NYT Off Base on Memorial Field Change

Today's New York Times has a story suggesting that Stanford is reducing the capacity of its football stadium in part to make tickets harder to get. The story says:

The idea ... is that shrinking the supply of seats — to 50,000 from about 85,000 — will make people buy more season tickets. That way, they can be sure they can attend the games they want, like hugely popular rivalry games against the University of California.

Unbelievably, the NYT tries to establish a parallel with the downsizing of Dartmouth's Memorial Field. That's simply not the case. Dartmouth is cutting the capacity at Memorial Field for two reasons and neither has to do with making tickets harder to get. The visiting stands had to be reduced to make room for the new varsity house. And the enormous bank of east stands simply aren't needed anymore. Will they sell more season tickets so people can get in to the Harvard game? I don't think so and I don't think they would want to for a simple reason: The seats owned by the season ticket holders would be sold -- but largely empty -- for the rest of the season. ...

As an aside, in some situations the strategy can work on a limited basis. When the North Carolina men's basketball team (yes that North Carolina) visited 2,100-seat Leede Arena a few years ago, I interviewed people from Maine who bought Dartmouth season tickets simply to get through the door that night. It was the only Dartmouth game they attended all year. Another aside: If you want a laugh sometime, ask me about my relationship with North Carolina Coach Dean Smith. Suffice it to say we're not on each other's Christmas card list. But I digress. ...

... Jay Fiedler closing out his career back in New England with the Patriots? It could happen according to a writer with Patriots Football Weekly who said:

Belichick has spoken very highly of Fiedler in the past so I don’t think it’s a stretch to see him as Brady’s backup next season.

Stewart Mandel of Sports Illustrated's Inside College Football has a provocative story on Texas quarterback Vince Young and what he thinks should be made of his abysmal score on the Wonderlic test. ... Dartmouth alums in particular might be interested in a story in The Dartmouth that Thayer Dining Hall's days are numbered. It's slated to be razed by 2010.