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Pretty much confirmed that the UD/nova game this year (a nova home game) will be played at PPL Park in Chester - the site that nova tried to sell unsuccessfully to the Big East as their potential FBS home. Should be a pretty good crowd (place sits 18,500 for soccer) and being closer to Delaware now should ensure that the place gets pretty close to a sellout. And thankfully, we don't need to sit through another game in Radnor - horrible stadium there.

And hey, who knows, if the Hens get off the nova-schnide and win this one (from a preseason perspective UD would be favored) nova's first game in their potential future home could be a loss to UD. Sweet.

The Battle of the Blue transforms for one year to the Battle in da Hood. For everyone's safety it has to be a 12 noon or 1:00pm start, nobody needs to be in Chester once the sun goes down......

Any early odds on the % of UD to VU fans there, especially if the Cats are eliminated from playoff contention before kickoff?

I would rather be in the no tailgate zone of Villanova, PA than in the hood of Chester. Bring your helmet and flap jacket as you may be tailgating in the cross fire of the drug gang wars

BTW, Every time I come to this sight and see that EWU Eagle at the top banner, I get that pit in my stomach after losing the National Championship that we never should have But hey, ya gotta give EWU big kudos for coming back on us like that and closing it out. However, I hate being reminded of it ever time I come here

bluehenbillk wrote:The Battle of the Blue transforms for one year to the Battle in da Hood. For everyone's safety it has to be a 12 noon or 1:00pm start, nobody needs to be in Chester once the sun goes down......

Any early odds on the % of UD to VU fans there, especially if the Cats are eliminated from playoff contention before kickoff?

Like THAT would really matter to the 5 sCat fans who planned on attending.

Blue Hen Fanatic wrote:I would rather be in the no tailgate zone of Villanova, PA than in the hood of Chester. Bring your helmet and flap jacket as you may be tailgating in the cross fire of the drug gang wars

BTW, Every time I come to this sight and see that EWU Eagle at the top banner, I get that pit in my stomach after losing the National Championship that we never should have But hey, ya gotta give EWU big kudos for coming back on us like that and closing it out. However, I hate being reminded of it ever time I come here

What good will a flapjacket do you? Are there a lot of nerds around there?

Flap Jacket
Holds your iPod Touch, classic iPod or iPhone in style. This unique piece flaps open so you can use the touch screen or touch wheel controls on your devices through a clear vinyl window. There’s a convenient mesh pocket in front to stow your ear buds, and the excess cord. A built in rain fly protects your valuable electronics when it rains.

And that's another good thing - if this game was on the Main Line, it would be a 3:30 start at the earliest, maybe even a 6PM start. Now it could (and probably should) be a noon start which means warmer weather (plus a chance to have a breakfast tailgate - mmm, Scrapple - since UD only has one noon home start this year).

Heck, just the fact that there'll be a working bathroom in the place is a huge step up from Radnor.

Wonder if UD mistakenly trumped the announcement on this - UD season ticket holders found out about this today with a mailer that was sent out for purchasing of away game tickets. nova's official announcement just came out today right before 5PM on a random Thursday. Not exactly a way to garner headlines.

GannonFan wrote:Wonder if UD mistakenly trumped the announcement on this - UD season ticket holders found out about this today with a mailer that was sent out for purchasing of away game tickets. nova's official announcement just came out today right before 5PM on a random Thursday. Not exactly a way to garner headlines.

Crickets over on the VU board. If I were anyone at VU, or in the BE, or at PPL, I'd be looking at this game as a referendum on the future. Still, they're probably busier trying to calculate how many more people in Delaware County, PA would care if Syracuse of South Florida showed up instead of Delaware. Clouds in the coffee type stuff.

UD's ticket office actually delayed sending their away game purchase forms because VU was the last school to get back to them with a price. I don't know the semantics of how VU wanted to announce it, but I do know that UD was waiting on VU to give them the numbers.

CHESTER???

Circle ze wagons! Protect ze wimmin!

I'll guess on the crowd at 10,000 hens, and 6,000 Wildcats.

Tribe4SF wrote:I'll guess on the crowd at 10,000 hens, and 6,000 Wildcats.

And the only question being how many of those 6k nova fans will be no shows. You have to figure if they can't sell this game out it's a huge black eye with regards to their ability to move up. PPL has already been ruled out as a venue for them to go to a BCS league because of it's size, and not selling out "the" rivalry game with a local visitor bringing more than 50% of the stadium's capacity in terms of fans to a stadium that's already too small to use at the next level would be tough to explain.

State Line Liquors wrote:

GannonFan wrote:Wonder if UD mistakenly trumped the announcement on this - UD season ticket holders found out about this today with a mailer that was sent out for purchasing of away game tickets. nova's official announcement just came out today right before 5PM on a random Thursday. Not exactly a way to garner headlines.

Crickets over on the VU board. If I were anyone at VU, or in the BE, or at PPL, I'd be looking at this game as a referendum on the future. Still, they're probably busier trying to calculate how many more people in Delaware County, PA would care if Syracuse of South Florida showed up instead of Delaware. Clouds in the coffee type stuff.

UD's ticket office actually delayed sending their away game purchase forms because VU was the last school to get back to them with a price. I don't know the semantics of how VU wanted to announce it, but I do know that UD was waiting on VU to give them the numbers.

The collective yawn that this announcement had in the Philly market is just one more indicator of the uphill climb nova would ever had if they ever did go to the Big East, or whatever becomes of that conference. Of course, deciding to make the announcement just 2 hours before the NBA draft and late in the afternoon on a random Thursday didn't help either, but you check on philly.com and you can't find any mention of this announcement (I'm not even sure digging for it would help). Heck, even the 2 or 3 guys over on the rivals site for nova are pretty quiet on this. nova football just can't break into the sports news in Philly, and if you can't do that, then trying to play to crowds bigger than 15k just won't ever happen.

There ya go Nova! Try to build your case for Big East football on the backs of another fan base!!

Maybe Towson should book us at M&TB Stadium as an ACC icebreaker!


Welcome VU Alum to the friendly confines of PPL Park:

93henfan wrote:There ya go Nova! Try to build your case for Big East football on the backs of another fan base!!

Maybe Towson should book us at M&TB Stadium as an ACC icebreaker!


Welcome VU Alum to the friendly confines of PPL Park:

Is it really that bad there?

I spent a little bit of time there back in '06 when I was working in Bucks - there is a Laborers Hall at 3rd and Fulton that I visited more than once... and a great little water ice stand a few blocks down... I never felt unsafe there in any way - and I'm from the midwest...

TwinTownBisonFan wrote:

93henfan wrote:There ya go Nova! Try to build your case for Big East football on the backs of another fan base!!

Maybe Towson should book us at M&TB Stadium as an ACC icebreaker!


Welcome VU Alum to the friendly confines of PPL Park:

Is it really that bad there?

I spent a little bit of time there back in '06 when I was working in Bucks - there is a Laborers Hall at 3rd and Fulton that I visited more than once... and a great little water ice stand a few blocks down... I never felt unsafe there in any way - and I'm from the midwest...

How many nights did you spend there?

TwinTownBisonFan wrote:

93henfan wrote:There ya go Nova! Try to build your case for Big East football on the backs of another fan base!!

Maybe Towson should book us at M&TB Stadium as an ACC icebreaker!


Welcome VU Alum to the friendly confines of PPL Park:

Is it really that bad there?

I spent a little bit of time there back in '06 when I was working in Bucks - there is a Laborers Hall at 3rd and Fulton that I visited more than once... and a great little water ice stand a few blocks down... I never felt unsafe there in any way - and I'm from the midwest...

I just think those old white Hen fans don't want to be seen around those colored urbanites. Might jeopardize their standing at the country club.

I dunno. Maybe Chester is getting better than when I worked up there. The only real news today was a body found stabbed and wrapped in plastic in a taxi cab.

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?secti ... id=8210937

Old Hen fans don't wanna leave the country club? Look at the demographics of 'Nova season ticket base, 128 out of 140 are white, 85% of them have private country club memberships, 12 of them travel to away games and 68 of them report they're embarassed by the pep band they roll out for home games. 34 of them arrive more than 2 hours before a game to tailgate. Embarassing....

bluehenbillk wrote:Old Hen fans don't wanna leave the country club? Look at the demographics of 'Nova season ticket base, 128 out of 140 are white, 85% of them have private country club memberships, 12 of them travel to away games and 68 of them report they're embarassed by the pep band they roll out for home games. 34 of them arrive more than 2 hours before a game to tailgate. Embarassing....

Villanova can't get any of their "fans" to come out to the Linc for the Temple game. Outside of the 'Nova students there couldn't have been more than 3k other 'Nova supporters at the game last year. 2009 was the same way.

It sounds like the owners of PPL Park want to work with Villanova to get more games there going forward.

http://64.246.64.33/merge/tsnform.aspx? ... id=4415196" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"'Even if they don't go (to the FCS) and get bigger opponents, we're their partner. We want to form a partnership with Villanova University to make PPL Park their home,' Union CEO Nick Sakiewicz told the Delaware County Times. 'We'll play more games. We'll play as many games as Villanova desires.'"