The ongoing saga over the location for Thursday morning’s FCIAC football championship game was finalized this afternoon when the FCIAC Board of Directors took the decision away from New Canaan and decided to move the contest from Dunning Field to Boyle Stadium.
New Canaan coach Lou Marinelli found out about this at 3 p.m. on his way to practice and to say he is irate would be an understatement. I just got off the phone with him at 4 and he still hadn’t told his players.
There was talk about moving the game for a few days to accommodate the large crowd. The FCIAC told New Canaan it was the school’s choice to make, and New Canaan athletic director Jay Egan put the decision in Marinelli’s hand. Marinelli decided to keep the home game, then Darien petitioned the FCIAC and the FCIAC board of directors decided to move the game.
New Canaan put a limit of 4,000 tickets, and they were sold out at 10 this morning, in just over two days. Boyle can hold about twice that amount.
Egan said tickets sales will resume at both schools tomorrow morning.
Egan said, “I supported playing the game at home and support the coaches and players wanting to play at home, and now I have to support the FCIAC’s decision and go forward. I resent being put in the middle of this.
We’ll have more on this in tomorrow’s paper, but the FCIAC is doing a pretty good impersonation of the CIAC, the most feckless organization around. While the FCIAC’s intentions are good, they can’t put the choice in Marinelli’s hands and then say they don’t like the decision.
