Just announced - increased ticket prices, increased parking pass prices, decreased CAF ranks

[wazzucougs96]

That's the issue though isn't it? We are trying to compete nationally.....not just be better than the PNW schools. All of this comes back together at the end. Our fans do have more work involved in supporting the team and that has lead to a lower average donation when compared to our peer schools and a much smaller pot than schools in the other parts of the country. You can say that it's futile to make comparisons, but to really compete with them, we need to get to the point where our fan support is closer to them, however that happens as time goes on.

If not, you're basically waving the white flag and admitting that our team is likely to suck as soon as Leach is gone and you're ok with that, because it's just too tough for us to try to compete financially and it's ok to rationalize our support because it's just not worth it.

There literally aren't enough people to do this. The location of Pullman is dead center in a vast swath of low population.

 

[Loyal Coug]

I was assuming you would take I-90 then 395 to the Tricities, then jump on I-80 (?) in Oregon. Maybe I'm missing a 2 lane segment. Is there a faster way?.

Yes.

So, what route would you take? Bend, et al?

That's the issue though isn't it? We are trying to compete nationally.....not just be better than the PNW schools. All of this comes back together at the end. Our fans do have more work involved in supporting the team and that has lead to a lower average donation when compared to our peer schools and a much smaller pot than schools in the other parts of the country. You can say that it's futile to make comparisons, but to really compete with them, we need to get to the point where our fan support is closer to them, however that happens as time goes on.

If not, you're basically waving the white flag and admitting that our team is likely to suck as soon as Leach is gone and you're ok with that, because it's just too tough for us to try to compete financially and it's ok to rationalize our support because it's just not worth it.

I don't disagree with your sentiments (much), but this is a little off the path from talking about our bowl and hypothetical Pac-12 Championship attendance.

There is no question that we need to raise more money. I doubled my (meager) donation this year. As I implied in another thread, we could use a Campaign for Athletics. Entice people like me to make a big donation for facilities, while continuing to make my annual donation. I'm not seeing that.

Getting back to traveling, showing up at away games and bowl games is great (and expensive), but beyond purchasing one of WSU's allotted (required) tickets, there is pretty much zero impact of all that money on Athletics itself.

 

[Flatlandcoug]

There literally aren't enough people to do this. The location of Pullman is dead center in a vast swath of low population.

The highway access to Pullman and the hotel room situation is problematic and it's why WSU will never be a truly "elite" program with top tier dollars. We don't need to be at the bottom of the barrel either. One thing that keeps WSU at the bottom of the barrel is that even when the team is doing well and it's worth the effort to travel to see them (CCG or bowl game), we have that group of fans that wants to focus on the negatives and seek reasons not to support the team in person instead of working to support them (and frankly supporting them at all financially).

Going back to Iowa State, they bring in $20 million per year more than WSU (almost 30% higher) despite the fact that the fact that they are in a small rural state and surrounded by competing Power 5 programs in close proximity. It doesn't matter as much if there are 7.5 million people within 200 miles of Ames when you factor in that Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, Illinois, and Wisconsin are either in that radius or directly adjacent to it. There are 8 schools fighting for that population and Iowa State is the WSU of that crowd. That doesn't even include the t-shirt fans and alum from Notre Dame, Michigan, Ohio State and the like that are in that area that are also within driving distance of their schools.

Despite having only 16% more students, they beat us by 30% in revenue. The entire state of Iowa has only 3.1 million people and you can bet that given Iowa State's "rich" tradition of football success, they don't have a t-shirt fan base of outsiders rooting for them. Oregon State, with their half done stadium, terrible football tradition, relatively remote location and student population size that is almost exactly the same as WSU, beats us in revenue by 22%. They do have I-5 nearby, but come on.....the Cyclones and Beavers are kicking our asses.

There are around 1.2 million people that live within a roughly 2 hour drive of Pullman. Our inability to sustain success is why we are where we are and fans haven't developed the rabid sense of loyalty that we'd all love to see. I hope that continued success starts leading us to new venues and events that will inspire our fans to do more and to head out and support the team. We have enough people within a two hour drive that if just 1% of them become fans that go to games 2-3 times per year, we will have a sold out stadium and start talking about getting to 40,000 seats. Unfortunately, the fans we have right now need to do their part and pony up a bit more in the short term while we try to get over that hump. It's that, or just watch us fade into oblivion if we don't get lucky with the coach that follows Leach down the road.