Letter | CCU’s move to a larger conference is a big mistake
Coastal Carolina University is about to embark on an ill-planned conference move to the Sun Belt Conference.
Results of this move would include:
1) No more playoff and championship games in football. This will hurt recruiting in the football program in many ways: never being ranked in national polls and very limited (if any) national program exposure, just to mention two.
2) The football stadium must be enlarged by more than 100 percent. After building three new sports venues, they still have inadequate parking at all three. This could make it worse.
Where are they going to get 10,000 new fans to fill an expanded-20,000 seat stadium?
Last year, two games were listed as sold out. The closest new member team will be 225 miles away, in Georgia. The rest of the members come from Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana, New Mexico and Idaho.
Now, visiting fans come from Liberty, Gardner Webb and Charleston Southern. How many will venture from New Mexico, Idaho, Louisiana, Arkansas and Alabama? The visiting fan numbers will decrease not only in football but also for basketball, baseball and all other sports.
3) Wonder how will the Hotel-Motel Association and the Restaurant Association like the loss of income due to fewer visiting fans? Horry County Council might even wake up and notice less tax revenue after four or five years.
4) Who is going to pay for this enlarged stadium? CCU President Dave DeCenzo said students would not see any increase in fees. Therefore, the season ticket holders would be in line to pick up the load. Seniors and longtime ticket holders will be very happy about this.
5) Why were there no statements from head football coach Joe Moglia, who everyone knows is a very smart business man? All the other sports will still have the goal of playing for a berth in the NCAA tournaments and will be able to use that as a recruiting tool. Not football, unless you believe you will see CCU versus Alabama for the National Championship.
Expense of doubling the stadium from just under 10,000 seats to 20,000 seats? Who knows? Loss of travel numbers for all sports - unless you take a bus to Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, New Mexico and Louisiana every other year.
Bottom line: Coastal Carolina University is about to embark on a journey similar to the one the Titanic went on.
The writer lives in Murrells Inlet.
This story was originally published September 16, 2015 at 12:32 PM with the headline "Letter | CCU’s move to a larger conference is a big mistake."