Both sides of Virginia's ticket mess
By Jerry Ratcliffe / jratcliffe@dailyprogress.com | 978-7251
December 14, 2007

Virginia football fans have always hated being tagged as “the bunch that doesn’t travel well” by bowl committees.

To borrow a phrase from the leader of the Cavaliers’ program, it is what it is. With 9,200 Gator Bowl tickets having been purchased by Wahoos as of Thursday, what does it say about the Virginia fan base?

The school was given an allotment of 13,500 and coach Al Groh said anything less than 30,000 UVa fans in Jacksonville on New Year’s Day would be a disappointment. What a bummer that’s gonna be.

Extreme measures

Things got so bad earlier this week that Virginia Director of Athletics Craig Littlepage essentially issued a plea to the fans to buy tickets. You know it’s a desperate situation when UVa’s online ticket office establishes a spot for Gator Bowl proxy ticket donations.

While donating a ticket to the Jacksonville Children’s Commission, giving area youth a chance to go to the Gator Bowl, is admirable, what does it say about Virginia’s following?

My memory may be a little fuzzy, but it seems like this is a repeat of the Cavaliers’ last visit to the Gator in 1991 when the team’s performance on the field (48-14 loss to Oklahoma) was as pathetic as the fan’s support (proxy tickets were sold then, too). No wonder Virginia had not been invited back to Jacksonville since.

Bowl games don’t want proxy tickets sold (although they’re better than no tickets sold), they want fannies in the seats. More so, they want fannies in the hotels and restaurants.

Why do you think Clemson, Virginia Tech and Florida State are the favorites of bowl committees?

Before you jump to the conclusion that, “OK, here’s another wiseguy sports writer taking a shot at the fans,” stop. It’s understood that there’s a very loyal group of Wahoos that will go to the game and another group that can’t because of a conflict or for financial reasons.

Other than that, however, some of the excuses seem lame and just a cop out.

A history of relegation

Before we explain why we’ve come to that point, let’s rewind to 2002. I remember all the whining and complaining by Virginia fans that they were shafted by the bowl process.

The Cavaliers were 6-2 and tied with Maryland for second place in the league standings. The Terps went to the Peach Bowl, and N.C. State (which was 5-3) went to the Gator Bowl. Meanwhile, Virginia was sent to the Continental Tire Bowl, which turned out to be a good deal for the program, but didn’t stop the perception that bowls were out to get the Wahoos.

In ’03, Virginia and N.C. State were 4-4 in the league. The Wolfpack went to the Tangerine (now Champs Sports) and the Cavs went back to Charlotte. More complaining.

In ’04, UVa finished in a three-way tie for third place in the ACC (a year before divisional play) and was shipped to Boise with an 8-3 record.

There are more examples, but you get the point.

Now that Virginia gets an invitation to the Gator Bowl, a New Year’s Day bowl, which all the fans have clamored for, it can’t sell its allotment? That’s embarrassing and sets the program’s perception back 10 years in the eyes of bowl committees everywhere.

It was bad enough that only 4,900 showed up in Nashville a couple of years ago. But to not sell 13,000 for a New Year’s Day bowl?

There’s clearly two sides to this lack of interest story and we’re going to present both of them (to vote in our poll, go to www.dailyprogress.com and follow prompts to the Cavalier Insider). Certainly, this columnist would like to get your feedback, although many have e-mailed in already.

Here’s what many of you are saying:

The trip to Jacksonville is too expensive. The bowl packages are too high in terms of airfare and hotel rooms and that UVa should have done something to make it less costly for fans to make the trip.

A segment of fans that describe themselves as the “lunch pail” crowd or the “middle income Wahoo Nation,” explain that because they have paid through the nose to buy seats at John Paul Jones Arena and will pay higher prices again in the Scott Stadium reseating plan, that spending thousands of dollars on a bowl trip to Jacksonville is unreasonable.

Economically, most of us could sympathize with those reasons for not making the trip. These are hard times for many folks.

Then there’s one guy whose 30th wedding anniversary falls that weekend and doesn’t feel that his wife would consider Jacksonville a worthy romantic substitution.

You sir, are excused. However, if you’ve never cruised the lovely St. John’s River when the fog rolls in ...

Most of the ire directed from fans is coming from perhaps the most unpopular decision by Virginia’s athletic department and Virginia Athletic Foundation in many a moon: the reseating of Scott Stadium.

It has been a controversial topic ever since UVa announced it prior to last football season. Fans are furious about the new policy and are venting their frustration by boycotting the bowl.

While this columnist can certainly understand their frustration, why wait until now to express their disdain? Shouldn’t that have been done this past season by not showing up at games (obviously some did)?

It probably didn’t help that Virginia mailed out its new season-ticket packets this past week. Bad timing.

One fan, who has had 25-yard line seats on the second deck (faculty/staff) for eight seasons, said those seats have been moved to a corner, high up in the end zone. He said he can’t afford to give more to keep those seats.

That is a common theme. One couple in Northern Virginia, which has been loyal for more than 40 years and live on a fixed income, cannot afford to keep the seats they’ve had for decades.

There’s a ton of people steamed over the reseating issue, which is always a difficult scenario for fans and schools.

However, what if you look at the uncomfortable situation from Virginia’s point of view.

Clearly, the school knows it has asked a lot from its fans in the past few years. It has stretched its fan base to the limit.

Yet, the athletic department’s budget has grown from around $32 million in 2001 to $54 million and there are limited (key word) revenue streams. The school has no choice but to keep knocking on donors’ doors.

Seemingly, UVa fans are fairly satisfied with the results of the many athletic programs the school fields. Most of the sports are winning and advancing to the postseason, producing all-conference or All-American athletes.

The football team, for example, has bounced back with a 9-3 record and has a chance for a rare 10-win season. UVa football graduates its players and hasn’t had many off-the-field issues in years. It has produced players such as Chris Long, who is as good a representative of the university as any student.

Isn’t that what fans want? That’s the kind of feedback I have received over the years. Fans want to win, but at the same time, want to be proud of the student-athletes rather than see their mug shots from jail.

Progress doesn’t come cheap, nor do the costs of retaining quality coaches or facilities or fully funding scholarships.

What should Virginia do in order to continue the progress? Without the money, UVa will not sustain this level of success. We’re assuming that going backward is unacceptable to the same fans that are upset about the reseating.

We can see both sides of the story. Some fans perceive Virginia as a money-grubbing institution that doesn’t care about fan loyalty. The school wants to operate a first-class athletic program, but it doesn’t come cheap.

What is the answer, or is there an answer, that will satisfy each side? Meanwhile, is it fair to this particular football team to not have fan support for its biggest bowl game in nearly a decade?

Let us know your thoughts at the e-mail address that follows.

 

Cavs pluck TE from Hokie hotbed
Highland Springs' Wheeler becomes Virginia's 16th commitment
By Jay Jenkins / jjenkins@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
December 13, 2007

Rod Wheeler is hopeful he’s starting a tradition.

On Wednesday, Wheeler, a 6-foot-4, 240-pound tight end from Highland Springs, became the 16th player to verbally commit to Virginia’s football program for the Class of 2008.

It has been public perception for the past decade that Highland Springs, which is located 10 miles from Richmond, has been a launching pad for Virginia Tech.

“That’s what they say,” Wheeler admitted. “All the defensive guys seem to go there.

“I guess I am trying to start something [for the offensive players].”

The recruiting process for Wheeler has intensified of late. In fact, the Cavaliers’ scholarship offer did not arrive until earlier this month.

Wheeler, who boasted offers from Syracuse, Richmond and William & Mary, could have gambled by waiting on additional offers from Connecticut or North Carolina. Both, he felt, would have presented scholarships had he made official visits.

But after a private meeting with Virginia coach Al Groh two weeks ago and discussions with offensive coordinator Mike Groh during an in-home visit earlier this week, Wheeler knew his decision.

“I liked how they said they would use me, and how Coach [Al] Groh carried himself … he was just so laid back,” Wheeler said. “The atmosphere there was perfect.

“I am going to sleep a lot easier now. I found myself a nice home that I can see myself at. I feel real good about it.”

The lack of greater attention for Wheeler, who caught 35 passes for 487 yards and five touchdowns, was explainable, Highland Springs coach Scott Burton said.

“He played injured this year. He had a slight tear in a muscle in his hip,” Burton explained, while pointing out that Wheeler was not cleared until about five days before the season opener.

“He was a three-year starter for us so people knew about him, but by the same token we spread the ball around so much. He wasn’t a guy that you could turn junior film on and say, ‘Well jeeze, he caught 30 balls so let’s see him now.’ You couldn’t do that with him. He may have caught 15 or 20 passes last year and he was about 220 pounds; and as a tight end at 220, I’m not sure he was on the radar screen for a whole lot of folks.”

In Highland Springs’ balanced offense, Wheeler spent most of his successful senior season at wideout.

“We are a spread offense, so he was typically lined up as the No. 1 receiver, meaning a wide guy,” Burton said. “Only when we were in two-tight end sets or a one-tight end set did he play tight end.

“He probably lined up as a tight end with his hand in the dirt maybe 20 percent of the downs, and he was split out wide the other 80 percent.”

His performance at tight end, as limited as it was, still earned Wheeler a spot on the Capital District’s first team and Central Region’s second team.

While landing a player from Highland Springs would appear on the surface as a measure to repair the relationship between the high school and Virginia, Burton said the Cavaliers’ coaching staff gets much more than that in Wheeler.

“Rod is a pleasure to have around,” the coach said. “He is a quiet kid, but a kid that our kids have always really, really responded to and looked up to.

“He has a lot of natural leadership qualities. He is just a guy that shows up to work every day, puts his time in and speaks when he needs to speak. We are very proud of him, and the folks at UVa will quickly learn that they got a real good one.”

Playing at Highland Springs, a school that produced Victory “Macho” Harris (Virginia Tech), Jarell Miller (UConn), C.J. Fleming (Tennessee) and others of late, should help in Wheeler’s transition.

“Shoot, that’s something that we are very proud of,” Burton said of producing Division I-A talent. “Sometimes it’s a dual-edged sword, because they think that because guys before them have moved onto the Division I level that it’s easy, and it’s certainly not easy. But by the same token they also, hopefully, learned from some of the guys what it’s like to go on.

“I would much rather have it the way that we have it than the opposite way and not have anybody going to school [to play football]. That’s a good problem to have and I don’t mean to complain.”

Burton is also optimistic that Wheeler’s commitment to Virginia will erase the in-state misconceptions about his program.

“I think that the UVa fan base, and even the Virginia Tech fan base, is falsely in the mindset that Highland Springs and Virginia Tech are joined at the hip somehow, and that’s just not the case,” said Burton, who led the team to a 10-1 record in his ninth season.

“UVa has recruited our school for a long time, but in my tenure here Rod is the fifth kid that they’ve offered, so they have missed out on four and got one.

“On the flip side, Virginia Tech has a great reputation on the defensive side of the ball. That’s not to say that Virginia doesn’t, but Virginia Tech has a great reputation on the defensive side of the ball and our kids at Virginia Tech are all playing defense. You certainly can’t fault them for going to play for one of the best defenses in the country, just like you can’t fault Rod for going to play at a place that’s becoming known as ‘Tight End U.’ If you are a tight end, what better place to go and play than UVa?”

Virginia’s coaching staff used current Cavalier tight end Tom Santi as an example of how they would like to employ Wheeler in the offense. Santi, a senior, enters the Gator Bowl on New Year’s Day with 94 career catches for 1,168 yards and six touchdowns.

“Obviously Rod looked at the situation and said, ‘Where better than UVa?’” Burton said. “It is kind of a no-brainer for him.”

 

Charlotte will have to wait a few years for ACC title game
By Jerry Ratcliffe / jratcliffe@dailyprogress.com | 978-7251
December 13, 2007

This columnist has always believed that the ACC Football Championship game should be played in Charlotte, N.C., and now we’re two years away from that move coming to fruition.

But first we’re going to have to go through the Tampa, Fla., experiment as the league announced Wednesday that it had awarded the title game to that city for 2008 and 2009. Charlotte will get the game in 2010 and 2011.

After hosting the ACC Championship for the past three years, the conference bid adieu to Jacksonville, Fla., leaving that city wondering what it did wrong. Truth is, Jacksonville didn’t really do anything wrong.

Not quite ACC country

It’s an SEC city as is most of the state of Florida. Fans around Jacksonville root for the Gators and maybe a few Bulldogs. After all, it annually hosts the world’s largest outdoor cocktail party when Florida and Georgia get together.

It’s just not an ACC town and the majority of football fans just never really got caught up in the championship game. When Georgia Tech and Wake Forest meet for the title, followed the next year by Virginia Tech vs. Boston College, well there’s just not going to be a whole lot of fans (other than Hokies) showing up that far from home.

That, my friends, beckons the question, “Then why move it even farther away to Tampa?”

We’ll get to that in a minute.

Not too many options

When the ACC expanded to 12 teams in order to gain permission from the NCAA to have a championship game, the league was kind of between a rock and a hard place. The best place on the East Coast to have the championship - Atlanta’s Georgia Dome - was already taken.

The city of Atlanta, also largely an SEC town, hosts the SEC Championship and wasn’t about to share that venue with anyone else.

That left the ACC with trying to find a solid site. Other than Atlanta, the only other ACC states that boast neutral site stadiums of note were Florida (Jacksonville, Miami, Orlando and Tampa) and North Carolina (Charlotte).

Some northern sites made bids, too. FedEx Field in Landover, Md., and points north were considered, but the weather was an ominous factor. Besides, how many fans in those areas would come out and watch just any ACC teams play if they didn’t have a dog in the hunt?

Charlotte was the best geographical site, but the weather again came into play. The weather is great in Florida, but it’s so far away.

Not bad if you’re Florida State playing Miami, which is probably what the league poo-bahs imagined when they put this whole thing together. But FSU has been in it only once and Miami hasn’t smelled the title game.

When the Seminoles met Virginia Tech in the inaugural ACC Championship three years ago, the game drew 72,749 from two of the league’s strongest fan bases. Wake-Georgia Tech, two of the smaller bases, drew 62,850 the next year, while BC-Virginia Tech (one small base, one strong) brought in 53,212 a few weeks ago and most of those were Hokies. Boston College sold 3,500 tickets, one reason that Virginia was more attractive than BC to the Gator Bowl, but that’s another column this week.

However, will Tampa do any better? It’s farther away and it’s not as if the ACC is like the SEC.

The SEC is jammed with football-crazed schools, mostly huge public universities. That’s why there has never been fewer than 71,000 fans at the SEC title game in 16 years. In most seasons, the Georgia Dome could probably fill 100,000 seats if they were available.

The ACC has long been known as a basketball conference as the league’s hoops tournament offers plenty of evidence as to why. If you boil it down to how many ACC schools follow their football programs in the same style as the SEC, and you’re probably talking about less than a handful: Florida State, Clemson, Virginia Tech. Well, maybe less than a handful.

The ACC has several small private schools and another that thinks it is - Virginia.

So, whatever city hosts the ACC game has to accept certain facts. That’s one reason Jacksonville lost out and the league decided to give other cities their shot. After the 2011 season, the ACC can look back on seven years of history and make a decision about where the best home for the game should be.

The smart money is on Charlotte, as long as we don’t have an ice storm the first Saturday of December. Too bad Charlotte doesn’t have a dome, because then it would be perfect.

Seven of the 12 ACC cities are within a three-hour drive of Charlotte and another is within 300 miles. Meanwhile, only Florida State is within a three-hour drive of Jacksonville and even Seminole fans will have to drive four hours from Tallahassee to Tampa. Outside of the two Florida schools, the closest drive from any ACC school to Tampa is Georgia Tech at 6 hours, 51 minutes.

ACC commish John Swofford said Wednesday that he and the 12 league ADs and 12 faculty reps, who unanimously approved the two-year deals with Tampa and Charlotte, are looking for “the perfect mix.”

Translated, they’re looking for a mix of local ticket sales to go with the sales from the two championship schools. Obviously, that’s what Jacksonville was missing.

“We’re not in the blame game,” Swofford said. “It is what it is. We had one superb year in the inaugural game and the next two were not what we would have hoped for. As much as anything, we’re looking for situations that give us the best opportunity regardless of who is playing [in the title game] because we have a mix of public and private institutions that stretch from Boston to Miami.”

What I remember from the first ACC championship game was running into one of the big bowl directors, who was there to scout out the scenario. He had been jogging near “The Landing,” a gathering spot for fans not too far from the stadium in Jacksonville.

There were Hokies everywhere one glanced. Most of the FSU fans either hadn’t arrived by midday of the game or were in hiding.

The bowl exec said, “Thank goodness for Virginia Tech ... can you imagine what Georgia Tech and Maryland would be like?”

Tampa has bent over backward in attempting to please the ACC, which has conducted its baseball and basketball tournaments there. I never really thought the ACC Basketball Tournament would work there until I saw it ... even though it seemed so strange to have a luxury liner docked across the street from an arena surrounded by palm trees. Toto, this wasn’t stark Greensboro in early March.

But the Charlotte guy, Tim Newman (CEO of the Charlotte Regional Visitor’s Authority) had it right on Wednesday when he told us one of the major reasons his city is the right fit.

“The amount of attention the ACC receives in the Charlotte media and the fan following in the region,” Newman said. He didn’t need to say more. He knocked it out of the park on the first pitch.

Tampa will make the next two years an incredible experience for the teams and the fans that show up. But it’s still nearly a 12-hour drive from Blacksburg, 14 from Charlottesville, even nearly nine from Clemson.

My guess is that had it not been for the American College of Technical Educators convention, which has pretty much booked the entire downtown Charlotte area and convention center for the first weekend in December in 2008, that the Queen City may have been given a three-year deal.

But the conflict was too much to overcome. There was simply no room in the inn.

That won’t be the case in 2010 once that area of downtown Charlotte expands with hotels, restaurants, night life and the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Once the ACC goes to Charlotte, here’s one vote for leaving it there. Who cares if it’s a little chilly.

Hey, they play football in Green Bay, Chicago, Buffalo and Boston outdoors in December. It’s not a game for namby-pambies.

 

Wheeler finds fit at U.Va.
Springers TE sees opportunities within Cavaliers' offense
Thursday, Dec 13, 2007 - 12:07 AM Updated: 09:16 AM
By JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

Few football teams feature their tight ends as much as the University of Virginia. That's one reason the Cavaliers appealed to Highland Springs High senior Roderick Wheeler.

"They have a blueprint for a guy like Rod," Springers coach Scott Burton said. "It's not like they're just speculating about how they'd use him."

Wheeler, a 6-3, 240-pound tight end, committed yesterday to U.Va. He'll be joining a program whose top players at that position - seniors Tom Santi and Jonathan Stupar and junior John Phillips - have combined to catch 87 passes for 939 yards and six touchdowns this season.

"I felt like that was the perfect fit for me," said Wheeler, a three-year starter for perennial power Highland Springs. "They said I'm like a Tom Santi-type."

As part of a spread offense that included a 1,000-yard rusher and two other players who had at least 30 catches, Wheeler had 35 receptions for 482 yards and five TDs in 10 games this season. He was named to the all-Central Region second team.

"He never has gotten the ball a ton, just because we've had so many weapons," Burton said.

Syracuse and Connecticut also offered Wheeler scholarships, Burton said, as well as Richmond and William and Mary. Offensive coordinator Mike Groh led Virginia's recruitment of Wheeler.

Wheeler, 17, is U.Va.'s first recruit from Highland Springs since linebacker R.C. Cosby, who signed in 1999 to play for then-coach George Welsh. In recent years, many Springers have landed at Virginia Tech, but the Hokies didn't show serious interest in him, Wheeler said.

His father, Rod Wheeler, was an All-Metro basketball player at Highland Springs and later started for Virginia Tech. The younger Wheeler doesn't play hoops.

"I left that to my pops," he said with a laugh.

Wheeler is the 16th player to commit to U.Va. for 2008. He and Klinton Ruff, a defensive lineman from Norfolk's Norview High, are the only Virginians in Cavaliers coach Al Groh's recruiting class.