After reading the thread about how the BW3 watch party in Houston went, I was wondering if there was any interest in hosting away game watch parties on campus at Rice - potentially at Tudor or one of the auditoriums?

Interested to see if this idea gets any traction here, and if so, would love to talk to the athletics department/alumni office about it.

Thoughts?

(09-04-2014 12:26 PM)Antarius Wrote:  After reading the thread about how the BW3 watch party in Houston went, I was wondering if there was any interest in hosting away game watch parties on campus at Rice - potentially at Tudor or one of the auditoriums?

Interested to see if this idea gets any traction here, and if so, would love to talk to the athletics department/alumni office about it.

Thoughts?

Something on the lawn by Valhalla would also be really cool, I think. I've also wondered about this for awhile. Until the last couple years so many of our games weren't televised it wasn't feasible.

(09-04-2014 02:13 PM)KingNayte Wrote:  

(09-04-2014 12:26 PM)Antarius Wrote:  After reading the thread about how the BW3 watch party in Houston went, I was wondering if there was any interest in hosting away game watch parties on campus at Rice - potentially at Tudor or one of the auditoriums?

Interested to see if this idea gets any traction here, and if so, would love to talk to the athletics department/alumni office about it.

Thoughts?

Something on the lawn by Valhalla would also be really cool, I think. I've also wondered about this for awhile. Until the last couple years so many of our games weren't televised it wasn't feasible.

Back in the not so recent past, one of the managers would arrange a big screen TV and we'd bring the brats and fixins for a watch party. It seemed to go well and we weren't overrun by whichever horde we were playing that week.

I wonder if Chuck is in a position to work any miracles ??

Paging Chuck to the courtesy phone.

Here are a couple of things to think about in hosting an on-campus party:

1. Need to make sure ahead of time that the site can get the game feed. The networks carrying our away games this year are:
ESPN2
FCS
CBSSN
American Sports Network
Fox (TBA)
CBSSN

Rice's cable network is different from Comcast and the others, and different spaces on campus have different connections (for example, my understanding is that the R Room is connected to virtually nothing). Verifying the availability of the game feed can be the most frustrating part (as I've discovered from personal experience).

2. Need to make sure someone will be on-site who really knows how to operate the system. When we hosted the baseball watch parties at McMurtry, we were fortunate that the McMurtry student who knew all about the system was also a big Rice fan and was at the parties. We couldn't have done it without him.

3. It will require at least some site employees to be there -- outside their normal work hours. That's not insurmountable, but it means that the idea isn't just automatic. (If nothing else, they have to open up, clean up and lock up -- no matter how well-intentioned, fans do not ENTIRELY clean up after themselves).

4. It takes a few volunteers who commit in advance to act as official hosts -- to be the first ones there and the last to leave, and to actively greet people as they arrive, making a special point to be hospitable to people who arrive by themselves.

5. If students are to be generally included, the Rice alcohol policy comes into force -- which is probably best left to people who are trained in that (e.g. the staff at Valhalla or the Pub).

All in all, I think a consistent, family-friendly watch-party location would be terrific. I also think it will take some energetic volunteer leadership working with appropriate Rice staff to set it all in motion.