The economic conditions in this country right now are such that every penny has to be accounted for.
Even though very little rain has fallen to this point on this Friday, the officials at Southwest Edgecombe have decided to move the football game with Rocky Mount to Monday.
Do I think it is a bad decision? Yes. But I respect the decision.
There is a potential of 3,000 fans that my attend this game. Six dollars a pop and there you have it. Name me another game left on their schedule that 3,000 people will attend.
Money is the reason this game has already been moved to Monday night at 7 p.m. kickoff.
If you remember two years ago on a Monday night, SouthWest was jammed packed for the Rocky Mount game. If SouthWest was playing East Wake tonight, I bet they would play because no one from East Wake would go to the game anyway.
But this is Rocky Mount and with only a 12-mile mile drive, people from both sides of the railroad tracks will go to this game.
I do think that playing tonight is a big advantage for SouthWest to help slow down the Gryphons. If no more rain falls over the weekend and the field is in reasonable shape ,then there is no advantage either way other than the home field for SouthWest.
The big gamble here by the SouthWest folks is that how is the weather going to be Monday night?
Even though we are not playing tonight, we will be live on AM 1390 from 7-7:30 to talk football.
Listen to us jabber about football tonight and Monday we will hit the airwaves at 6.30 p.m. for Monday's 7 p.m. kickoff.
So in the four-year history of the NEW 6, Rocky Mount will never play SouthWest Edgecombe on a Friday night during the regular season.
They did, of course, play each other in the playoffs in Rocky Mount in 2005 with the Gryphons winning 21-7.
I think it has become such a tradition for SouthWest and Rocky Mount to play on Mondays, this game was doomed to be play Monday even if the sun had of shined all day.
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3 comments:
Sad money has crept into high school athletics. When I played high school sports we would have played as long as there was no lightning. If Wilson Fike and RM could have played (which they did)in the conditions they did last year at Fike surely SW and RM could have played tonight. High school football is meant for Fridays not Mondays. People who would have gone tonight now may not go Monday because of work and school Tuesday so either way attendance could have been hurt by the weather.
It is the same reason Rocky Mount moved the game last year when there had little or no rain fallen. But it is the money conditions that our schools are faced with having to fund athletic budgets that keep growing yearly due price increases for equipment. Rival games make big gates!!!$$$$$ both schools know this.
Tony, while doing my research on the Rocky Mount Football Record Book (1953-present), there were plenty of incidents where Rocky Mount did not play a game because of rain.
Even when tickets were $2, as they were in the mid-60s, the Blackbirds called off the game and it was moved to Saturday.
So even then, money was an issue.
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