Amen brother. We can't expect 50K fans to show up for games against NSU, Lamar, and most of the people we play. I would love to schedule some truly big games in our HOME STADIUM.Originally Posted by DogsWin
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Amen brother. We can't expect 50K fans to show up for games against NSU, Lamar, and most of the people we play. I would love to schedule some truly big games in our HOME STADIUM.
Note that those games were in Shreveport not JAS. The question was about JAS. We have never had 30K in JAS.
Let me ask this one question to those of you who would not be in favor of expanding JAS.
What if a student fee paid to forgive the bonded debt - over 20 years - Tech would have to float to expand (and renovate) the stadium to 40,000 seats along with roughly 30 suites. At that same time, the millions the suites would generate would be added to the budget. In exchange for the fee, the students would have access to a club area that would be built as part of the expansion for events throughout the year.
Under those circumstances, would you be in favor of expansion?
How about just adding the 30 suites and we could get the "millions" you mention. We're not going to get more than 30k to Ruston. If we could get LSU, Arkabsas, A&M, Alabama etc to come we probably could (well LSU would fill it) but that ain't happening. The best we can do is Miss State (how many 26K?). They just won't come. If we could have five or six 8 win seasons in a row we might be bumping 30K. Upgrading facilities would probably help draw more.
The problem is there is not sufficient demand for Tech football to justify expanding Joe Aillet Stadium at this time. I believe it would be better to renovate and expand the concessions area, restrooms, press box, and suites than to add 10,000 seats that will not be filled in the near future.
Until more people move into north central Louisiana, or we figure out how Mississippi State is able to draw like they do (without being in the SEC), we have no business going over 30,000. We should definitely shoot for quality over quantity with this. I want visitors to to say "that is a small stadium, but damn is it nice!".
I do have one example of a poor team building huge new (about 52K) stadium and now fill it. Kansas State opened their Stadium the same year as we opened the Joe. I don't believe they ever came close to filling it until they started winning even in the Big 8/12. Manhattan also is a small town and not as close to Topeka as we are to Shreveport/Monroe. There are really only two medium large cities in Kansas -- Topeka and Wichita with Kansas City, Mo. being fairly close to Lawrence, but not Manhattan. So it would be possible, but like I posted earlier we need a bunch of consecutive 8 win seasons to fill our 30K.
I should add that there are only two Div I football teams in the state of Kansas which is one more than Nebraska.
East Carolina is a great example of a school that has continued to grow its fan base, despite never playing in one of the glamour conferences. I believe the Pirates routinely pack 50K into their stadium. ECU's situation is very similar to ours. If we could win consistently, I could easily see us needing a 35k to 45K seating capacity long term.
Consistency is the key.... Everyone knows it and wants it, but our admin and team hasn't been able to achieve it for a long time now.
Our 30k stadium isn't why the bigger teams won't play us in Ruston 99% of the time anyway.
I do think and hope that we will see some good schedules from the AD in the next 2-3 years though.
The oil' standard for a church to expand is 80% capacity of their worship center. If the current capacity of The Joe is 26,000, then consistent attendance at Ruston needs to be 20,800 fans. Then stadium seating capacity would be justified.
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It's a catch 22, we need big name schools and a consistently winning program to draw enough fans to expand seating capacity. If we have a consistently winning program, the big name schools are even less likely to come to JAS. No big name (and I use that and not "big school" or "aq team", because it takes a name, not a good program) team will want to come get beat.
A few years old, but here is an ESPN report of MSU when they noticed things changing in Starkville a few years ago. I would agree with most of it, especially that Dan Mullen is the catalyst. It is because of what's written here that brought about the current stadium expansion.
http://espn.go.com/blog/sec/post/_/i...sissippi-state
I read that article and then looked at Dan Mullen's record the last 5 years. The only success he has had is beating Ole Miss 4 times in those 5 years. His record against SEC teams is not that good. MSU is 16-24 against SEC opponents over the last 5 years and has only broke even twice. The biggest reason MSU has been able to expand and build new facilities over the last 5 years is because of the $20 million they get every year from the SEC. Mullen will have to start winning against SEC teams to keep the fans happy. MSU is located in the center of the SEC geographically, which is good for fan attendance, but, not so good for recruiting when you have to beat out the top teams every year for recruits. All you have to do, though, is beat 4 easy teams and win 3 SEC games to have a winning record. As long as Mullen can keep MSU fans happy doing that, he doesn't have a problem. In order to increase attendance at Tech, we need to string at least 3-4 conference championships together with a few wins over SEC or Big 12 opponents. And, Tech doesn't have those millions coming in from the conference every year.
Haha! Ok....... but the question wasn't about how Dan Mullen wins football games (or not) .....it was, How has he succeeded in unifying a fan base to fill a stadium for 4 years straight in a God-forsaken place like Starkville, MS. This electric atmosphere and excitement has brought in much more money through donations than in SEC money. (i.e. The Leo Seal Football Facility mentioned in the article was financed for the most part by an enormous donation of 1 individual).
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