UMass football move to Gillette hurts local shops

AMHERST, Mass. (WWLP) - The University of Massachusetts Amherst's football program suffered a deficit this year after the team started playing its home games in Foxborough, but the school isn't the only organization affected by the move.

It's a bumpy road to a bigger and more competitive division.

When the University of Mass. Amherst moved its football program to Football Bowl Subdivision, they had to leave McGuirk Alumni Stadium to meet the new requirements. Now the team plays all its home games at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough.

At the beginning of the season, the Athletics Department expected 20,000 to 30,000 people to show up to each game at Gillette Stadium.

That number was based on one, the number of alumni living in the eastern part of the state and two, the number of people who attended big rivalry games in the past.

But the reality did not meet their expectations... thus costing both the school and local businesses who benefit from the crowd thousands of dollars.

Jay Carreiro, Manager of Antonio’s Amherst told 22News “There's no tailgate, so we miss 8 pretty good Saturdays a year. It would be nice to have those alumni being back here every week, or every week there's a game here, coming in for the weekends. They come out to town, spend their money, have a good time.”

Mauro Aniello, Executive Chef of Bistro 63 said, “The direction that UMass has taken is very one way basically, every dollar on campus. We go to elsewhere for games, and it's very frustrating for us because we can't get people back to Amherst downtown.”

The Athletic Dept. spokesperson said once McGuirk Alumni Stadium is renovated, they can move the home games back to Amherst. But that likely will not be possible until the 2014 season.