How concern for the fans ended the Capital Region's best winter sporting event

The University at Albany finally stood up for their basketball program's, and some around the capital region aren't happy.

I can't say I blame those who are upset about the game's cancellation, they've become accustomed to an Albany Cup contest being played between Albany and Siena annually over the past 17 seasons.

For a Siena program with a proud fanbase there's no doubt in their mind's the game should be played on their home court, the Times Union Center. In a way they're not wrong, the game always draws a large crowd and the TUC offers the largest seating
capacity in the region.

Here's the issue... where this contest was played was never really about seating capacity until Siena started beating that drum to garner public support... this has always been about big brother trying to keep little brother in check.

There was certainly a time when Siena was doing Albany a favor just by playing this game. By the time Albany entered Division 1 basketball Siena was already an established program with a strong following in the capital region. This was a chance for Albany to get out in front of basketball fans in the area who may have otherwise ignored their existence.

The results went just as one would expect, with big brother beating up on little brother, winning eight of the first nine contests. Every year Albany would visit Siena at their home arena and get treated like the mid major visiting the perennial power.

Expectations were set.

Big brother would host little brother, who should just be thankful he was allowed to tag along. As the years went on the relationship developed how these always do... little brother was eventually allowed to bring some friends along (student section) and maybe he'd get to choose a song or two to listen to while they hung out (pregame intro video).

While Albany found early success with NCAA Tournament appearances in 2006 and 2007, Siena immediately stole the spotlight back with a very successful three year run from 2008-10 that saw them win an NCAA Tournament game in both the 2009 and 2010 season's under Fran McCaffery.

Just as Albany bottomed out with a 7-25 campaign in 2009-10, Siena had never been stronger. Their head coach was moving on to a Big Ten school in Iowa following a 27-7 season and their third straight NCAA Tournament appearance.

At this point you could make the case that Siena had all of the negotiating power when it came to the Albany Cup. They were a superior team, playing in a superior arena, who was kind enough to allow Albany to even participate.

Then little brother grew up, just as big brother started to stumble.

Albany would win four of five contests from 2011-2015, all on the road at the Times Union Center. By the time the Albany Cup contract would have to be renegotiated again for the 2016 season, little brother finally had some juice and big brother would finally have to accept their existence.

The solution would be tossing Albany a bone, they could host an Albany Cup contest, but it would have to be under a three year contract with two of the three games being played at the Times Union Center.

Little brother would be petty as they tend to be after years of being pushed around; charging high prices for tickets to the game, while making it tough for Siena fans to attend.

Siena had finally acknowledged Albany's existence, they just wouldn't accept them as equals. To put little brother in their place, Siena would immediately state following their visit to SEFCU Arena that they would never return.

The third game in the series would be taken off of Siena's season ticket package, yet would still be played on their home court with the Siena logo prominently displayed at its center. The video broadcast would be Siena all the way, down to the commercials of coach Jimmy Patsos getting fitted for suits.

Siena once again got to use Albany to draw their largest crowd of the season; getting more eyes on their advertisers not only in the arena, but on television.

Here's the current issue however...

There was no longer much reason for Albany to be treated like a second class citizen. In the eight years since Siena had reached their peak Albany had now won six of their eight meetings with an overall record of 169-99 and three NCAA Tournament appearances.

During that same time span Siena had gone 112-151 overall, finishing under .500 five of those eight seasons with zero NCAA Tournament appearances.

We had reached the point where Albany was dominating the series while there was no RPI/SOS/BPI/KPI/FBI/CIA benefit to facing the Saints. If Albany wins the contest it's considered a bad win, if they lose the contest it's considered a bad loss.

Little brother no longer needed big brother and that scared the crap out of big brother.

So what do you do if you're big brother and you have no cards left to play? You get political and try to appeal to the public's emotions. "We can't play at Albany, what about all of those fans who won't be able to attend?!?!"

A program so concerned with capital region basketball fans is willing to let the Albany Cup die rather than visit their opponent every other year. That's truly amazing to me.

This was never about the fans, it was about Siena hanging on for dear life to keep little brother in his place.