Sigh.
The day I’ve been fearing for months has finally arrived. Independence Air has announced it is ceasing operations effective Thursday night, Jan. 5.
This might not mean much to most of you readers, but Independence’s hub was at Washington Dulles airport (IAD for you travel geeks) and quickly became a favorite of mine because it offered cheap flights to a good number of places where Division III schools are located. I took six flights on Indepdence in the past 15 months, and sent Keith McMillan places via Independence on a few other occasions.
We’ve enjoyed the convenience, the service and the price, which enabled us to be at games like Capital/Wittenberg and the Cortaca Jug last year and Wheaton/North Central, UW-Eau Claire/UW-Whitewater, Amherst/Trinity (Conn.) and UW-Whitewater/St. John’s this year (as well as three basketball games last season). But we also had to figure that such bargains couldn’t last. We’ll have to work harder for bargains in 2006.
Is it too late to start collecting Wendy’s cups?
After clicking on the sponsors’ ads and buying the 2006 edition of Kickoff, IMHO, travel is the biggest expense that D3 fans can help the sites in funding. Pat Coleman, Mark Simon, Pat Cummings and the whole cast of D3 reporters generously give of their time in their love of D3 sports to make D3sports come alive for many of us.
We have a whole network of fans below the Media Radar. Pat Coleman’s persistence and the love of D3 is burgeoning into a presence in College sports. The Football side had a 4 million hit year and a one million hit month-plus-one-day in 2005. The all-time record was on the 2005 Selection Sunday, even when we had Pat commenting on the picks on Cable TV. “Stone Station”, a common Post Patterns topic, is as great a tailgaiting venue as friends would want. Growth is plugging along at 20+% annual rate. We now have D3 alums who never knew D3 without D3Football.com and D3Hoops.com.
The photo gallery is a great recruiting tool for high school kids who have yet to realize that the Internet makes the difference. Streaming audio is routine. Streaming video is present at several colleges and around the corner for many others.
Part of the credibility of these sites is that we know that Pat Coleman, Mark Simon, Pat Cummings, Ron Boerger, Adam Johnson, et al. have seen the football and basketball teams personally. Pat’s front page photo and his blog from the Fisk R-MC basketball game were very exciting.
Several schools have been active supporters of these sites in helping with travel expenses. The exposure from the write-ups in the “number one ” “definitive resource” alone ought to make an airline ticket, rental car and motel room for the “game of the year” in your conference a no-brainer for the local Booster Club/Athletic Foundation.
Now is the time for the 2006-07 season to begin co-ordinating these efforts. Look at your schedules. If you are in the central or western parts of the country, which weekends might make for good football or basketball trips…several games at several venues. These guys have day jobs, but the chance to plan something special is what will help these sites and us fans most. Having one of these guys walk your campus, visit your gym and meet your university family will only strengthen D3 sports.
Start now. Help figure out what games are worth you or your university sponsoring a trip for the D3football/hoops crew. I am being presumptive, but contact Pat Coleman about these plans this spring.
D3football and D3hoops is only getting better by the efforts of its loyal fans!
I would like to point out a site that i just found for students and faculty that saved me and my freind $50 on tickets to Cali. for next week, studentuniverse.com
you just have to buy one ticket at a time.
Go to priceline…..you can bid on tickets at any price you want to….As long as they’ll take your bid…check it out, it may be worth your while!
As long as you have the flexibility to handle the totally random departure times you end up with.
I was able to request my departure time…..