teams.

Edited by Red Rebels
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Alt1958,

I think you are kind of off when you say that the travel will affect gates in a negative way. Imo you will still see big crowds in this new region because most of these schools travel well. Science Hill and Dobyns Bennett will always bring a big crowd and Maryville and Bearden usually bring good crowds. Then you have schools like WB and Jeff Co that usually bring a decent crowd despite a lack of success on the field in recent years. And I was @ maryville for the bradley playoff game and I thought ya'll had a pretty big crowd. If ya'll can keep Cleveland and Mcminn on the schedule ya'll should still be bringing in plenty of gate money. IMO travel doesn't affect crowds as much as people think. The schools that have good fan support are still going to travel well and the schools that don't are still going to bring mediocre crowds regardless of the distance.

 

 

Alt1958,

Just to put it in perspective for you most of the teams in WB's current region are within 30 minutes of us and the crowds have not been that great. This year we went down to LC which is right down Highway 321 from WB and LC didn't even fill up half of their homeside. I have seen that same thing at alot of our region games over the past couple of years. Personally i'm excited about the new region because most of the schools will bring a good crowd and provide a good atmosphere. When the season starts I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how well some of these schools travel. You might end up seeing bigger crowds than you have been seeing.

 

 

We were in the Knoxvile region when we had the 5 classifications. And one of my friends was president of the booster club then too. Unfurtunately the gate dropped during the time we played Oak Ridge, WB, Heritage and Farragut, compared to the teams we have played recently. in our natural region. We know from experience.

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We were in the Knoxvile region when we had the 5 classifications. And one of my friends was president of the booster club then too. Unfurtunately the gate dropped during the time we played Oak Ridge, WB, Heritage and Farragut, compared to the teams we have played recently. in our natural region. We know from experience.

Well Farragut and Heritage don't have good fan support. But Maryville, Bearden, William Blount, Dobyns Bennett,and Science Hill do. You are still going to see games with good gates. Plus you guys will prolly keep a few local teams for non-conference games so you will get good gates at those games as well. I know WB is keeping Heritage and adding Alcoa on the schedule to off-set the travel expenses, both of those games will bring good gates. I think people are freaking out too soon... We need to wait and see how things play out. It may turn out that the new system works out for most schools. I personally think it will be better than most think it will.
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Alt,

You also have to remember that Bradley Central was terrible back then, no offense. So that may have been a big part of the reason you weren't seeing crowds at Bradley games. But ya'll are competitive now and teams that are winning will always attract bigger crowds.

Edited by Governors91
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